odd texture in Chicken breasts recently.

[Anonymous]

Over the past year or two I have noticed it's harder to find good quality (based on texture - not taste) chicken at the grocery store. I have tried purchasing the name brand or organic and it doesn't seem to matter. at first I thought it was a freezer burn issue, but now I am not so sure.

I googled it (of course) and it looks like the texture issue might be due to how fast they are fattening up chickens these days. As I said earlier, organic doesn't seem to help. I just got some cage-free chicken breasts and the first time it seemed great. But $10/lb is pricey for chicken.

My question is - is there a better price somewhere or is there a way to cook the regular (non-cage free) chicken that will help the texture. Or can I just substitute chicken thighs everywhere since they don't seem to have this issue.

**** just to note - it's not an issue with my preparation methods, I am a decent home cook. It's not every breast, just some. *************

[Anonymous]

I've noticed this too. Most chicken I just can't eat anymore. I buy a small amish brand of chicken breasts now that taste normal to me.

[Anonymous]

I have bought chicken so many times that goes bad well beyond the sell by date. It is hard to find good chicken. I like the Smart Chicken at Harris Teeter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've noticed this too. Most chicken I just can't eat anymore. I buy a small amish brand of chicken breasts now that taste normal to me.

Can you give more details on ones you buy and where?

[Anonymous]

I lived overseas for ten years and was floored when I came back and saw the size here of chicken breasts, legs and thighs - including organic. The are literally three times the size of the chickens I had overseas. Very disconcerting. They taste bad, too.

[Anonymous]

Op, are you from Boston? Someone posted this exact question on my town's Facebook page this week. I'm not calling you out as a non-D.C. Poster, just curious if someone from another area has noticed the same thing.

Fwiw I haven't noticed a change.

[Anonymous]

Chicken breasts have gotten huge. I can feed my family of 4 (which includes two teenage boys) on 2 1/2 chicken breasts.

I haven't really noticed any change in texture though. Definitely try different brands until you find one that doesn't seem to have that odd texture - it sounds really gross.

[Anonymous]

The huge chicken breasts you see now are really uneven in thickness and so it's hard to cook evenly which messes up the texture. I try to slice them in half in and then use a mallet to pound them to an even thickness, or cut them into even pieces for a stir fry.

I also try to cook them hot and fast--like drop them into a screaming hot pan, grill or wok and pull it as soon as its done.

[Anonymous]

I like empire brand. But I mostly buy thin cut, it thin cut myself. This helps with that texture issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The huge chicken breasts you see now are really uneven in thickness and so it's hard to cook evenly which messes up the texture. I try to slice them in half in and then use a mallet to pound them to an even thickness, or cut them into even pieces for a stir fry.

I also try to cook them hot and fast--like drop them into a screaming hot pan, grill or wok and pull it as soon as its done.

I think this is a good point. They do vary a lot in thickness. When I bake them they turn out dry because I tend to err on the side of doneness with poultry in general. I cut them up into even size pieces and simmer in a pan which consistently turns out well and as expected.

I like the idea of using a mallet to get them to a uniform thickness before baking. I'll have to try that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The huge chicken breasts you see now are really uneven in thickness and so it's hard to cook evenly which messes up the texture. I try to slice them in half in and then use a mallet to pound them to an even thickness, or cut them into even pieces for a stir fry.

I also try to cook them hot and fast--like drop them into a screaming hot pan, grill or wok and pull it as soon as its done.

I have also had texture issues with white meat and I've found that the hot and fast cooking rule works best. Save the low and slow for pork. I've actually been cooking chicken breast tenderloins under the broiler lately for a nice grilled taste. I marinate for an hour in Italian dressing (full fat version, not lite), and broil for 12 minutes, flip them over and broil for another 6 minutes. (This is a gas broiler. An electric one is much hotter and will cook much faster.) There will be some char as you'd find in grilled chicken, but it is moist and tasty in the middle. I would think this method would also work for the whole breast but make sure they are trimmed or pounded to an even thickness.

[Anonymous]

I buy the organic chicken breasts from costco and have noticed they have gotten so much bigger and the texture has changed.

I too eat chicken overseas. Smaller and tastes so much better.

[Anonymous]

What is the odd texture that you've found recently? Occasionally I will have chicken breasts that seem very stringy and chewy and it is very off-putting. The problem is that I don't realize this until after the meal has been cooked and then, at least for me, it becomes inedible. Not sure there is anything wrong with the chicken but the texture is just so different (almost muscular) from what I'm used to that it is too gross to eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the odd texture that you've found recently? Occasionally I will have chicken breasts that seem very stringy and chewy and it is very off-putting. The problem is that I don't realize this until after the meal has been cooked and then, at least for me, it becomes inedible. Not sure there is anything wrong with the chicken but the texture is just so different (almost muscular) from what I'm used to that it is too gross to eat.

I think that what people are referring to is a fleshy/sinewy texture - I can't really describe it. But it's what you would expect the texture of a raw piece of chicken to be except it's cooked.

As a pp mentioned above, the lack of uniformity in thickness might very well be causing the chicken to cook unevenly.

[Anonymous]

You're overcooking them.