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I know exactly what you are describing. It is repulsive, the way the meat feels between your teeth. I've noticed this phenomenon with the really large breasts. The reason I mentioned earlier in this thread that we just had a thread about this very subject that went for pages was that you would hopefully check it out. I wrote a detailed response there and wanted now to link to that post. Not only can I not find my post, I can't find the entire thread - why it was pulled, there's no telling. Maybe your thread will end up on the chopping block soon too.
The way I've dealt with this new phenomenon in cooked chicken is to avoid the really oversized ones. If that's all you can get, then a baking soda bath is in order, it helps to soften the meat. In the post I made in the previous chicken breast thread, I described what breasts looked like back when I was a child in the 80s and now as an adult in 2017. One breast half was a serving size, 4-6 ounces. Now, a single breast half can easily weigh more than a pound, and the thickest part can be around two inches deep. They are nearly the size of a turkey's breast. Not to mention the fat. Previously, the fat was yellowish and external in little patches that could easily be removed. Now, the fat is white and deposited right into the striations of the muscle tissue, something that I only recently (within the last few years) noticed, along with the Sasquatch-sized proportions.
Thanks for posting that! I went looking for the thread and couldn't find it. Glad to know I'm not blind.
Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. The mouthfeel is repulsive. I had to throw most of it out, and I had cooked an entire family sized tray. Huge waste! It was a while ago but I think they might have been the larger more expensive breasts from Albertson's.
My favorite chicken breast recipe is the one on the Hellman's mayonnaise jar. Mix mayo with parmesan cheese and put on top of the chicken breasts. Add a little bread crumbs and bake. Although the recipe calls for the thicker chicken breasts I prefer the thinner ones and I just cut the temperature down and cook them for a little less time. Sometimes I make chicken breasts with salsa on top and then put Mexican cheese on the last few minutes.
But I really don't care for chicken breasts that much. I do find them hard to cook without them becoming dry. I make chicken thighs much more often.
I like your recipe but I like to add a little sherry wine and prefer grated swiss cheese, but either is good.
I know exactly what you are describing. It is repulsive, the way the meat feels between your teeth. I've noticed this phenomenon with the really large breasts.
Now, a single breast half can easily weigh more than a pound, and the thickest part can be around two inches deep. They are nearly the size of a turkey's breast. Not to mention the fat. Previously, the fat was yellowish and external in little patches that could easily be removed. Now, the fat is white and deposited right into the striations of the muscle tissue, something that I only recently (within the last few years) noticed, along with the Sasquatch-sized proportions.
that's very interesting, and I believe that is the result of selective breeding and genetic engineering.
I have also read life-long pork fans, complain about how pigs have been bred/altered to now be lower-fat than they were 20 years ago.
Yes, there is great variation in meat quality. I think you have to pick a brand that works for you and stick with it. Not sure about store bought, but for restaurant chicken by the piece I find Smithfield the best meat.
My grandmother told me that when she was a girl, the turkeys had almost no breast at all. That would have been in the mid-30's sometime. I've also heard that the current Broad Breasted breed of turkey's can't breed without help. It's somebody's job out there to inseminate turkeys so they will lay fertile eggs to hatch into more turkeys. Pretty bizarre!
There's huge differences in chicken meat depending on breed, age when slaughtered and how they were raised. Your basic commercial fryer, which I'll usually call a "FrankenChicken" is a hybrid cross between the Rock and Cornish breeds of chickens. (That was the original hybrid, I'm sure it's been further selected for various traits since then. FWIW, it's a natural hybrid and not some sort of made in a scientific lab sort of GMO chicken). Anyway, these Rock Cornish crosses grow extremely fast and will grow exceptionally large. However, they can also outgrow their leg bones so sometimes they'll get too heavy for their bones and they'll not be able to walk and you'll get crooked leg bones after they're slaughtered. They will also die of consumptive heart failure at a very young age due to growing so fast and so large.
So a commercial farm will get a thousand or two of these baby hybrid chickens and then grow them out in huge barns and feed them GMO grains, food byproducts, etc. etc. They are pretty much kept crowded enough that they don't run around (wastes energy) and their legs aren't strong enough anyway. Then they get slaughtered at a fairly young age while they're still tender. If they are slaughtered at a really young age, then they are 'Rock Cornish Game Hens'.
You're not going to get much flavor from these commercially raised birds due to lack of age and lack of a varied diet. Kinda like tilapia fish at a fish farm, if they're fed dog food they taste nasty but if they're caught wild then they taste better. We have some folks around here who have pasture raised broilers. Apparently, it's legal to raise chickens and if you sell them directly to the end consumer, up to 10,000 of them per year can be sold without having to use a USDA slaughterhouse to process them. There's probably more details, but if you were looking for a niche farm crop, pasture raised broilers might be a good thing. If you have access to these types of chickens, you'll get excellent flavor and hopefully tenderness, although that depends on the age they're harvested.
Yes, there is great variation in meat quality. I think you have to pick a brand that works for you and stick with it. Not sure about store bought, but for restaurant chicken by the piece I find Smithfield the best meat.
You have a restaurant that supplies you with raw chicken breast by the piece?
Yeah, well Smithfield will probably be coming from china if not already. That's what I've heard. Actually, I don't know why anyone is having these problem s with chicken.
We're eating more chicken than ever and anyway we cook it comes out great. I'll once again recommend air frying. I think hi heat for shorter times is best when cooking chicken.
Nonsense. If anything is added it must be labeled. Your end-of-the-world scenario is pointless.
Op buys the cheapest chicken breast. That is the worst chicken possible and pumped full of crap. The next step up at a place like Albertsons is basically the same garbage.
It is labeled. No one said it wasn't. As for the rest of your post what the hell are you even talking about?
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