What are they doing to chicken ?

grumpyoldman

grumpyoldman

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yesterday we fried some chicken and the wife mentioned that we had a 5lb bag of chicken legs in the freezer that we needed to cook as they had been there for quite a while , so i told her to throw a couple in with what we were going to fry, well our chicken came out as it always does , crispy tender and juicy .....except those monster sized chicken leggs that we added , i put one on my plate and took a bite , those things were so tough i swear i thought about going and getting my wire cutters just to cut the meat off the bone !!!! told my wife to throw those damn things out !!!!
 
well, their freezer sojourn may indeed have dried them out - depends on packaging.
there is a chicken phenom called "woody breast" - but not heard it 'spreading' to other parts.

as would have it - did southern fried chicken yesterday (from frozen) - for me,,, my fav is thighs.
oops! out of veg oil - so I used butcher shop lard - yeah, those thighs were extra special tasty...

my main issue with 'chicken today' is the size! they are huge - a fryer at 5-6-7 pounds!
buying 'pieces' - chicken breasts at 1-2 pounds each....

smaller chickens still do exist - just check the 'store prepared rotisserie' stuff...
 
grumpyoldman said:
yesterday we fried some chicken and the wife mentioned that we had a 5lb bag of chicken legs in the freezer that we needed to cook as they had been there for quite a while , so i told her to throw a couple in with what we were going to fry, well our chicken came out as it always does , crispy tender and juicy .....except those monster sized chicken leggs that we added , i put one on my plate and took a bite , those things were so tough i swear i thought about going and getting my wire cutters just to cut the meat off the bone !!!! told my wife to throw those damn things out !!!!
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Instead of throwing them out, maybe try throwing them in the crockpot and letting them stew slowly?

Some chicken needs brining I think. It's awful that it was tough and impossible to eat.
 
CookieMonster said:
hmmm, do they import the miniature rotisserie chickens from Africa?
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I think our little rotisserie chickens in the grocery store are just slaughtered at a young age.

Edit: I found this article:
Chickenomics: The untold truth of rotisserie chickens
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i have heard several people say that they give the baby chicken steroids to make them grow to be huge , thats why we stopped buying precut chicken parts , they are huge !!! for frying we buy small frying hens to get smaller sized peices , we deep fry our chicken and i need to be able to cook by time . for example : larger peices ,breasts, thighs and legs should cook in 17-18 minutes , smaller peices such as wings should cook in 13-15 minutes , this allows me to cook them without touching them while frying , keeping the crust perfect
 
grumpyoldman said:
i have heard several people say that they give the baby chicken steroids to make them grow to be huge , thats why we stopped buying precut chicken parts , they are huge !!! for frying we buy small frying hens to get smaller sized peices , we deep fry our chicken and i need to be able to cook by time . for example : larger peices ,breasts, thighs and legs should cook in 17-18 minutes , smaller peices such as wings should cook in 13-15 minutes , this allows me to cook them without touching them while frying , keeping the crust perfect
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Don't believe everything people say. It’s not true.

20240913_170859.jpg

This from the USDA website:
20240913_171442.jpg
 
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USA markets used to have two categories of "whole chicken"
- "fryers" - younger, smaller, more tender . . .
- "roasters" - older, bigger, intended for longer/moist cooks.

fryers to roasters was a 3-4 pound difference.
selective breeding for 'bigger/better' has resulted in no "fryers" anymore - the hatching all grow to mega-weights in very little time - the 'grow time difference' between Fryer and Roaster is apparently now measured in hours.

had relatives that grew up / functioned on the MD Eastern Shore - home of the Purdue clan - my parents had (when full) 1.5 million chickens being raised/cultivated in the 'back yard' - they had stories . . .

once up a history dreary . . there were "stewing hens" - older, usually much older, hens that outlived their economic egg laying days. one never finds these at retail comma anymore.
 
1.3 - 1.6kgs over here as well
CookieMonster said:
chicken that size does not exist in my supermarket.
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You'd never find a giant chicken in a supermarket here - all small.
We do get "hens", mind you, around Xmas time, because these are the preferred birds for making hallacas (Xmas tamales) and a version of Russian salad called " Hen Salad". They're usually cooked for a very long time.
 
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