chicken breasts that are HUGE....good bad?

[Tiggsy]

I ordered some chicken from musclefood.com and the breats were BIG...over 200g after cooking. Now, I thouht this was great because I can buttefly a single one onto athe Foreman grill and theres my meal.......but wifey said "noooo....thats a freaky size chicken that has been fed bad drugs to make it big"

So....is there any downside to a chicken that gets jacked up? Is it via breeding/drugs/free weights?

Musclefood.com say this "Our chicken range has no added water, salt or any other additives and is naturally rich in Essential Amino Acids making it a fantastic clean protein source. Responsibly sourced, our chicken vastly outstrips anything you’d buy in the supermarket in terms of size, taste, quality and price. "

[Hoofy]

Tiggsy said:

free weights?

Never thought of it before. Perhaps it's because they're free range they can do more walking so build up their pecs. Or something. Maybe it's the better quality of food they get. Or steroids. Steroids and bench pressing.

[Regiment]

You either believe their promotional stuff or you don't and also what they mean by no additives and quality might be different to what you mean.

My personal opinion is bench press, squats, deadlifts and overhead press and lots of chicken feed high in whey, the only natural way to grow lean muscles that's all juicy and tasty.

[Hoofy]

I shall invent a variable height chicken coop. The roof will slowly come down and chickens will push against it thus building nice big, juicy chicken thighs. *slurp*

Or I could employ Eastern European women to regularly pat chickens to stimulate thigh growth. The women would wear skimpy bikinis and I'd broadcast the action live on my website www.xpat.com.

[grumbledoak]

I somehow doubt they've been using their wings much. Or bench pressing each other.

[Hoofy]

Maybe they've been swimming.

A waterproof chicken coop, filled halfway with water so the chickens have to flap to stay above the waterline. Tie weights to their feet to make them heavier. The flapping will increase pectoral size and the foot weights will increase thigh size. I didn't realise how much of a farmer I was.

[GlenMH]

All the chicken breasts available in my local butcher are lots bigger than 200g each. Bearing in mind the quality of their other stock and the fact they can tell you which farm all their meat comes from, then I don't think that additives are likely!

I think it comes from having chicken that is free to run around and that has been left to grow long enough naturally rather than force fed to maturity in 13 weeks.

I have been buying turkey direct from a local farm for the last 5 years and the amount of meat on even just one wing is huge compared to a supermarket bird.... It is amazing what free range farming can do, even if it is a good bit more expensive.

[Hoofy]

Interesting, Glen - so even though organic is expensive per bird, perhaps per kg it's the same?

[goldblum]

Tiggsy said:

naturally rich in Essential Amino Acids making it a fantastic clean protein source.

Only this brand of chicken? What's 'clean' protein?

[BenM77]

Tiggsy said:

Responsibly sourced,

Is all their meat UK sourced?


It doesn't jump out at me on the website where their chicken is actually from.

[GlenMH]

Hoofy said:

Interesting, Glen - so even though organic is expensive per bird, perhaps per kg it's the same?

I pay per Kg so the bird IS more expensive but when you see how much extra meat is on the carcass and the strength of the bones/joints etc (they are a right git to get to pieces....) then you can see where the money is spent.

And don't get me started on how much better it tastes

[Hoofy]

GlenMH said:

I pay per Kg so the bird IS more expensive but when you see how much extra meat is on the carcass and the strength of the bones/joints etc (they are a right git to get to pieces....) then you can see where the money is spent.

And don't get me started on how much better it tastes

Cheers. I'll have a look next time I'm in Tesco.

[GlenMH]

Hoofy said:

Cheers. I'll have a look next time I'm in Tesco.

Hoofy - sod Tesco. The problem with the supermarkets is that they all compete on price for ALL their products, including the premium ones. This "encourages" producers to cut corners in rearing/feeding or send birds to slaughter before they are quite ready or have hit the target weight. When I order my bird, all I say is small, medium or large as the farmer and I don't know how big the birds are going to be this year. The supermarkets cannot live with that kind of variability.

If you can find a good butcher or someone who delivers, such as Copas, it won't be cheap but you won't go back to supermarket birds. I drive nearly an hour each way to the farm to get my turkey - including snow/ice etc - it really is that much better!

[Hoofy]

GlenMH said:

Hoofy - sod Tesco. The problem with the supermarkets is that they all compete on price for ALL their products, including the premium ones. This "encourages" producers to cut corners in rearing/feeding or send birds to slaughter before they are quite ready or have hit the target weight. When I order my bird, all I say is small, medium or large as the farmer and I don't know how big the birds are going to be this year. The supermarkets cannot live with that kind of variability.

If you can find a good butcher or someone who delivers, such as Copas, it won't be cheap but you won't go back to supermarket birds. I drive nearly an hour each way to the farm to get my turkey - including snow/ice etc - it really is that much better!

Oh, right. I was thinking more about my weekly chicken.

[pad58]

GlenMH said:

Hoofy - sod Tesco. The problem with the supermarkets is that they all compete on price for ALL their products, including the premium ones. This "encourages" producers to cut corners in rearing/feeding or send birds to slaughter before they are quite ready or have hit the target weight. When I order my bird, all I say is small, medium or large as the farmer and I don't know how big the birds are going to be this year. The supermarkets cannot live with that kind of variability.

If you can find a good butcher or someone who delivers, such as Copas, it won't be cheap but you won't go back to supermarket birds. I drive nearly an hour each way to the farm to get my turkey - including snow/ice etc - it really is that much better!

Exactly this

[mattikake]

Some things are too good to be true. Beware generously plump-looking chicken meat:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-181626/T...

I missed panorama tonight though, so I think I'll have to catch this on iplayer.

Also my parents pointed out another programme that was on about a week or so ago that compared the meat and protein content of the highest quality premium fat chicken and the lowest quality cheap skinny chicken and they concluded that the actual difference in protein and meat quality was negligible. Alas, my parents couldn't remember the name of the programme so I have no been able to watch this either.

I guess muscle proteins are still the same muscle proteins, regardless how dense they may be. So as you generally pay by weight and extra for premium brands, there is nothing to be gained except empty space in your wallet.

NB: I'm just a messenger here as I haven't seen any of it yet!

[pad58]

Or maybe they are from old broiler chickens, the Chinese, indian takeaways use these, old hens that no longer lay eggs. They have massive breasts.

[goldblum]

Every time I scan 'Health Matters' all my eyes seem to pick out when I come to the thread title is HUGE BREASTS. I've been caught out so many times, nice one OP!

[Hoofy]

goldblum said:

Every time I scan 'Health Matters' all my eyes seem to pick out when I come to the thread title is HUGE BREASTS. I've been caught out so many times, nice one OP!

A nice big pair of breasts just for you:

[Adz The Rat]

Well Ive been eating the chicken from Musclefood for a couple of months now and its not done me any harm.

Another nice order coming next Friday.