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Is anybody else noticing this nightmarish trend and are you also FURIOUS about it?
Furious? No. Not even close.
Supply and demand, plain and simple.
But it's not like you don't have alternatives. Split, bone in, chicken breasts has skin 100% of the time (in my experience).
So I guess I'm not sure what the purpose of this thread is.
If you are as upset as you say you are (and I'm calling BS, this is some sort of rant for the sake of ranting) you can surely go to a reputable butcher or high end market and get EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT.
If you were truly furious and "pig biting" mad, you would have found a way to ease your anger. But you haven't. Because you're not mad. You're just trying to make some weird statement.
its because of the whole... "lean & low fat" theme of the last 30-40 yrs..
the number one selling chicken item by far(from women) is boneless skinless chicken breasts..
years ago it was whole chicken and whole skin on breast
the ewww & ick women many dont even like a chicken drumstick or thigh ….
I sell thousands of pounds of chicken every week...and talk to customers....
I like the skin too and ive boned out whole breasts for skin on boneless breasts (tried over 3 states) but overwhelmingly...the ladies like skinless because its viewed as more "healthy"
if I sound sexist its because 80% of the customer base in a supermarket the ladies hold the buying decisions..
I LOVE the chicken skin. Once in awhile, we'll buy a roasted chicken, and my husband will take the skin off and save it for me.
In OUR house, it's my husband that wants skinless chicken breasts. I prefer dark meat, and I love the skin. lol
If you want seriously crispy fried chicken, fry it in lard instead of oil. May not be healthy, but it's totally tasty.
I'm guessing the industrial food manufacturers are taking the skins and processing them into something that sells for more per pound than merely raw chicken. Most of the manufactured 'food' these days is profit driven. It's looking less and less like actual food every year.
Most if not all of your industrial chicken that shows up in big box stores is 'frankenchickens' raised in a poultry house on medicated feed since if they didn't have all the medications, they'd die off of all sorts of things since they're raised in seriously overcrowded conditions. Most of them are a hybrid cross (at least they're not GMO) of a Cornish and a Rock breeds of chickens, I think it is. The hybrid grows really fast but if you try to keep them up to full adult, most times they will die of congestive heart failure. They also gain weight really quickly and can have leg problems from growing faster than their bone structure can support. (Which then gets me to thinking about 'you are what you eat' that my grannie always used to say)
So, anyway, they get these hybrid chicks, raise them on the medicated feed and slaughter them around one to two months old. Which is why the breast bone on these things is half gristle, on a fully adult bird, it will be bone all the way to the tip. They're kept in huge indoor poultry houses and never see the sun or even have much room to move around. They're grown with no exercise, no sunlight and the only nutrients they're getting is what's in the feed and a lot of that feed is now raised on sterile fields using chemicals for fertilizers. The amazing thing isn't that there's no flavor, it's that they're able to live for two months before they're slaughtered.
There's some folks around here who are pasture raising chickens and they have a big sell off every two or three months when the chickens are all processed. They are all sold whole with the skin on. If you like, they'd probably even sell them to you with the feathers on. They have a lot more flavor than the industrial raised chickens since they get lots of bugs, exercise and sunlight. They have a big rolling pen that protects the chickens and gets moved every other day or so. If you have any kind of pasture at all, you could probably do the same thing. I think in our state, folks can sell up to 10,000 chickens without a USDA processing plant if they are sold directly to the consumer and not to a restaurant. But, if you were going to do something like this to get some really healthy and tasty chickens, check all the applicable laws in your area first.
I remember my dad used to drive down to an Iowa farm from southern MN and pick up some capons in the fall. He'd give us half of however many he ordered.
Those were such fine birds! Firm fleshed and so big I couldn't fit one in my everday roaster.
They came with everything - skin and plenty of fat, liver, heart, neck and gizzard.
A local market here sells a bag of just fried chicken skin.... OMG it is SO good!
Maybe they are taking it all?
