Stupid question about chicken

[RedAngie]

We have a poultry place across from where I work. You pick your live chicken, they slaughter it to order while you wait. Never bought chicken there, but it certainly would be fresh.

When I was a younger child, there was a live poultry market in the neighborhood. Ducks and geese were also available. My grandmother bought her chickens there. For an extra fee, I think they would pluck the feathers for you

 

[Eeyore daily]

I buy frozen Sam's Club chicken. The Aldi's ones always tasted too weird for me.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Where do you buy your chicken? I want to get better chicken for our meals and was wondering if there different qualities Like steak is better from the butcher than the bodega. LOL. Is chicken like that? Sunday I made a fabulous chicken vesiouvio and I wasn't in love with the texture of the chicken.

BJs. They carry Perdue Harvestland Air Chilled skinless/boneless thighs and breasts. Best quality I've found in a while.

 

[kimblebee]

I would think that if you’re able to get chicken for $1.99/lb you’re not going to get the best quality.

 

[bcla]

When I was a younger child, there was a live poultry market in the neighborhood. Ducks and geese were also available. My grandmother bought her chickens there. For an extra fee, I think they would pluck the feathers for you

There was an old story that's commonly told in and around San Francisco. It varies by who tells it, but the constants are always the San Francisco MUNI 30 Stockton bus (that goes through Chinatown), and an older Chinese woman. The story is that she tries to bring aboard a live chicken that she bought in Chinatown, but the driver says that she can't take it on board. Then she walks about bit and either wrings its neck, slams it's head against fire hydrant, or otherwise kills it.

Chicken dead now.

 

[Cheetie]

I used to buy Costco chicken, but I don’t like how freezing it affects the texture. Now I buy either Perdue or Amish chicken. There is one grocery store near me that sells bone-in, skin on chicken breasts that are normal-sized, not the giant half pound and up pieces. The small ones are so much better tasting and much more tender.

 

[fly girl]

My go to is Miller Amish Chicken.

 

[Christine]

Costco chicken is the only food item I've come across that I wouldn't buy again. I did not care for the texture or taste of their bag of chicken breasts.

I felt the same way. Even with the Coleman organic ones. Weird.

 

[Christine]

I buy the Bell & Evan's organic. Not because I have to have organic or anything, but the chicken is tender, never tough and never stringy or dry.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

Where do you buy your chicken? I want to get better chicken for our meals and was wondering if there different qualities Like steak is better from the butcher than the bodega. LOL. Is chicken like that? Sunday I made a fabulous chicken vesiouvio and I wasn't in love with the texture of the chicken.

I’ve had issues with chicken over the last 5 years where the breast meat is hard (woody breasts). I did some research and found that it is due to growing the chickens too big too fast.

Now I will only buy Bell and Evans brand chicken that they carry at a local supermarket here called Kings (in NJ). I never have this issue with their chicken and they are flavorful too.

I have had this problem with Purdue, Tyson’s and Costco chicken so it’s not restricted to one brand and it doesn’t happen all of the time (getting woody breasts).

 

[jdb in AZ]

I use chicken tenders. They're a lot more "tender" than breast meat.

 

[Wishing on a star]

We have had pretty good results with Tyson. But the stores here have all changed to other more generic store brands chewy stringy and awful! I agree with the OP that there is a change and a difference.
Another note, I find that I get the best results with chicken beef and other meat if I let it come to near room temperature. I don’t try to cook super cold meat right out of the fridge!

 

[quandrea]

We buy ours at a small local market. The chicken is organic, no antibiotics and very good. Chicken has gone down in quality my opinion. I won’t buy grocery store chicken any more. We buy all our meat at this market now. Costs more, but we just eat less and enjoy the quality.

 

[bcla]

I’ve had issues with chicken over the last 5 years where the breast meat is hard (woody breasts). I did some research and found that it is due to growing the chickens too big too fast.

That's been the case for at least the past 50 years. Chicken is cheap because of commercial hybrid breeds that grow quickly off of feed alone and have large amounts of breast meat. They're not particularly healthy either. They're designer chickens meant to be cheap.

There are a few small scale producers of traditional chickens that are allowed to roam and forage. That's expensive though, especially since they take a lot longer to grow to market size.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

There was an old story that's commonly told in and around San Francisco. It varies by who tells it, but the constants are always the San Francisco MUNI 30 Stockton bus (that goes through Chinatown), and an older Chinese woman. The story is that she tries to bring aboard a live chicken that she bought in Chinatown, but the driver says that she can't take it on board. Then she walks about bit and either wrings its neck, slams it's head against fire hydrant, or otherwise kills it.

Chicken dead now.

that happened on M*A*S*H* too. well not exactly, Hawkeye and on a local bus and they were getting fired at he "hears" a chicken on the bus and he's like "shut that up, they're going to find it". Turns out it was a baby crying and the Korean mother killed her baby so the enemy couldn't hear them.

 

[Kitty 34]

Meijer stores here in Michigan. The only frozen chicken I will buy is Tyson chicken strips.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

Meijer stores here in Michigan. The only frozen chicken I will buy is Tyson chicken strips.

are they unbreaded?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Where do you buy your chicken?

I used to buy at Sam's Club. But the texture changed about a year or so ago. I now just buy at my local grocery (we have 3 different ones near us) whoever has the better price.

 

[tasha99]

For now, heritage breed chicken from Whole Foods when they have it. I buy the smallest ones I can find and won't buy a bird over 4 pounds. I'm just sick of the giant chicken at grocery stores--weird texture, weird flavor. The chicken I buy looks positively scrawny--less breast meat, bigger legs. But scrawny as it is, there is somehow enough, and it comes out great.

We are thinking of joining a meat CSA eventually from a local farm. I'm interested because they always have small chickens, whereas right now, I feel like I'm always on the hunt for them (when found, I buy every chicken that meets my criteria for the freezer--still always running out because they're a come and go item). They also have stewing hens, which I'm interested in.

 

[2goofycampers]

Sprouts fresh chicken is the best we have ever tried.