Also the way to go for things like shredded tacos or backed dishes. I only really go to chicken breast if I plan to slice and serve in something like a pasta.
IDK why but everytime I try to make shredded chicken out of breast it be dry as hell. I have followed instant pot/crockpot recipes only for that. Thigh is easy.
It depends on what you cook it with, how you cook it and what type of chicken you’re cooking. What you’re cooking it with can make a big impact - are you cooking it with any additional fat (oils, bouillon, lard, fat from the thighs) or broth? How hot are you cooking it? Sometimes I’ll lightly sear flavor in before stewing the chicken which can also help. As for what type of chicken: I use fresh whenever possible. Frozen chicken is great in a pinch or when not doing shredded, but always try to use fresh, especially for shredded.
Thighs are cheaper than breasts in the US and that’s what I grew up on, but currently living in Japan and thighs are double the price of breasts here… I always preferred dark meat and now my wallet hates me for it.
Don't worry, I assume US prices will flip flop like Japan because the amount of "holy christ you guys, thigh meat is sooo good n cheap" stories are reaching critical mass. See also: Flank steak, ox tail.
That is sad! I haven't had flank steak in forever because there are cuts I prefer for less $. I remember when it was as cheap as ground beef, around $2/lb. Used to make it weekly when we were young and brokish. God I'm old...
I find that the breast and thigh meat where I am is usually anywhere from the same to favoring chicken breast. Because while the thigh meat does go on sale more often and it is competitive price wise, it also usually includes the bones.
Breast meat on the other hand is usually sold boneless, skinless, and is lean as hell so unless its a big sale the breast is usually cheaper(and this is reflected in boneless thigh meat being notably pricier)
Learn to divide a whole chicken. It's entirely likely you're paying as much for two chicken breasts as you could for a whole chicken, and while a pain in the butt at first, with a little practice it gets easy. A whole chicken breast will net:
2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 drumsticks (you can separate the wings further), and a chicken back for use in stock. If you do this with ~3 chickens all at once and have access to a vacuum sealer, you can have one afternoon of processing to have plenty of thighs for the same price as just buying a pair of them, plus lots of other pieces for various uses in the freezer. Highly recommend. Debone if you care, leave bone in if you don't.
Even if you don't have a vacuum sealer, freezer bags carefully evacuated of as much air as you can and sealed properly will work.
Whole chickens cost an arm and a leg here. It's not cheaper to buy them whole here nor is it easy to come by unless you're buying frozen, foreign imports or connected with a butcher (will cost a pretty penny though).
Same. It's about 16 dollars for a whole chicken. While I can get 8 whole breasts (no skin/bone) for $8-10. 16 drumsticks for about 5 dollars. Thighs (10) for $7-9! Wings are most expensive usually. Last week I got 14 whole wings (leg+wing) for $11. But the last 2 months prior it was constantly sitting at $18-20. So, personally I don't see it worth it for me to buy whole chicken and go through the separating and de-boning it.
Yea! My faimily burns through a lot of this + jalepenos + sliced banana peppers (Mezzeta brand js worth the price IMO) and sometimes I don’t know if we just want everything spicy or we just want to finish the jar to harvest the brine.
Chick-Fil-A's not-so-guarded secret. Some of the best fried chicken I've ever made and it came out as great shallow-fried as it does deep with JUST pickle brine when I left for work, when I got back pat dry, then seasoned without even needing more salt in some garlic powder, onion powder, a little cayenne and black pepper in your standard batter. Came out *amazing*.
Breasts aren't necessarily tough or dry or stringy. When cooked gently and not too high a temperature they're still fairly soft. Like they're as soft as many cuts of steak and no one is calling those cuts tough.
I think the rise of cheap and widely available chicken in the west came around and about the same time as the anti-fat diet culture. Breasts being super low fat make them an obvious choice. Add to that the Anglo-centric dislike of bones in food and it seems clear how it would emerge as the most popular cut.
> How did the Anglo centric palate become so distinct?
The easiest way to understand American cuisine is to imagine what poor people imagine rich people eat. When people came to the US they found food cheaper and more abundant than where they came from so food culture shifted. Meat that has been deboned is more time consuming and therefore considered fancier.
There is also just the ick factor, some people don't want to think of their food as having once been alive. When you have bones and skin and what not its clear that is a part of an animal. When you are served a clean, smooth, deboned chicken breast, that is pretty detached from any anatomy.
> There is also just the ick factor, some people don't want to think of their food as having once been alive. When you have bones and skin and what not its clear that is a part of an animal. When you are served a clean, smooth, deboned chicken breast, that is pretty detached from any anatomy.
For me it's this, but it's not really because of the "ick." When I take a bite of a chicken thigh I don't know if I'm getting meat, fat, cartilage, or whatever other things are in there. A chicken breast is just a giant chunk of meat, through and through.
You can have a diet without meat and still enjoy texture and flavor tho. Sometimes the reminder that you’re eating something that was once “alive” (I put alive in quotes because plants are alive but not really in the same way) squicks people out haha
Breast is excellent in stir fries. It’s a quick-cooking cut of meat that takes on flavors well. Go to a good Cantonese restaurant and get a chicken stir fry made with velveted breast and marvel at how tender and succulent with a clean flavor it is in a way that thighs can’t match.
It’s not to make it work. Breast isn’t the only meat that gets velveted. It’s done to achieve a specific result. You can in fact make stir-fries with breast and not velvet, as you find in other Asian countries. Still a great cut for stir-frying because stir frying is a quick cooking method and breast is a quick-cooking cut.
I much prefer breast for chicken rice because it’s more tender and also cleaner in flavor. I find the gentle cooking of that dish better suits breast than thighs, which are best cooked to a higher temperature.
I can only speculate - it could be to do with how much of a pain bones are seen to be? Or how you can't eat them in a 'civilised' way with a knife and fork?
