800W Instant Accu Slim Sous Vide Precision Cooker with Platinum Silicone Food Bags | Professional Water Bath Circulator for Steak, Chicken, Fish | Perfect for Home Chefs & Meal Prep

I have made two awesome meals this weekend. The first meal was a rosemary, thyme and lemon chicken breast, and the second was ribeye steaks. Both meals were easy to prep, cook and assemble. And both had incredible results-- moist, tender, and flavorful.The first meal was incredible, some of the best chicken that I've ever made. In the bags went half a chicken breast (from a family pack total of 6), sautéed red onions and garlic, a slice of lemon, a couple of sprigs of rosemary and thyme, and some Chardonnay wine. I cooked the entire family pack of breasts off at the same time (each half in an individual bag). Cooked at around 141 for about 2 and 1/2 hours rotating every now and then. Finished with pan searing the breast, sautéing more onions and garlic, some sliced wild mushrooms, then deglazing with Chardonnay, lemon juice, bag juices, and some chicken stock. Reduced down the sauce than tempered into a butter rue to thicken up...delicious.The second was just some excellent ribeye steaks (2) with a little bit of red wine. Cooked at around 150 for 2 1/2 hours. Pan seared the steaks in butter, removed steaks to rest. To the pan added in some onions and garlic to Sautee to soften. Added in some ground pepper, dried thyme, ground cloves, and a dash of ground nutmeg. Deglazed with red wine and bag juices. Reduced, and served over the sliced stakes.Both turned out incredible. The chicken was well cooked and not dry and rubbery, and the steak was near well done, and not dry and tough. Both were incredibly moist and tender; but, the steak was a bit more well done than I was targeting for. You might want to adjust your cooking temperature target to account for the pan sear at the very end.Pros:1. Pretty much set it and forget it.2. Handled the 12 gallon container I bought for it, but needed to adjust the temperature.3. Both meals turned out fantabulous with a quick sear in a pan served with a feeble attempt at a wine reduction sauce (I definitely need to practice this skill of making a wine reduction sauce).4. Very easy to use, controls are very easy to understand and set. Note -- you can change the time and temperature mid-cycle just by selecting the M button for your desired setting and adjusting your setting. Hit the play button and it goes at your settings.5. Getting very moist chicken without brining.Cons1. I'm not sure if it's because of the size of the container I bought for it, or if it's a flaw in it's design, but I had to set the temperature about 2 degrees higher than what I wanted. By the last hour or so, in both cases, my water temperature was about 1 degree higher than what I wanted. This is why I only gave it 3 stars on temperature control, 4 stars on accuracy, and 4 stars over all.2. The alarm on the unit is barely audible -- minus 1 star for easy to use.3. I have the large instant-pot, and I can't imaging putting more than 2 bags of meat in it to maintain the circulation required. I'm not even sure how this would clip in with the inner pot in the Instant Pot unit --despite how they advertise this. I did not deduct any stars for this.All in all, these were my first time cooking with the Sous Vide method. I'm very happy with it. If you are new to this process, or even get a new unit, I'd recommend that you do a wet run of the unit. Just fill your vessel with hot tap water, set your temperature and average run time of what you would use, and let it do it's thing. While it's going through the cooking process, spot check with an instant read digital thermometer.I did this a couple of days in advance to see where my cold spots were and the optimal placement in the vessel. After doing this, I knew that I would have to rotate around my packets of food and knew that it was about 2 degrees off at the beginning and would eventually run hot towards the end by about 1 degree. You will know if you have to adjust your cooking time. In the end, I decided that upping my temperature a degree or two, would not cause my meat to get over cooked, and I also purposely set my cooking time on the low end.I'd also recommend doing some research on Sous Vide cooking. I relied on the Blue Jean Chief. The documentation sent with the unit is terrible and useless.I will say that I was shooting for a medium well on the steaks, and ended up closer to well done. Next time I might set my target for around 148-149 (cooking temp on the unity of 149-150). All I can say, it's a learning process. I'm not sure if it was the searing process that pushed my steaks over the edge, or my target temperature was too high (I did not check with a thermometer, my observation was based solely on appearance, there was very little red, and what red there was, was very pale) . I don't think the time spent in cooking affected the outcome much. The recommended time for Ribeye Steaks, according to the Blue Jean Chief, is 1-6 hours at 150 degrees. I will definitely be adjusting next time I make them with the Sous Vide.Some have said that you can't adjust your settings mid-cycle but you can. Just press on the M button until you get to your desired setting. Then select the +- key to adjust to where you want to go. Finally hit play and it resumes. I had no problem adjusting temperature and time mid cycle.I'm always looking for new, easier, and interesting ways to cook and this is my new found favorite toy. Looking to do thick center cut pork chops next weekend! I was really impressed with the Chicken breasts. Before, if I wanted such moist breast's, I'd have to brine them for hours. Sous Vide eliminates that step and makes it much more healthier for people with heart issues (Like my family). No more soaking them in salt for hours.I'd highly recommend this unit to my family and friends (and already have)!