Joule by Breville

Flaky fish, amazingly tender chicken, perfectly cooked steaks—Joule puts the wonderful results of sous-vide cooking into the smallest but most powerful tool of its kind. Designed by Seattle-based ChefSteps, a company on a mission to help people cook smarter, Joule is controlled with a feature-rich companion app that lets you pick the exact doneness you like for foolproof perfection every time. There’s no special equipment needed to use the Joule—you can use your favorite pots and pans, standard freezer bags and the Android or iOS smartphone you use every day.

At just 11 inches tall and 1.3 pounds, the Joule is so small it fits in your top drawer. Despite its small size, it boasts the fastest water heating capability on the market as well as hyper-exact temperature control—precise to 0.2°F. This speed and accuracy allow you to achieve amazing flavor and texture that’s impossible with other cooking styles. Thanks to its magnetic base and side clip, the Joule is compatible with any pot and works with a variety of water levels and volumes.

The free Joule app makes it easy to learn sous vide basics and more advanced techniques, too—so whether you’re an expert or a total newbie, you’ll have great success with the Joule from day one. You can even control the Joule with your voice using Amazon Alexa, which is perfect when your hands are busy kneading dough, dicing onions or tossing a salad. The Joule app keeps getting smarter, and is frequently updated with new groundbreaking features, including the following:

• Visual Doneness lets you choose exactly how well-done you want your food then takes care of the rest
• Visual Cook Progress lets you track the progress of the water heating and and how far along you are in your cook
• Step-by-step recipe guides in convenient vertical-scroll format
• Perfect-Until Tracker informs you how long your food can remain in water without affecting outcome, so you won’t need to rush to remove it
• Many more innovative and helpful programs