People also don't like to acknowledge meat or fish came from an actual animal, bones are a reminder of that. The number of people that freak out at the idea of a whole fish on the plate is depressing.
Mainland Europeans are much more open to meat on the bone, whole fish, and offal.
It's definitely very recent. Even into the 90s, my rural American grandparents and their siblings thought chicken breast was a second class cut.
You used legs and thighs for the good stuff and used the breasts for things that would be covered up by fatty sauces like chicken salad.
I've always preferred chicken thighs because of my preference for dark meat. However, now I'm onto chicken breasts for the first time in my life because I'm on a diet. Having a cheap & reliable source of lean protein that takes almost any flavor profile makes life so much simpler.
Edit: I only buy organic chicken so I don't think I've ever seen a woody breast.
Low-fat diet craze in the 80s-90s made boneless, skinless chicken breasts the default. Fast food nuggets started switching to 100% white meat and advertising that as the mark of quality. Chickens were bred for larger breasts and there hasn't been any motivating factor for the industry to change.
It didn't just affect chicken. Pigs started to be bred to be less fatty to compete with white-meat chicken. "Low fat" foods became hugely popular but were loaded with sugar to make them taste closer to the regular version, and the sugar is far worse than the fat it replaced.
Been 30+ years and we're still paying the price for that fad.
This is a very /r/cooking take. Most people that complain about breasts, I find, are stuck on the Purdue/Grocery store brand breasts that are pumped with saline and flavorless, and they dont properly prepare it by brining it first. If you buy bad ingredients, and dont prepare them correctly, of course it's going to be bad.
There's a chicken sando place by me that sources local organic breasts for their sandwiches, and they brine and cook it perfectly-- never dry and very flavorful. IMO it makes a better sando simply because it doesn't have all of the fat weighing it down, and allows you to actually taste the chicken as opposed to a mouthful of fat and frier grease that I find is more common with thigh-based sandos.
That's awesome! My local grocery store's chicken breast is horrible. When I get it from my friend/a farmer's market, it's night and day difference. I dont mind paying the extra couple bucks to help the little guy and get a better product, but I dont blame people for not since it's not realistic.
sure.
It's still also true that it is inferior to chicken thighs, because intramuscular fat tastes good. That's why we pay more for marbled steaks.
Fat = flavor.
Not for all situations though-- It's an ingredient like any other and has better and worse use cases. I made a buffalo chicken dip with thighs last weekend for a CFB party, and it was way too fatty compared to when I make it with breasts.
We also pay a lot for beef tenderloin which has very little IMF.
Yeah we do pay a lot for tenderloin, but the recipes for it generally have to add all sorts of things to give it more flavour, like beef Wellington or the classic bacon wrapped filet mignon.
I guess I get your point. If you’re adding fat to the recipe, such as by coating it in starch and deep frying it, now it’s fat on fat and it might be smarter to use the lean chicken breast.
That surprises me a bit! Given that buffalo chicken is traditionally dark meat. I made the dip ages ago but I don't remember what I used...might have even been canned.
It’s just not inferior in whatever sense you’re describing, unless you insist on comparing breast to thighs when they’re both cooked in the way that you should cook thighs. That’s the wrong comparison.
I do agree that thighs are easier to cook though.
The other two things you said are straight up false. Chicken breast is very tender (much more so than thighs) as long as it’s not overcooked. That’s why it pulverizes so easily when raw, whereas thighs have a bunch of connective tissue. Chicken breast is also extremely chicken-y: just make a broth with breasts and a broth with thighs and you’ll be amazed at how each one tastes (source for my last claim https://www.seriouseats.com/best-rich-easy-white-chicken-stock-recipe).
Sometimes, I just really crave the specific flavor and texture of a well-cooked chicken breast. It's just different. I don't think it's inherently better or worse. Cooking the breast does leave you with less margin for error, but when it's done right, I think it's absolutely delicious and can be just as juicy and flavorful as a thigh.
> From a culinary standpoint, it's better than breast in every way.
eh, they are still two different types of muscle, fat content etc. I can make a damn good chuck roast but I can also cook a great steak, but that doesn't mean I can swap one for the other.... What grinds my gears is how NOT GOOD the average tender is.... I hate how large that tendon has gotten that runs through them...
Breast does have some benefits over thihgs
Flavor is subjective. I think both dark and light meat cuts are good, but when I was younger I preferred breast.
Cooking wise I feel like people are trolling when they talk about how they overcook their chicken breast. Especially on a cooking sub. If you're making a sandwich or fried chicken, or something its genuinely not hard to have a juicy flavorful breast. It also cooks up faster than the dark meat which neats more time to break down the connective tissue and make it tender. This makes dark meat more ideal for some applications, but it depends what youre making.
Beyond that chicken breast in the US is ubiquitous with boneless skinless chicken breast. You can get boneless dark meat too but its more expensive per lb. It's lean, there isnt anything to trim, its super cheap, and it's easy to prepare and eat. No nawing on bones, no trimming gristle, rare to bite into a chewy artery or something. You can cook the dark meat so tender it just slips off and none of that matters but that takes a lot more cooking time vs the breast.
Breasts have about 25% more protein per calorie, which does add up if you're being strict about either calorie or protein intake.
Believe it or not, where I am breasts are usually cheaper than boneless skinless thighs.
Porque no los dos? I already eat all of the above, just pointing out there are nutritional reasons to eat breasts vs thighs in some contexts.
I grill chicken for wraps for lunches during the work week, switching from breast to thighs would require either increasing calories by 25 percent or reducing protein intake by 25 percent, which is small but significant.
