Quality of chicken breasts in major supermarkets

[loskie]

It could be that at the slaughterhouse/processing plant the best of the batch have to be kept for whole chickens whilst the others with bruised breasts and thighs and hockburn are jointed into cuts and the offending joints downgraded.

Often upon catching broiler hens have hips displaced and legs broken.

[Mobile Chicane]

I bought a whole one for the BH weekend. Looks decent. Waitrose 'No 1' free-range corn fed thingy. £9/Kg.

I have a plan for all of it:

Thighs and drumsticks - jerk BBQ

Breasts - butterfly, marinade in shio koji and chargrill for chicken burgers

Wings - cats

Carcass - freeze until I have more, and can roast in a large batch for stock.

[21TonyK]

Never really got on with Shio Koji. Do you use straight from the bottle or mix/dilute/something?

Brushed onto pork shoulder steaks, left for half an hour and then char grilled it just gave it a funky taste.

Bottle at the back of the cupboard still.

[.:ian:.]

Gave up on supermarket chicken years ago. Even Waitrose. Only get it from the butchers now.

There is occasionally one which is a bit firmer, but otherwise no woody/fibrous breasts.

[MattsCar]

Glad to see this post still going lol.

So, while not fresh chicken, I have found some frozen chicken breast goujons in breadcrumbs that are really good. It is not British chicken, but...I have probably had 20 bags of this stuff in the last year and there hasn't been a single tough/ wrong piece in it. It is also whole fillet and low in fat (5g per 100g) and air frys really well.

https://searaprofessional.com/products/frozen-brea...

Farmfoods do a 1kg bag for £6.

Yes, I know it is not as healthy as pure chicken breast and yes there are chemicals in it as below. But in terms of quality it is leagues ahead of most frozen products.


Chicken meat (62%), fortified wheat flour with iron and folic acid, vegetable oils (cottonseed and/or sunflower and/or rice), water, starch, salt, maize flour, stabilisers (E451i and E450i), yeast, spices (garlic powder, onion powder and white pepper), dextrose and thickener agent ( E407).

[Mobile Chicane]

21TonyK said:

Never really got on with Shio Koji. Do you use straight from the bottle or mix/dilute/something?

Brushed onto pork shoulder steaks, left for half an hour and then char grilled it just gave it a funky taste.

Bottle at the back of the cupboard still.

I just plain ole roasted it in the end. Time and commitments took over.

However I'm glad I did.

Waitrose No 1 corn fed chicken?

F**k off. Looked a bit 'wet' out of the bag.

Despite my best efforts it had a 'chemical' taste - potassium chloride - and was not nice at all.

[PhilAsia]

Mobile Chicane said:

I just plain ole roasted it in the end. Time and commitments took over.

However I'm glad I did.

Waitrose No 1 corn fed chicken?

F**k off. Looked a bit 'wet' out of the bag.

Despite my best efforts it had a 'chemical' taste - potassium chloride - and was not nice at all.

FYI, potassium chloride pairs well with a nice Soave or Vermentino, if you didn't know.

[Bluevanman]

Apparently you can tendorise chicken with baking soda
https://www.armandhammer.com/en/articles/baking-so...

[DoubleSix]

It’s called velveting and common in chinese/asian cooking.

I don’t mind it on a piece of beef skirt or something but not a fan of what it does to chicken personally.