What's happening with Aldis chicken?

[Yipitsme]

I love Aldi,its my favourite supermarket and great for everything.However for the past year I've found their chicken really odd tasting.every single breast has the same white thick gristly strip through the middle,its really odd it's like it's been added to two separate pieces to hold it together?it seems pumped full of water too and despite cooking for correct time turns into inedible chewy wood tasting pieces every time.
Its frustrating as I'll now need to start shopping elsewhere for poultry.

Free range doesn't mean anything though does it...

I mean they don't need to actually go outside just have the opportunity to, so small fenced off bit attached to the pen counts... its a con tbh

I buy Lidl's corn fed free range chicken, it's really good .

Bugger, I just bought a free range Aldi chicken. Now I’m dreading cooking it!

Lots of negative reviews on Aldi website for the chicken breasts:
www.aldi.co.uk/chicken-breast-fillets/p/080499172907500#product-reviews

I havent noticed but we haven't had much chicken recently

I'm upset with their lack of lamb cuts lately. They only seem to have shoulder joints. No lamb mince either.

Yes, I'm a whinger

I always cut around that white strip.

M&S cornfed is my go to now, actually tastes like chicken

Mines in the oven now...

I don't buy chicken from the Supermarket as the packs are too big for me in most cases and the quality is poor. I have a good butcher nearby and honestly there is little if any difference in the price.

That white stripe seems to be common in chicken for the US. There seems to be many videos on youtube/ticktok showing how to remove it with a fork.

Which sort of white strip do you mean? There is one on the underside of the breast, in the part that is is called a mini-fillet or a tender. That's the tendon and if the breast has been poorly butchered, you see it. They do pull out, with the aid of a fork but they also cook away in the oven. If your CB has a white strip/es running over the top then they are strips of fat which is a consequence of factory farming. They reduce the tenderness of the breast.

I have always wondered what free range chickens have free range of. The name implies a lovely green field where they can peck at grains to their hearts content but they could equally have free range of a 2m x 2m area for all we know. Is there a particular standard that must be met to enable chicken to be called FR?

Soil Association meat has one of the best welfare standards, but it’s very expensive and VERY hard to get hold of. We buy RSPCA assured chicken from Aldi (breasts or a whole one) and pork from the Co-op and it’s always been fine. I don’t know if that’s because it doesn’t have anything added? Does anyone know?

We used to buy Red Tractor, but we read this and it doesn’t seem to reflect a very high level of welfare: www.ciwf.org.uk/your-food/know-your-labels/

Not just me then. In recent months I noticed the quality has really gone down. The chicken breasts have a kind of stringy texture to them, the top layer comes away from the rest of it. I’ve stopped buying. Although I did by a whole chicken last week out of habit and it was fine, really nice.

It's cheap chicken that's why.
You need organic free range stuff and to heat it far less.

eat it far less.

@ViciousJackdaw

Which sort of white strip do you mean? There is one on the underside of the breast, in the part that is is called a mini-fillet or a tender. That's the tendon and if the breast has been poorly butchered, you see it. They do pull out, with the aid of a fork but they also cook away in the oven. If your CB has a white strip/es running over the top then they are strips of fat which is a consequence of factory farming. They reduce the tenderness of the breast.

I have always wondered what free range chickens have free range of. The name implies a lovely green field where they can peck at grains to their hearts content but they could equally have free range of a 2m x 2m area for all we know. Is there a particular standard that must be met to enable chicken to be called FR?

Yes they’re in the mini fillets. A white strip.

I’m veggie, because I think nearly all British chicken has had a cruel life, but nobody has ever said my free range chicken from Aldi tasted any different.

I used to have ex battery rescue hens for years. The rescue that rehomed them said always buy organic chicken and eggs as those birds had a better standard of living than others.

Oh no, I have an Aldi chicken in the freezer ready for Sunday

Most supermarket meat seems hit and miss these days. Pork generally ok for some reason but anything else is a gamble.

I have noticed a decline in chicken breasts not just in Aldi but Sainsburys too. Stringy and pumped full of water. Always buy free range/ Red Tractor but they always have the white stringy bit under the breast which I cut out. I’m going right off chicken and feel a bit 🤢 knowing that white strip is actually a tendon.

If you bought chicken from a butcher would it be tendon free?

Only ones that don't do this are Waitrose or Sainsbury's organic which cost about £10 for 4 chicken breasts, not particularly affordable for most people

If you think about all the water in the cheap chicken that floods the pan while cooking, I think the price/ kg is probably the same!
(PS, eat more veggie! And better quality meat becomes more affordable!)

In my experience no they don't have that tendon. They also do not shrink down when cooking.

I must confess I have an excellent butcher who sources all his meat with a 20 mile radius so cannot speak for all butchers. He actually works put as cheap in most cases as the supermarket. He does a great mixed box every week for €20.

I had a real issue with Sainsbury's chicken this week, really chewy and nasty! I actually suspect that Sainsbury's and Aldi get their chicken from the exact same supplier because during the hight of the pandemic the packaging was generic and the same in Aldi and in Sainsburys.

Unless it was just from the same place that one time to keep it on the shelves during the worst of it, but they were definitely the same.

You can look up the legal standards for free range @ViciousJackdaw . The birds are older (so slower grown), have more space and more access to outdoor space. Although the density of 13birds per square metre sounds high, chickens by nature cluster together much of the time so it isn’t as bad as it sounds.

Of course meat tastes better when the animal has had a decent amount of exercise and time to grow muscle rather than just being fattened as fast as possible.