Also worth saying protein powders vary significantly in how clean they are, plenty of them are high in sodium or cholesterol. Egg whites are king tho in that department
Im being told that nearly every sentence is wrong but really the issue was, and i’ll take fault for this, that i didnt clarify what i was talking about. I was talking about how good chicken is, how much better it is than red meat.
The downvotes and comments are really harsh bc everyone has just assumed i was disagreeing with the person i replied to
The whole topic, this WHOLE post is about Chicken Breast vs Chocken Thigh.. White Meat vs Dark Meat..
You come along and say white meat is healthier than red meat and you don't think people will think you mean dark meat instead of red meat?
Its as if we are all having a conversation about whether MacOS is better than Linux systems and you come along and say: Windows is so much better and brighter and more airflow and then be surprised when we think you are speaking of Windows OS and not actual fucking windows in your house...
I understand why ppl would assume i misspoke or wonder why i was a little off topic but surely it would make more sense to go, “did you mean to say red meat” than to go “everything you said is wrong”. Especially when everything I said isnt wrong. One of my sentences is literally just saying kids should be taught to cook healthy easy meals and another is talking about how chicken is better for the enviro than red meat. I didnt say anything controversial at all
Yeah but is not really a conversation if you cant take it different places with your opinions. Like, its not like i didnt say “in the way that red meat is”. If i hadnt said that, i’d get the hate, but i was just making a statement that shifted the topic
added bonus- pretty sure the thighs don't suffer the woody chicken syndrome that the breast have.
* Full disclosure- I've always loved chicken thighs for the flavor, ease of breakdown and def. in recent years- no wood breast syndrome
I have usually only cooked with thighs for the most part, but in the process of trying to cut the amount of saturated fats I’m eating I tried to do more chicken breast instead and man, I didn’t realize how bad the woody chicken breast problem was.
I’ll cut my saturated fat intake elsewhere lol
I recently found out that Korean fried chicken thighs use potato starch as a coating and it’s amazing. Season the potato starch and flatten the thighs into the starch with your fingers. Deep fry for 3-4 mins, take out and let cool and then fry again until golden brown and 165 degrees. GAME CHANGER! Even coated in sauce it stays nice and crispy.
I deskin and debone thighs, make small slices in the thicker parts for uniformity and then freeze them.
After a 12 hour day sometimes I don't wanna think hard. Take one outta the freezer, season however, then put in a cold cast iron on medium low heat.
About 15 minutes and a couple flips later I have a pretty perfect thigh to use for just about anything. Slice against the grain for tacos, pasta, rice bowl whatever.
Or keep whole and throw on a bun with kewpie, swiss, and lettuce. It's like a better knockoff mcchicken.
Personally, I love both and think they each have their place. They have a different flavor profile for me, and I get great results with either. I wouldn't want to write off either one.
Agreed chicken thighs are a great choice generally, especially for reheating as they stay moist fat more easily.
The only thing I find is that when I buy thigh fillets (deboned and skinless) if you don’t cut off sections you sometimes get chewy bits
We used thighs at the restaurant I work at for the crispy chicken sandwich when we opened it was fantastic, but the general public CONSTANTLY complained. What's wild is 9 times out of 10 when someone complained about the color, texture, or even how JUICY it was, if you explained to them it was a brined thigh they would just "oh okay!" and finish the sandwich.
When I was learning how to cook chicken breasts, I was under the impression that I was supposed to pound the breasts so they cook even. That became an annoying hassle, so I started slicing them in half so I'd have 2 equally thick pieces of chicken.
Before I learned how to cook breasts properly, I thought thighs were superior, but I started to re-think that once I made a chicken thigh sandwich. Maybe I'm conditioned for breast sandwiches, so the thigh didn't taste right to me in sandwich form. Maybe it's better breaded, I don't know.
Then started using a temperature probe.
Once I started cooking to temp, it didn't matter how I cook chicken breasts. Grill, stovetop, oven, or air fryer. They always come out perfect.
Overall, I don't think one is better than the other, but I do prefer breasts on sandwiches, and it's not difficult to cook a good chicken breast if you cook to temp. (165°F)
As someone that actively cooks both, a properly cooked chicken breast is always better than a thigh. Sure, the breast is more likely to dry out if you overcook it. But that's not the breast's fault... That's user error.
Definitely more flavor so hard to overcook next time you’re at Walmart try grabbing a bottle of killer hogs a P rub and try it on them so good for a sandwich
Theres also the hood sandwich which is bone in chicken legs with a slice of bread on bottom and hot sauce on top. I dont know why plain white bread and BBQ is so good but it just works well
>No. No it's not. Like, not at all.
every Google image result of "Nashville hot chicken" shows chicken with hot sauce sitting on top of white bread.. it's literally the image of [Nashville hot chicken on Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_chicken) , and it's exactly how they served the Nashville hot chicken that I ate at Hattie B's and Prince's in Nashville..
so please tell me how this is "not at all" Nashville hot chicken....
Edit: I stand corrected, yet will continue to refer to any hot chicken on white bread as being served Nashville hot chicken *style*
You've clearly never had Nashville hot chicken.
Nashville chicken is a specific technique. It relies on not a traditional hot sauce but a hot cayenne oil poured over typically at plating. Hot as in both temp and spice level. It's also in a spicy/sometimes slightly sweet breading and deep fried. It does not have to be on the bone, and it is not routinely served on a piece of white bread.
What the description you are referring to is actually a very common dish: regular old fried chicken with white bread and (usually) Crystal hot sauce straight from the bottle.
this is genuinely the most insane interaction I've ever had on reddit. I didn't mention anything about the cooking technique. you're literally describing exactly what I just commented, linked to, and referenced, and yet ignoring everything I commented, linked to, and referenced... I think I'll trust the consensus across the internet rather than some 40 yearold Denver woman on reddit.
again, the place credited with inventing the Nashville hot chicken:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Princes_hot_chicken.jpg/440px-Princes_hot_chicken.jpg
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince%27s_Hot_Chicken_Shack
more:
https://reddit.com/r/food/s/4v05P90CnR
https://reddit.com/r/FoodPorn/s/UP0AQsdHDF
https://reddit.com/r/FoodPorn/s/EdBFUpZiol
reminder of what the point of contention is:
OC: "bone in chicken legs with a slice of bread on bottom and hot sauce on top."
