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Dark meat at our house, with two exceptions: bone in greats cooked in the sous vide and the occasional use of boneless thighs in Asian dishes as long as they are velveted before they hit the pan.
We eat bone in chicken thighs 2-3 times a week. Sometimes I remove the bone and skin (which goes into the freezer bag for homemade stock). Searing them skin side down in a cast upon pan produces a beautiful crispy skin. Cooked in any sauce, but don't spoon the sauce over the skin. And don't cut out whatever fat there is - it flavors the sauce.
I'm not overly fond of the drumstick, but I will eat them. Roasting the entire leg whole produces a pretty good drumstick IF it's not overcooked. Most people overcook chicken no matter what cut or method.
Those 'cheap' ten pound bags of legs? No. Just no. Very fatty and amazingly tasteless. I even tried using them for homemade stock twice. It was weird. The stock tasted more like onions, celery and carrots cooked in water. The leftover meat was equally tasteless. The dog didn't seem to mind.
I'm fairly sure the ten pound bags are from the "decommissioned" egg layers, most likely white leghorns. The muscles and bones are older, more developed, and tasteless compared to meat chickens, which are Cornish cross.
If you debone and measure the meat in a ten pound sack, you will find you are actually paying as much per pound on average, as the better Cornish cross meat.
I'm fairly sure the ten pound bags are from the "decommissioned" egg layers, most likely white leghorns. The muscles and bones are older, more developed, and tasteless compared to meat chickens, which are Cornish cross.
If you debone and measure the meat in a ten pound sack, you will find you are actually paying as much per pound on average, as the better Cornish cross meat.
Your first paragraph explains why they're tasteless. Thank you.
But I don't get your second paragraph. Are you saying that a chicken bones from a decommissioned egg layer chicken weigh more than the bones from a Cornish cross?
I'm defining a chicken leg as the thigh and drumstick still attached to each other. I can buy a 10 pound bag for $7.99 regularly, on sale quite often at $4.99. Meaning .49 or .79 cents per pound. I don't buy them because they are tasteless.
If I want the same cut, the price will be $1.49 and up. I'd rather buy just the thighs which are around the same price.
It's interesting how different we all are on this white meat vs dark meat issue. I thought about this thread the other night when I picked up a 10 piece dark meat bucket from church's chicken ($10.99). As usual, I asked for as many thighs as possible instead of drumsticks. As usual, I left happy with a bucket of 10 thighs.
Your first paragraph explains why they're tasteless. Thank you.
But I don't get your second paragraph. Are you saying that a chicken bones from a decommissioned egg layer chicken weigh more than the bones from a Cornish cross?
I'm defining a chicken leg as the thigh and drumstick still attached to each other. I can buy a 10 pound bag for $7.99 regularly, on sale quite often at $4.99. Meaning .49 or .79 cents per pound. I don't buy them because they are tasteless.
If I want the same cut, the price will be $1.49 and up. I'd rather buy just the thighs which are around the same price.
Yes, they weigh more. Those birds are much older (as much as two to three years) and have had more time to add to bone weight. They are fed diets that are high enough in calcium so that their eggshells don't break. They are larger. A Cornish cross that you find in a supermarket is harvested at about sixty days. I had some culls that I kept longer. Their bones developed more, but more importantly the meat became more stringy and tough, even when cooked in a soup pot for hours.
As for the chicken in those fast food places? Think about the economics involved. When you buy chicken in a store, you buy by the pound. When you buy at a fast food chicken place serving fried chicken parts, you buy by the number of parts. To save money and encourage customers to buy the big buckets, the chickens used in fast food are harvested earlier, are smaller (about the size of bantams), and lighter. Chances are that you will find at least a few broken bones if you eat KFC regularly. Those immature bones are not yet strong enough to stand up to processing. The meat from birds that young is bound to be tender and cooking times for safe cooking short.
I used to buy three pound fryers (and pay less than $3) for most of my chicken. These days, those are much less common in the markets, with birds twice that weight and much more expensive being sold. Frankly, the meat is not as tender, and the cost is high.
Buying parts is a crapshoot these days. When I get chicken home from a store, I immediately process it for portion control and freezing. I skin, defat, and debone the thigh meat and cut it into pieces that work in Chinese style stir fry, and then portion control and freeze it. As part of the process, I end up weighing the total weight of usable meat vs. the package weight. Until a couple years ago, I always ended up saving money over buying skinless and boneless, plus I ended up with schmaltz, the start of a soup, and scraps for critters.
