Or the supermarkets selling rubbery chicken?!

Yes we've had this with Tesco and Sainsbury's. It started in lockdown imo when breast for example weren't being trimmed properly and now it's gone all rubbery and stringy.

Go to the butcher now.

Yep I've have this and not just in the UK. In Spain we now only buy the top organic stuff when we are there as we had the crunchy chicken syndrome with the standard range.

In the UK I never buy Wairtose chicken despite being a Waitrose fan and their higher welfare guarantee. I found it tough slimy and stringy so only ever buy M&S now. Chicken like it should taste.
Another town with no butcher, unfortunately.

There are a lot of issues in chicken farming right now with avian flu, woody chicken etc

This - it's been a known problem for a while. I believe the industry is frantically trying to figure out what's causing it. And it can affect any and all chickens, regardless of where you get them from. Supermarket, butcher, free range, etc... Google 'woody chicken' for info.

In the egg 'shortage' I saw plenty of cage eggs left, people clearly drawing a line there, yet will keep buying cheap chicken. There are many other sources of protein!

Oh I'm so glad you posted this!! I thought it was just 'a bad one-off' that I'd bought from Sainsbury's last week!

Cost £9 too for an extra large...and I had family round for Sunday lunch! It was very embarrassing! My Sunday roast is usually fabulous...this was a car crash of epic proportions! We ended up cooking sausages in the end ti have with our 'trimmings' as the chicken was inedible 😔 Really, really rubbery - horrid!

What's going on do you think? 😮

No amount of marinating or similar is going to make me want to eat chicken like that. The bird was clearly not healthy so not good to eat. Red meat is more nutritious overall and the animals live in better conditions. One life also feeds many. We eat red meat bulked out with pulses and vegetables.

Well said 👏👏👏

We buy from our butcher, farm fresh chickens are £7.50 each which we find are really tasty, but really only feed 2/3 people, but I would rather less, more tasty meat. People think buying from butchers is expensive, but you don’t need to buy as much to get something tasty, mince meat and sausages the same.

First thought is have you seen the chickens that go into those packs for the supermarket? They're pale, weak and ill looking.

I always think...Aldi £2.35 for 2 chicken breast which is the majority of the bird. Or about £3.20 for a full chicken. The farmer isn't making any money out of that so what has to give? Food quality and living standards for the bird.

Buy from your butcher.

I tend to buy the medium aldi whole chickens for £3.89 which have all been fine apart from that one time.

And this is the issue, a whole chicken for £3.89! Scandalous and and I’m sure if people really took the time to see what factory farming entailed they’d never eat a supermarket chicken again. And for all of you bleating that it’s all you can afford, try a can of pulses, dirt cheap, full of protein and grown humanely 😄

I had this the other week. It took me years to eat chicken again after having campylobactor. I knew I had cooked the chicken well but the texture felt raw when i tried to eat it. I had run out of meat from the butchers and had grabbed some from sainsburys. I would rather never eat it than experience that texture again.

I’ve been reading about this and there seems to be a condition in about 20% of US chicken called “woody breast” which is due to a muscle abnormality. No one seems to knows for sure what causes it but it’s suspected that genetic manipulation is to blame as “economy” commercial chickens are bred to have over-sized breasts. And they have poor living conditions such as cramped quarters and don’t move enough and they don’t develop muscle fibre.

This is sheer speculation on my part but if this odd texture in chicken has been appearing in chicken sold in uk supermarkets in the past couple of years, then I would inspect the country of origin labels carefully, because I suspect it’s because these are lower quality chickens that were previously banned under EU law.

But pay attention because labelling laws may have changed since we left the EU, not sure. Or it could be that some previously chemical or substance previously banned in chicken under EU law is now permitted.

I hope someone who works in the industry can enlighten us but I doubt that supermarkets are going to shout about this sort of thing.

I found the packs of breast meat are like this and stopped buying them. I switched to buying whole chickens and jointing it whilst raw, I find the breast meat off a whole chicken to be good although I have had ome whole chicken as you describe.

We can't afford the butchers.

I tend to buy the medium aldi whole chickens for £3.89 which have all been fine apart from that one time. That gives us 2 good breasts, 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs and 4 chicken wings.

Normally do breast meat for one night's dinner and on the bone meat for another nights dinner so about £1.94 protein per night as a family of 3 when we have chicken, then adding veg and carbs.

If you want to keep buying breast meat only, you could "velvet" the chicken beforehand which would tenderise the meat. Or put the breast on chopping board, cover with cling film and bash with a rolling pin, again tenderising the meat. That's what I used to do and it did help.

I've noticed this too. We've been eating virtually nothing made from raw chicken at the moment because it's so gross. We do have a local butcher who buys from an ethical, slow-growing supplier but you have to pay more for it.

Maybe our expectations around prices are totally out of whack. May we need to start having to pay more for quality, ethically raised meat.

Yes to the raw texture! It's cooked but feels SO strange eating it. Stopped by the butchers today (which was v expensive but they're lovely and clinging on in the little high street), haven't tried it yet but DH and DS did, neither mentioned any issues. I'm so glad to see this thread, I might send it to him!

Yes!!! Got a Vietnamese takeaway recently from what should be a decent place and the chicken was 🤢. Weirdest texture - had to throw it away.

This is why I use my local butcher now. I go monthly and buy loads of the deals they do.

The meat is much better quality and definitely not that hideous rubbery texture! 🥴

I don't usually notice with chicken breast as I tend to slow cook it, so even if the texture feels a bit weird chopping it, when it's been slow cooked it's been fine.

Whole chicken though, usually get them from Asda. Most recently got one from Tesco thinking it would be the same, but it had a horrible texture.

Yes, my daughter now hates roast chicken as a result

I don't tend to buy chicken breasts anymore for this exact reason, I don't get chicken that often but when I do it's always thighs which don't seem to have the texture issue.

We use a butcher. On the rare occasion we get some from the supermarket the difference in quality is shocking but in taste and texture. The butcher is expensive but it's things like his chicken breasts are huge with the extra fillet still attached, so we only need two for three of us, plus it isn't padded out with water.

I had this in a takeaway curry from a restaurant. The texture was smooth, bouncy and just repulsive. Turned my stomach and I’ve not ordered from there again. Others had a different curry and didn’t complain.

Same here. I've been complaining of this for a few years now. I don't eat as much chicken as I used to because of it. It's mostly breasts, but I had a few packs of rubbery thighs last year, so i've not bought chicken at all since.

Exactly. People want cheap meat and turns a blind eye to how the animals are treated, then complain it's shit quality. Of course it is! It's factory farmed for maximum profit.

If you have to eat meat then at least buy the best welfare grade there is.