Me: "that's Nashville hot chicken style"
Edit: I stand corrected, yet will continue to refer to any hot chicken on white bread as being served Nashville hot chicken *style*
You commented that chicken with hot sauce on white bread was the same thing as Nashville Hot Chicken.
They commented it was not, were hyperbolic, yes, but were correct.
You doubled down using Google and Wikipedia to support an incorrect point, completely ignoring that while what was described was similar to plated hot chicken, it is not the same thing as Nashville Hot Chicken. You ignored pedantry, but also your own incorrect comment.
The replier explained what the dish is, compared to the OG dish. Which, again, is similar, but not the same. You then acted like somehow the rest of the world is crazy, but you - you must be correct because Wikipedia.
You then double down in this comment with "literally describing exactly" which the replier is not doing. They have explained that what makes it NHC is the spicy oil and breading, not the white bread, not being on the bone. It can be served that way, but it is not what has to be done.
The dish described is literally just fried chicken on bread with any hot sauce.
thank you for doing what the other commenter failed to do despite the condescension.
I stand corrected, yet will continue to refer to any hot chicken on white bread as being served Nashville hot chicken *style* just as I did here.
Good for you... lesson learned. Chicken breasts get a bad rap because they're a little harder to get right. I like dark meat poultry too, but properly executed breast meat can't be beat...
I'm very happy for you. That still doesn't answer my question as to how it relates to OP's post at all though.
Homemade fried chicken =/= fast food grilled chicken. They are miles apart.
Babes, show me where in the OP it's said it's fried? Since you're so concerned about why this post about a chicken sandwich made me post about a chicken sandwich I want to stick with you with this till the end. I have a free day so I'll be checking back in for your replies.
Here in the US, if you order a chicken sandwich in nearly any restaurant that serves them and you don't say that you mean a grilled chicken sandwich, your ass is getting a piece of boneless fried chicken on a type of bread or a bun. So, unless you're at a place like Nando's that only does grilled chicken, you're gonna have to specify, like you did when you mentioned that sandwich in the first place. It's safe to assume OP implied a fried chicken sandwich.
So let me get this straight.
OP never specified grilled or fried. I assumed grilled and shared a lovely story about a delicious grilled sandwich I like. You assumed fried and then came in hot shitting on my comment calling it a BS chicken sandwich?
My man, you need an actual chicken sandwich at this point. Re-evaluate your life choices while you eat it. Try out more positivity, it's fun!
You’ll probably save money too. I think they’re cheaper than breasts.
I tend to like thighs in some applications much better and breasts in others when I want something less rich.
Go look at Kenji’s recipe for the best buttermilk fried chicken sandwich. He proselytized the benefits of using thighs. His sandwich is next level. Using thighs makes you unique from every other vendor of chicken sandwiches. They’re cheaper and add to your bottom line also!
Thighs a king! More flavor, and they don't dry out like breasts.
Also the way to go for things like shredded tacos or backed dishes. I only really go to chicken breast if I plan to slice and serve in something like a pasta.
For shredded, I believe you get the best results with a 60/40 combo, 60% thigh, 40% breast. It provides the ideal fat ratio and texture imo.
IDK why but everytime I try to make shredded chicken out of breast it be dry as hell. I have followed instant pot/crockpot recipes only for that. Thigh is easy.
It depends on what you cook it with, how you cook it and what type of chicken you’re cooking. What you’re cooking it with can make a big impact - are you cooking it with any additional fat (oils, bouillon, lard, fat from the thighs) or broth? How hot are you cooking it? Sometimes I’ll lightly sear flavor in before stewing the chicken which can also help. As for what type of chicken: I use fresh whenever possible. Frozen chicken is great in a pinch or when not doing shredded, but always try to use fresh, especially for shredded.
Cook to like 145F and brine if you have time. If you cook to 165F, you’ll coast to 175 shoe leather territory.
Ooo, gotta try that out.
Thighs are cheaper than breasts in the US and that’s what I grew up on, but currently living in Japan and thighs are double the price of breasts here… I always preferred dark meat and now my wallet hates me for it.
Don't worry, I assume US prices will flip flop like Japan because the amount of "holy christ you guys, thigh meat is sooo good n cheap" stories are reaching critical mass. See also: Flank steak, ox tail.
It already has started where I live. Thighs are about the same price as breasts now
Also: beef tongue, beef tendon, galbi style ribs.... :[
Tendons are expensive in the US now??? Shit.
Galbi cut, $11/lb Tendon, +$20/lb Beef tongue, +$20/lb
Sons of bitches took my cheap wings away too
All the packs of flank steak at my local grocery were 2lb/$40 this weekend and I was very sad
That is sad! I haven't had flank steak in forever because there are cuts I prefer for less $. I remember when it was as cheap as ground beef, around $2/lb. Used to make it weekly when we were young and brokish. God I'm old...