During the last year I have found packages where excess fat and skin were tucked under the sealed meat. This was attached, but from other parts of the bird, as if one side of the bird was packaged for skinless, and the other side had the skin and fat from that side as well. It ended up being one of the few times I have ever complained to a meat department manager. I was comp'd a new good package, but I stopped buying parts from that store anyway.
As a quick guide to buying parts these days, look at the price per pound on skinless vs the price per pound with skin and bone. At anything less than double the price you are probably going to save money buying skinless and deboned.
I rarely eat chicken legs, but my sister sent me a picture of her fried chicken ...
... and I definitely want to try her recipe at some point! I tried frying chicken a month or two ago but I don't think I had the oil temp correct and it didn't turn out great.
It's interesting how different we all are on this white meat vs dark meat issue. I thought about this thread the other night when I picked up a 10 piece dark meat bucket from church's chicken ($10.99). As usual, I asked for as many thighs as possible instead of drumsticks. As usual, I left happy with a bucket of 10 thighs.
Especially when you consider that America is about the only country in the world that would rather have white meat. Now I like wings as much as anybody else -- they're flavorful enough & easy to eat. But I've never understood the disdain for thighs and legs over the breast. I feel like that's partly a learned preference that arose from the belief that low fat = healthy.
People will insist that chicken breast cooked the right way isn't dry or tasteless, but a whole chicken prepared the wrong way will still render dark meat that is far more palatable IMO.
Especially when you consider that America is about the only country in the world that would rather have white meat. Now I like wings as much as anybody else -- they're flavorful enough & easy to eat. But I've never understood the disdain for thighs and legs over the breast. I feel like that's partly a learned preference that arose from the belief that low fat = healthy.
People will insist that chicken breast cooked the right way isn't dry or tasteless, but a whole chicken prepared the wrong way will still render dark meat that is far more palatable IMO.
Count me among that group. The issue is that it has to be cooked to the very low end of the "safe temperature" range, and relatively quickly. I do lemon pepper breasts on the grill that are flavorful, juicy, and tender. High heat, coat with the lemon pepper, quickly cook to just brown the outside on both sides, tent with foil, turn to low and as soon as the thermometer is within five degrees of the safe range, remove and keep tented until it finishes.
I agree with you on chicken cooked wrong. I spatchcock or disassemble before cooking.
Little kids like the drumsticks because they can hold them by the bone and eat them like corn on the cob. They can eat like a little mini King Henry the VIII eating a turkey leg.
Then they get older and discover that their parents have been ticking them into eating the part that no one wants.
I like the dark meat. I like the chicken thighs and the backs, but the legs are slimy and have those jelly icky tendons and separated muscle groups.
Count me among that group. The issue is that it has to be cooked to the very low end of the "safe temperature" range, and relatively quickly. I do lemon pepper breasts on the grill that are flavorful, juicy, and tender. High heat, coat with the lemon pepper, quickly cook to just brown the outside on both sides, tent with foil, turn to low and as soon as the thermometer is within five degrees of the safe range, remove and keep tented until it finishes.
I agree with you on chicken cooked wrong. I spatchcock or disassemble before cooking.
It's not that I completely dislike chicken breast, but the hype surrounding it becoming the best part in the SAD just doesn't really make the most sense. It has a higher ratio of protein to fat and humans simply aren't built to eat that way. Our bodies prefer to use dietary fat as fuel before anything else, and protein is the hardest macronutrient to metabolize. So if something requires extra seasoning & a some heavy-handed cooking methods to taste good...I'd rather just chop the breast up and make a salad out of it.
Americans are envied for a lot of things, but our food or rather our tastes in food isn't really one of them
Little kids like the drumsticks because they can hold them by the bone and eat them like corn on the cob. They can eat like a little mini King Henry the VIII eating a turkey leg.
Then they get older and discover that their parents have been tricking them into eating the part that no one wants.
I like the dark meat. I like the chicken thighs and the backs, but the legs are slimy and have those jelly icky tendons and separated muscle groups.
Honestly, when it comes to food I'll trust a kid before I'll trust a grown up. They have more taste buds and their palates haven't been adulterated yet. Kids know what tastes good.
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