Or the supermarkets selling rubbery chicken?!

Theirs no need to miss out even if their isn't a butcher near you lots of online butchers will deliver anywhere

Try meat food vans who often come around at certain days of the week also their is plenty of delivery butchers in the uk to

@elm26 double check with the butcher. They may offer delivery within your radius.

My link seems to go to the last episode, but click on "more episodes" and then on episode one!

Haven't read the full thread, but woody chicken breast seems to be associated with industrially-produced chicken from broiler breeds that grow very fast. Chris van Tulleken did a very interesting series about this issue last year: Fed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001tgkz

I no longer eat chopped chicken breasts for this reason. If we are intending to eat chicken i either bash a breast out flat or buy a whole chicken roast and put in sauce and cook for a while.
I have found it doesnt matter where you buy it from. I've had breasts from a really high quality butchers that have had the same issue. The only difference with them is that I was able to have a chat with the butcher and he gave us some free breasts.

Omg I'm so glad I found this thread. DH bought chicken thighs from Asda last month and it had a really strange texture once cooked. I thought I'd overcooked it somehow and yet it was still firm as if it was raw. They were roasted the day we bought them so they weren't off or old or anything like that.

Ok

Our butchers can tell me which farm and location the meat comes from. I try and pick the nearest best quality so less fuel has been used and it supports local farmers.

Noticed this at home for a while now but for the first time last month experienced it in a restaurant in a dish made with chicken breast - texture was awful; I ate about 3 bites and left the rest - made me feel sick

Thighs seem to be ok, but breasts are not worth the risk unless butcher has an offer on

Re butchers how do you know what quality your getting from them?

Well my mum can’t, for a start as she is elderly, frail and has no access to smartphones or computers.
Im not prepared to spend £12 on a pork chop to be delivered to her.
Online butchery is extortionate . It saps into upper middle class kudos, so your response is discriminatory as poor people have a right to meat too.

Sorry as in the chicken was cooked not the washing up sponge. No idea how that slices once cooked 😅

I have noticed this recently! I spent 15 years as a chef, in a cooks job now to suit childcare and the last 3 months or so have noticed an odd texture in a couple chicken breasts. Like trying to slice a washing up sponge once it's been cooked. Always only one or two from a large pack, not the whole lot. I roast the breasts whole so wasn't slicing them raw, can't figure out what it is, but defo had a few ropey ones recently.

We actually stopped eating chicken when we lived in Copenhagen- unless you wanted to pay £22 for organic French ones ( and even they were no better than a M&S top end one) they were absolutely awful skinny, watery ,mass produced rubbish- same by the way was true of their sausages and bacon- you would think it would be amazing- it really wasn't- A Swedish woman told me that in Sweden they wouldn't eat Danish meat produce- or eggs!! I ate an awful lot of fish and smoked salmon and veggie stuff

A butcher I used to go to told me that cheap chicken is graded by the percentage of salty water injected into it before sale, so you get 10%, 15% and so on.

If you look at a cheap whole chicken they have massive breasts and small legs. A good chicken, ie a slower grown one has smaller breasts and bigger legs.

This was long before Brexit so now presumably you've got cheap salty chicken produced in some hell hole in Brazil to boot.

It's particularly noticeable in breasts because you can actually see the water running out of them when you cook them.

I have found the same and only eat free range now from M&S

I find even the Waitrose free range to be terrible.

I would rather not eat it, than eat the generic supermarket ones.

Butchers don’t necessarily have better chicken. They are price driven like any other retailer. Ours does sell label Anglais and that costs about £15 a chicken which probably tells you what they should cost compared to the factory chickens

All supermarket chicken is disgusting these days, especially Ocado own brand. I can't bring myself to eat it anymore 🤢

The majority of chickens you find in your supermarket are of the "Broiler" variety. They are killed just 42 days after birth, after spending their few weeks in limited space and being pumped full of antibiotics, due to the filthy living conditions. Also, don't believe that the "Red Tractor" logo means that the animals are treated any more humanely! If you are going to eat chicken, I personally think that seeing where the animal lived it's life is the best option. Unfortunately this is probably difficult for most of us and usually more expensive.

Same here. I bought ex dairy beef skirt steak from up the road for £8 for 600g, and that does six adult serves of curry with only veggies. Pulses would stretch it further to £1 a serve. Actually has flavour of its own too, unlike supermarket chicken.

a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese cookery velvetise chicken which tenderises it and changes the texture if you are finding takeaways a bit different texture. https://www.recipetineats.com/velveting-chicken-chinese-restaurant-tenderise-chicken/

I buy the M&S free range ones, quite often they are yellow snickered. Husband buys coop chicken which is usually ok.

our butchers don’t have higher welfare chicken.

id rather eat less than those anonymous trays of chicken breasts in the supermarket.

rarely have takeaways and tend to eat fish when out.

You do remember that Gove and Rees Mogg were obsessed with getting cheap Aussie imports in with regard to Brexit - so we could have 'cheap sheep meat etc- I am now eating less meat but better quality. I understand people need to be able to feed families but it's unlikely a £3.79 chicken is anything but factory farmed rubbish quality

YANBU.
I gave up on supermarket chicken long ago. Even the organic free range stuff. It’s rank. Rubbery and tough.
Butchers every time.