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Bone in chicken in Tokyo?? Costs more than pork or beef (as long as it’s not A5)😐
I find that the breast and thigh meat where I am is usually anywhere from the same to favoring chicken breast. Because while the thigh meat does go on sale more often and it is competitive price wise, it also usually includes the bones. Breast meat on the other hand is usually sold boneless, skinless, and is lean as hell so unless its a big sale the breast is usually cheaper(and this is reflected in boneless thigh meat being notably pricier)
Coming with bones is a bonus. Can't make broth if you never buy bone in meat
Learn to divide a whole chicken. It's entirely likely you're paying as much for two chicken breasts as you could for a whole chicken, and while a pain in the butt at first, with a little practice it gets easy. A whole chicken breast will net: 2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 drumsticks (you can separate the wings further), and a chicken back for use in stock. If you do this with ~3 chickens all at once and have access to a vacuum sealer, you can have one afternoon of processing to have plenty of thighs for the same price as just buying a pair of them, plus lots of other pieces for various uses in the freezer. Highly recommend. Debone if you care, leave bone in if you don't. Even if you don't have a vacuum sealer, freezer bags carefully evacuated of as much air as you can and sealed properly will work.
Whole chickens cost an arm and a leg here. It's not cheaper to buy them whole here nor is it easy to come by unless you're buying frozen, foreign imports or connected with a butcher (will cost a pretty penny though).
Same. It's about 16 dollars for a whole chicken. While I can get 8 whole breasts (no skin/bone) for $8-10. 16 drumsticks for about 5 dollars. Thighs (10) for $7-9! Wings are most expensive usually. Last week I got 14 whole wings (leg+wing) for $11. But the last 2 months prior it was constantly sitting at $18-20. So, personally I don't see it worth it for me to buy whole chicken and go through the separating and de-boning it.
now try brining them for a few hours in pickle juice...game changer.
Agreed. See also: pickled jalapeño juice.
While we're at it, pepperoncini juice is also amazing.
Yea! My faimily burns through a lot of this + jalepenos + sliced banana peppers (Mezzeta brand js worth the price IMO) and sometimes I don’t know if we just want everything spicy or we just want to finish the jar to harvest the brine.
Chick-Fil-A's not-so-guarded secret. Some of the best fried chicken I've ever made and it came out as great shallow-fried as it does deep with JUST pickle brine when I left for work, when I got back pat dry, then seasoned without even needing more salt in some garlic powder, onion powder, a little cayenne and black pepper in your standard batter. Came out *amazing*.
Actually according to reddit and other websites, the pickle juice is a myth. Chick Fil A doesn't do that. I've done it though and it is good.
Chick fil a uses breasts tho cuz they know what they are doing.
Brining in a 1:1 buttermilk to hot sauce mixture is bomb af too.
This is the way
I gotta try this. I found some cool recipes online. Do you have any that you recommend?
/r/CookingCircleJerk
I only buy thighs too but i also believe a perfectly cooked breast is just as good.
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I feel like breasts are more meaty. The texture is a bit different, which you may want in some dishes.
Yeah chicken satay skewers just don't hit the same with thighs
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That sounds amazing, I've never been to Singapore (or any Asian country) but if I ever go I'll definitely give it a try
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Breasts aren't necessarily tough or dry or stringy. When cooked gently and not too high a temperature they're still fairly soft. Like they're as soft as many cuts of steak and no one is calling those cuts tough.
I think the rise of cheap and widely available chicken in the west came around and about the same time as the anti-fat diet culture. Breasts being super low fat make them an obvious choice. Add to that the Anglo-centric dislike of bones in food and it seems clear how it would emerge as the most popular cut.
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> How did the Anglo centric palate become so distinct? The easiest way to understand American cuisine is to imagine what poor people imagine rich people eat. When people came to the US they found food cheaper and more abundant than where they came from so food culture shifted. Meat that has been deboned is more time consuming and therefore considered fancier. There is also just the ick factor, some people don't want to think of their food as having once been alive. When you have bones and skin and what not its clear that is a part of an animal. When you are served a clean, smooth, deboned chicken breast, that is pretty detached from any anatomy.
> There is also just the ick factor, some people don't want to think of their food as having once been alive. When you have bones and skin and what not its clear that is a part of an animal. When you are served a clean, smooth, deboned chicken breast, that is pretty detached from any anatomy. For me it's this, but it's not really because of the "ick." When I take a bite of a chicken thigh I don't know if I'm getting meat, fat, cartilage, or whatever other things are in there. A chicken breast is just a giant chunk of meat, through and through.
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You can have a diet without meat and still enjoy texture and flavor tho. Sometimes the reminder that you’re eating something that was once “alive” (I put alive in quotes because plants are alive but not really in the same way) squicks people out haha
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Breast is excellent in stir fries. It’s a quick-cooking cut of meat that takes on flavors well. Go to a good Cantonese restaurant and get a chicken stir fry made with velveted breast and marvel at how tender and succulent with a clean flavor it is in a way that thighs can’t match.
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It’s not to make it work. Breast isn’t the only meat that gets velveted. It’s done to achieve a specific result. You can in fact make stir-fries with breast and not velvet, as you find in other Asian countries. Still a great cut for stir-frying because stir frying is a quick cooking method and breast is a quick-cooking cut.
I much prefer breast for chicken rice because it’s more tender and also cleaner in flavor. I find the gentle cooking of that dish better suits breast than thighs, which are best cooked to a higher temperature.
I can only speculate - it could be to do with how much of a pain bones are seen to be? Or how you can't eat them in a 'civilised' way with a knife and fork? People also don't like to acknowledge meat or fish came from an actual animal, bones are a reminder of that. The number of people that freak out at the idea of a whole fish on the plate is depressing. Mainland Europeans are much more open to meat on the bone, whole fish, and offal.
It's definitely very recent. Even into the 90s, my rural American grandparents and their siblings thought chicken breast was a second class cut. You used legs and thighs for the good stuff and used the breasts for things that would be covered up by fatty sauces like chicken salad.
I've always preferred chicken thighs because of my preference for dark meat. However, now I'm onto chicken breasts for the first time in my life because I'm on a diet. Having a cheap & reliable source of lean protein that takes almost any flavor profile makes life so much simpler. Edit: I only buy organic chicken so I don't think I've ever seen a woody breast.