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If you want seriously crispy fried chicken, fry it in lard instead of oil. May not be healthy, but it's totally tasty.
I'm guessing the industrial food manufacturers are taking the skins and processing them into something that sells for more per pound than merely raw chicken. Most of the manufactured 'food' these days is profit driven. It's looking less and less like actual food every year.
Most if not all of your industrial chicken that shows up in big box stores is 'frankenchickens' raised in a poultry house on medicated feed since if they didn't have all the medications, they'd die off of all sorts of things since they're raised in seriously overcrowded conditions. Most of them are a hybrid cross (at least they're not GMO) of a Cornish and a Rock breeds of chickens, I think it is. The hybrid grows really fast but if you try to keep them up to full adult, most times they will die of congestive heart failure. They also gain weight really quickly and can have leg problems from growing faster than their bone structure can support. (Which then gets me to thinking about 'you are what you eat' that my grannie always used to say)
So, anyway, they get these hybrid chicks, raise them on the medicated feed and slaughter them around one to two months old. Which is why the breast bone on these things is half gristle, on a fully adult bird, it will be bone all the way to the tip. They're kept in huge indoor poultry houses and never see the sun or even have much room to move around. They're grown with no exercise, no sunlight and the only nutrients they're getting is what's in the feed and a lot of that feed is now raised on sterile fields using chemicals for fertilizers. The amazing thing isn't that there's no flavor, it's that they're able to live for two months before they're slaughtered.
There's some folks around here who are pasture raising chickens and they have a big sell off every two or three months when the chickens are all processed. They are all sold whole with the skin on. If you like, they'd probably even sell them to you with the feathers on. They have a lot more flavor than the industrial raised chickens since they get lots of bugs, exercise and sunlight. They have a big rolling pen that protects the chickens and gets moved every other day or so. If you have any kind of pasture at all, you could probably do the same thing. I think in our state, folks can sell up to 10,000 chickens without a USDA processing plant if they are sold directly to the consumer and not to a restaurant. But, if you were going to do something like this to get some really healthy and tasty chickens, check all the applicable laws in your area first.
Hybrids are GMOs. Just by hand-selection instead of molecular insertion. The GMO scare is a load of hogwash. None of the birds we eat have the same genome as the birds being eaten 2000 yrs back. They are all genetically modified (which, after all, is a relative term).
Now, overcrowded conditions, birds crammed in and not seeing natural light, and birds pumped with veterinary medications - I'm with you on that.
But it's not like you don't have alternatives. Split, bone in, chicken breasts has skin 100% of the time (in my experience).
So I guess I'm not sure what the purpose of this thread is.
If you are as upset as you say you are (and I'm calling BS, this is some sort of rant for the sake of ranting) you can surely go to a reputable butcher or high end market and get EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT.
If you were truly furious and "pig biting" mad, you would have found a way to ease your anger. But you haven't. Because you're not mad. You're just trying to make some weird statement.
Its not as simple as you suggest. The removal of skin was because processors found a way to monetize it. Yes there was demand - but it was demand for the skin from other parties, not demand from consumers to remove the skin. Many consumers get frustrated that some stores only sell skinless cuts. Increasingly though more stores are reverting to having both skinless and skin-on options.
Hybrids are GMOs. Just by hand-selection instead of molecular insertion. The GMO scare is a load of hogwash. None of the birds we eat have the same genome as the birds being eaten 2000 yrs back. They are all genetically modified (which, after all, is a relative term).
So, how do you hand-select shark genes into a chicken?
It seems like I am mainly seeing 2 price-levels of chicken now. The organic/free-range chicken, that is usually wildly overpriced and in small packages.......I usually do not buy that and many times it has the skin still on it. Then comes the wretched, steroid and chemical-filled factory-chicken, which is at a
price-point I can afford......that is usually the chicken that has been wrecked via deskinning.
I can buy any combination of meat, skin, and bone at the grocery, but restaurants only serve boneless skinless breasts. Dry and flavorless, yuck.
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