Something about chicken has been bothering me...

[htuttle]

Why are chicken breasts almost two dollars more per pound than chicken thighs? I mean, they should have precisely the same number of each, right? Two breasts and two thighs per bird, unless a scientist has been messing around with it.

In fact, pound-for-pound, there is usually more breast meat on a chicken than thigh meat, isn't there? So why does it cost so much more?


Signed,

Leg man in Madison

[hvn_nbr_2]

1. Supply and demand

People want breasts more than thighs. The proportion of desire for breast meat relative to desire for thigh meat is greater than the proportion of breast meat to thigh meat.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. I will not go the obvious route

I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route
I will not go the obvious route .........

[Dora]

5. They have a word in the Lounge that fits here.

I believe that word is pev.

[hvn_nbr_2]

18. Aw, man, am I getting old?

I didn't even realize that I was setting up a response. Nah, just deeply involved intellectually in my economically esoteric post. Yeah, that's it. :D

[Tab]

3. People like white meat

Dark meat weirds them out. Don't ask me why.

Personally, I like dark meat better. Tastier.

Also, I tend to buy the "cheaper" chicken - the store brand and not Perdue or whatever. They're a lot smaller, but in my opinion they roast up a lot better. Stuff like Purdue is so "white meat heavy" that it actually doesn't taste as good, imho.

Generally, though, it's supply and demand.

What's bugged me recently is that I've noticed it's nearly impossible to find a cut-up chicken. You can buy legs, thighs, breasts, whatever - but no one sells cut-up roasters anymore. I can cut one up quick enough, but sometimes it's nice not to have to hassle with it, but it's hard to find them in the store now. I assume this is also supply and demand - people like legs, or wings, or breasts or whatever, but I like to have the mix. It's just that some days I don't feel like hauling out the Henckel, is all...

[luckyleftyme2]

4. us ole farts

we're suppose to shy away from the dark meat. also the breast meat on any fowl is considered the prime cut.
tech. is that you have to charge more for the prime cut in order to sell the poor cut.

[knitter4democracy]

11. Really? Our stores have them.

There's an Amish brand I like to buy, and if I get to Horrocks on Tuesday mornings, I get my pick of whatever was just delivered fresh that morning (it's the only delivery time I know for sure--the other ones seem random). They always have cut up roasters in the case then.

[Dora]

6. Bone-in, boneless, skin-on, skinless?

I wonder if boneless skinless breasts require more processing than the thighs that you're comparing them with.

:shrug:

I've been buying whole chickens, so I've not compared the price of parts lately. We roast one and then pick off the carcass for a couple of days.

[htuttle]

7. Boneless & skinless -- and that's a good question!

I'll look at the prices on the bone-in, skin-on varieties next time I'm at the store. I'm speaking of Bell & Evans brand, btw.

[Tab]

16. What I really hate

is that occasionally, if I'm not paying attention, I'll buy a package of chicken breasts, and they seem cheap (but still look good) and when I get home I realized they've still got the bone in, and then I have to carve the damned things up. If I wanted to do that kind of work I would have just bought a roaster to begin with and saved some bucks.

[htuttle]

19. I checked today -- same price difference for bone-in/skin-on breasts and thighs

Must be the Invisible Hand of the Market again, screwing with my dinner...

:shrug:

[Warpy]

8. Thigh meat is higher in calories

which is why it's a lot less attractive to a lot of people. Plus, the skinless, boneless chicken breast is a staple of prole cuisine.

Personally, I choose it for the recipe. Some Chinese recipes taste like a whole lot of nothing with breast meat and require the tastier thigh meat to stand up to the seasonings. It's the same for chicken salad. Breast meat is flavorless. I might as well use tofu.

[knitter4democracy]

12. But it's so nummy!

Thighs are cheaper, so we tend to get them instead. They taste much better, I think.

[Warpy]

13. They do have a lot more flavor

which is why I prefer them for most Chinese stuff and in the various chicken salads I do. However, they're not the slab of meat represented by the grotesquely big chicken breasts in the market now.

Expect the price to go up as everything does, plus you'll be having a lot of competition for them. Shoot, we might start seeing backs and necks again, chicken soup, here we come!

[knitter4democracy]

17. Mmmm . . . chicken soup.

Real chicken noodle soup. I should make that next week. I was thinking of roasting a chicken on Sunday, so I'd have everything for soup next week. Good idea!

[htuttle]

14. Most of the curry recipes I've seen suggested using breast meat...

...so I did. Then a few weeks ago, the coop was out of breasts, so I got thighs instead. WOW! It was much, much better. The thighs were able to stand up to curry spices and still tasted 'chickeny' after it was cooked. Very tender, too -- more tender than breast meat cooks out to be.

I think that thighs would work better in nearly any chicken dish that is simmered, especially those with a lot of strong spices. I think I'm going to try legs next time I make tandoori, too, since I've had trouble keeping the breast meat from getting too dried out in the high roasting heat.

I'm not that worried about the extra fat, since we hardly eat any red meat at all except for an occasional spot of lamb. The chicken fat is almost the only animal fat in our diet (um...not counting butter... :9 ).

[Tab]

15. They're fattier; I don't know how many calories they can pack in

but I have a Thai chicken recipe that I always put thighs into. My wife figured it out once and insisted I put in breast meat. I did, but it tasted awful. Dried out. Now I either make it with thigh meat or I just don't make it. Since she hasn't forgotten, it's been a while since we've had it. :)

[hippywife]

9. There's a whole lot more

about chicken that's way more troubling than that. Especially if you just purchase it at the grocery from the main poultry producers in this country. Ack! :puke:

[yy4me]

10. The breast meat is considered less fatty, more choice for several

reasons, mostly visual. The thighs tend to be fattier, with more veins and "globs" of fat=more calories.

Breasts are leaner, and make a better presentation on the table. I think it is as simple as that.
There are many who find the thighs more tasty but I can't cope with the "things"- as my kids used to say.