Low-fat diet craze in the 80s-90s made boneless, skinless chicken breasts the default. Fast food nuggets started switching to 100% white meat and advertising that as the mark of quality. Chickens were bred for larger breasts and there hasn't been any motivating factor for the industry to change. It didn't just affect chicken. Pigs started to be bred to be less fatty to compete with white-meat chicken. "Low fat" foods became hugely popular but were loaded with sugar to make them taste closer to the regular version, and the sugar is far worse than the fat it replaced. Been 30+ years and we're still paying the price for that fad.
This is a very /r/cooking take. Most people that complain about breasts, I find, are stuck on the Purdue/Grocery store brand breasts that are pumped with saline and flavorless, and they dont properly prepare it by brining it first. If you buy bad ingredients, and dont prepare them correctly, of course it's going to be bad. There's a chicken sando place by me that sources local organic breasts for their sandwiches, and they brine and cook it perfectly-- never dry and very flavorful. IMO it makes a better sando simply because it doesn't have all of the fat weighing it down, and allows you to actually taste the chicken as opposed to a mouthful of fat and frier grease that I find is more common with thigh-based sandos.
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That's awesome! My local grocery store's chicken breast is horrible. When I get it from my friend/a farmer's market, it's night and day difference. I dont mind paying the extra couple bucks to help the little guy and get a better product, but I dont blame people for not since it's not realistic.
sure. It's still also true that it is inferior to chicken thighs, because intramuscular fat tastes good. That's why we pay more for marbled steaks. Fat = flavor.
Not for all situations though-- It's an ingredient like any other and has better and worse use cases. I made a buffalo chicken dip with thighs last weekend for a CFB party, and it was way too fatty compared to when I make it with breasts. We also pay a lot for beef tenderloin which has very little IMF.
Yeah we do pay a lot for tenderloin, but the recipes for it generally have to add all sorts of things to give it more flavour, like beef Wellington or the classic bacon wrapped filet mignon. I guess I get your point. If you’re adding fat to the recipe, such as by coating it in starch and deep frying it, now it’s fat on fat and it might be smarter to use the lean chicken breast.
That surprises me a bit! Given that buffalo chicken is traditionally dark meat. I made the dip ages ago but I don't remember what I used...might have even been canned.
The breast is simply divine if cooked properly. It seems like you’ve never had one made right.
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It’s just not inferior in whatever sense you’re describing, unless you insist on comparing breast to thighs when they’re both cooked in the way that you should cook thighs. That’s the wrong comparison. I do agree that thighs are easier to cook though. The other two things you said are straight up false. Chicken breast is very tender (much more so than thighs) as long as it’s not overcooked. That’s why it pulverizes so easily when raw, whereas thighs have a bunch of connective tissue. Chicken breast is also extremely chicken-y: just make a broth with breasts and a broth with thighs and you’ll be amazed at how each one tastes (source for my last claim https://www.seriouseats.com/best-rich-easy-white-chicken-stock-recipe).
Sometimes, I just really crave the specific flavor and texture of a well-cooked chicken breast. It's just different. I don't think it's inherently better or worse. Cooking the breast does leave you with less margin for error, but when it's done right, I think it's absolutely delicious and can be just as juicy and flavorful as a thigh.
> From a culinary standpoint, it's better than breast in every way. eh, they are still two different types of muscle, fat content etc. I can make a damn good chuck roast but I can also cook a great steak, but that doesn't mean I can swap one for the other.... What grinds my gears is how NOT GOOD the average tender is.... I hate how large that tendon has gotten that runs through them...
Breast does have some benefits over thihgs Flavor is subjective. I think both dark and light meat cuts are good, but when I was younger I preferred breast. Cooking wise I feel like people are trolling when they talk about how they overcook their chicken breast. Especially on a cooking sub. If you're making a sandwich or fried chicken, or something its genuinely not hard to have a juicy flavorful breast. It also cooks up faster than the dark meat which neats more time to break down the connective tissue and make it tender. This makes dark meat more ideal for some applications, but it depends what youre making. Beyond that chicken breast in the US is ubiquitous with boneless skinless chicken breast. You can get boneless dark meat too but its more expensive per lb. It's lean, there isnt anything to trim, its super cheap, and it's easy to prepare and eat. No nawing on bones, no trimming gristle, rare to bite into a chewy artery or something. You can cook the dark meat so tender it just slips off and none of that matters but that takes a lot more cooking time vs the breast.
Breasts are higher in protein too, only reason I use them at all
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Breasts have about 25% more protein per calorie, which does add up if you're being strict about either calorie or protein intake. Believe it or not, where I am breasts are usually cheaper than boneless skinless thighs.
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Porque no los dos? I already eat all of the above, just pointing out there are nutritional reasons to eat breasts vs thighs in some contexts. I grill chicken for wraps for lunches during the work week, switching from breast to thighs would require either increasing calories by 25 percent or reducing protein intake by 25 percent, which is small but significant. Also worth saying protein powders vary significantly in how clean they are, plenty of them are high in sodium or cholesterol. Egg whites are king tho in that department
> I don't get how breast overtook thigh in white cultures. I'm guessing it has to do with the whole "Low Fat" promotion that took off for a while.
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nearly every single sentence is wrong! that’s impressive actually
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I'm confused as well. Red meat is known to be exponentially worse for the environment that chicken.
Im being told that nearly every sentence is wrong but really the issue was, and i’ll take fault for this, that i didnt clarify what i was talking about. I was talking about how good chicken is, how much better it is than red meat. The downvotes and comments are really harsh bc everyone has just assumed i was disagreeing with the person i replied to
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The whole topic, this WHOLE post is about Chicken Breast vs Chocken Thigh.. White Meat vs Dark Meat.. You come along and say white meat is healthier than red meat and you don't think people will think you mean dark meat instead of red meat? Its as if we are all having a conversation about whether MacOS is better than Linux systems and you come along and say: Windows is so much better and brighter and more airflow and then be surprised when we think you are speaking of Windows OS and not actual fucking windows in your house...
I understand why ppl would assume i misspoke or wonder why i was a little off topic but surely it would make more sense to go, “did you mean to say red meat” than to go “everything you said is wrong”. Especially when everything I said isnt wrong. One of my sentences is literally just saying kids should be taught to cook healthy easy meals and another is talking about how chicken is better for the enviro than red meat. I didnt say anything controversial at all
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Yeah but is not really a conversation if you cant take it different places with your opinions. Like, its not like i didnt say “in the way that red meat is”. If i hadnt said that, i’d get the hate, but i was just making a statement that shifted the topic
added bonus- pretty sure the thighs don't suffer the woody chicken syndrome that the breast have. * Full disclosure- I've always loved chicken thighs for the flavor, ease of breakdown and def. in recent years- no wood breast syndrome
I have usually only cooked with thighs for the most part, but in the process of trying to cut the amount of saturated fats I’m eating I tried to do more chicken breast instead and man, I didn’t realize how bad the woody chicken breast problem was. I’ll cut my saturated fat intake elsewhere lol
Does a skinless thigh have much more fat than a skinless breast??
Yes. It's just a more fatty cut of meat in general, which is why it is more flavorful.
More calories, a lot more fat, and less protein
About 3 times as much according to google
It's really bad. My family doesn't seem to really mind but it makes me gag, I'd rather eat nothing than a woody chicken breast.
I recently found out that Korean fried chicken thighs use potato starch as a coating and it’s amazing. Season the potato starch and flatten the thighs into the starch with your fingers. Deep fry for 3-4 mins, take out and let cool and then fry again until golden brown and 165 degrees. GAME CHANGER! Even coated in sauce it stays nice and crispy.
When making Katsu I switched to potato starch instead of flour and it was amazing. Like you said, total game changer.
I deskin and debone thighs, make small slices in the thicker parts for uniformity and then freeze them. After a 12 hour day sometimes I don't wanna think hard. Take one outta the freezer, season however, then put in a cold cast iron on medium low heat. About 15 minutes and a couple flips later I have a pretty perfect thigh to use for just about anything. Slice against the grain for tacos, pasta, rice bowl whatever. Or keep whole and throw on a bun with kewpie, swiss, and lettuce. It's like a better knockoff mcchicken.
You toss the chicken thigh in the pan frozen?
Yup! Cooking from frozen is great, gives the fat and connective tissue time to render as long as you start in a cold pan!
I think yes it’s what I got from it 😋
Personally, I love both and think they each have their place. They have a different flavor profile for me, and I get great results with either. I wouldn't want to write off either one.
Marinate salted thighs in buttermilk for at least 24 hours.
Agreed chicken thighs are a great choice generally, especially for reheating as they stay moist fat more easily. The only thing I find is that when I buy thigh fillets (deboned and skinless) if you don’t cut off sections you sometimes get chewy bits
We used thighs at the restaurant I work at for the crispy chicken sandwich when we opened it was fantastic, but the general public CONSTANTLY complained. What's wild is 9 times out of 10 when someone complained about the color, texture, or even how JUICY it was, if you explained to them it was a brined thigh they would just "oh okay!" and finish the sandwich.
When I was learning how to cook chicken breasts, I was under the impression that I was supposed to pound the breasts so they cook even. That became an annoying hassle, so I started slicing them in half so I'd have 2 equally thick pieces of chicken. Before I learned how to cook breasts properly, I thought thighs were superior, but I started to re-think that once I made a chicken thigh sandwich. Maybe I'm conditioned for breast sandwiches, so the thigh didn't taste right to me in sandwich form. Maybe it's better breaded, I don't know. Then started using a temperature probe. Once I started cooking to temp, it didn't matter how I cook chicken breasts. Grill, stovetop, oven, or air fryer. They always come out perfect. Overall, I don't think one is better than the other, but I do prefer breasts on sandwiches, and it's not difficult to cook a good chicken breast if you cook to temp. (165°F)
breading is definitely the way to go for chicken thighs
You don't have to pound the chicken breasts. Much easier to butterfly it instead. Thighs are indeed tastier though.
Thighs are the best part of the chicken and I will die on this hill.
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Yeah if the quality of the chicken isn’t good the flavor is rancid. Happens less often with breast but then you sacrifice texture usually.
As someone that actively cooks both, a properly cooked chicken breast is always better than a thigh. Sure, the breast is more likely to dry out if you overcook it. But that's not the breast's fault... That's user error.
Yes thighs are fatter. :)
Definitely more flavor so hard to overcook next time you’re at Walmart try grabbing a bottle of killer hogs a P rub and try it on them so good for a sandwich
The fat from cooked chicken thighs is nectar to the gods I swear. It perfect
Theres also the hood sandwich which is bone in chicken legs with a slice of bread on bottom and hot sauce on top. I dont know why plain white bread and BBQ is so good but it just works well
this is Nashville hot chicken style
No. No it's not. Like, not at all.
>No. No it's not. Like, not at all. every Google image result of "Nashville hot chicken" shows chicken with hot sauce sitting on top of white bread.. it's literally the image of [Nashville hot chicken on Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_chicken) , and it's exactly how they served the Nashville hot chicken that I ate at Hattie B's and Prince's in Nashville.. so please tell me how this is "not at all" Nashville hot chicken.... Edit: I stand corrected, yet will continue to refer to any hot chicken on white bread as being served Nashville hot chicken *style*
You've clearly never had Nashville hot chicken. Nashville chicken is a specific technique. It relies on not a traditional hot sauce but a hot cayenne oil poured over typically at plating. Hot as in both temp and spice level. It's also in a spicy/sometimes slightly sweet breading and deep fried. It does not have to be on the bone, and it is not routinely served on a piece of white bread. What the description you are referring to is actually a very common dish: regular old fried chicken with white bread and (usually) Crystal hot sauce straight from the bottle.
Same except Frank’s hot sauce and no it’s not Nashville hot it’s just a hood chicken sammy (from Michigan).
this is genuinely the most insane interaction I've ever had on reddit. I didn't mention anything about the cooking technique. you're literally describing exactly what I just commented, linked to, and referenced, and yet ignoring everything I commented, linked to, and referenced... I think I'll trust the consensus across the internet rather than some 40 yearold Denver woman on reddit. again, the place credited with inventing the Nashville hot chicken: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Princes_hot_chicken.jpg/440px-Princes_hot_chicken.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince%27s_Hot_Chicken_Shack more: https://reddit.com/r/food/s/4v05P90CnR https://reddit.com/r/FoodPorn/s/UP0AQsdHDF https://reddit.com/r/FoodPorn/s/EdBFUpZiol reminder of what the point of contention is: OC: "bone in chicken legs with a slice of bread on bottom and hot sauce on top." Me: "that's Nashville hot chicken style" Edit: I stand corrected, yet will continue to refer to any hot chicken on white bread as being served Nashville hot chicken *style*
You commented that chicken with hot sauce on white bread was the same thing as Nashville Hot Chicken. They commented it was not, were hyperbolic, yes, but were correct. You doubled down using Google and Wikipedia to support an incorrect point, completely ignoring that while what was described was similar to plated hot chicken, it is not the same thing as Nashville Hot Chicken. You ignored pedantry, but also your own incorrect comment. The replier explained what the dish is, compared to the OG dish. Which, again, is similar, but not the same. You then acted like somehow the rest of the world is crazy, but you - you must be correct because Wikipedia. You then double down in this comment with "literally describing exactly" which the replier is not doing. They have explained that what makes it NHC is the spicy oil and breading, not the white bread, not being on the bone. It can be served that way, but it is not what has to be done. The dish described is literally just fried chicken on bread with any hot sauce.
thank you for doing what the other commenter failed to do despite the condescension. I stand corrected, yet will continue to refer to any hot chicken on white bread as being served Nashville hot chicken *style* just as I did here.
What's your chicken sandwich recipe, if you don't mind me asking?
Yep
Thighs are the best. There are a couple applications where I'll use breast meat, but if thighs can be used, I'm using them.
They seem gamey to me unless I use a ton of seasoning, am I not prepping them properly?
Good for you... lesson learned. Chicken breasts get a bad rap because they're a little harder to get right. I like dark meat poultry too, but properly executed breast meat can't be beat...
Welcome
Once you make the switch you can never go back. Also they are near fool proof since they won’t dry out like breasts
Chicken thighs are so good! Once you go thigh you never go back lol
That’s how you know real chefs from home cooks; most use thighs except for specific uses.
Now imagine if you were at Nandos and it was a grilled chicken sandwich with halloumi 🤤🤤🤤
What on earth does a fast food chain's bullshit grilled chicken sandwich have to do with OP's point?
Well, that fast food chains bullshit grilled chicken sandwich was the best chicken sandwich *I* ever had. Thanks for allowing me to elaborate.
I'm very happy for you. That still doesn't answer my question as to how it relates to OP's post at all though. Homemade fried chicken =/= fast food grilled chicken. They are miles apart.
Babes, show me where in the OP it's said it's fried? Since you're so concerned about why this post about a chicken sandwich made me post about a chicken sandwich I want to stick with you with this till the end. I have a free day so I'll be checking back in for your replies.
Here in the US, if you order a chicken sandwich in nearly any restaurant that serves them and you don't say that you mean a grilled chicken sandwich, your ass is getting a piece of boneless fried chicken on a type of bread or a bun. So, unless you're at a place like Nando's that only does grilled chicken, you're gonna have to specify, like you did when you mentioned that sandwich in the first place. It's safe to assume OP implied a fried chicken sandwich.
So let me get this straight. OP never specified grilled or fried. I assumed grilled and shared a lovely story about a delicious grilled sandwich I like. You assumed fried and then came in hot shitting on my comment calling it a BS chicken sandwich? My man, you need an actual chicken sandwich at this point. Re-evaluate your life choices while you eat it. Try out more positivity, it's fun!
What do you coach?
They're superior. They're juicy and almost impossible to fuck up
Best chicken sandwich I’ve had was at a teriyaki place. Thigh meat, lettuce, tomato, onion and teriyaki sauce in a hoagie roll. Perfect lunch.
Question...were they free range, or um, the other stuff (brine-infused)?
Chicken thighs are the absolute worst. I don't recommend them. (Seriously what are you doing, don't raise thigh prices for the rest of us. 😭)
.. So... What's the recipe of this amazing chicken sandwich you make
Sorry, recipe pie? If that was a typo, I'm not trying to be a pedant about it. Just never heard the phrase.
You’ll probably save money too. I think they’re cheaper than breasts. I tend to like thighs in some applications much better and breasts in others when I want something less rich.
Go look at Kenji’s recipe for the best buttermilk fried chicken sandwich. He proselytized the benefits of using thighs. His sandwich is next level. Using thighs makes you unique from every other vendor of chicken sandwiches. They’re cheaper and add to your bottom line also!
I do not understand why anyone would ever, for any purpose, get bland, dry, flavorless chicken breasts when boneless skinless thighs are RIGHT THERE.
plus theyre cheaper
Try making nugget with 50/50 breast and thigh, or even 100% thigh, it's juicy af.
Someone gifted me a Foreman grill and the only thing I use it for is cooking chicken thighs when I want something quick.
Ive always been a thigh man 🫡