Why does supermarket chicken seem so chewy lately?

[ExasperatedIs]

Has anyone else noticed how chewy supermarkets chicken is recently ?? I’ve tried various chicken breast fillets from supermarkets, yesterday had Ocado own brand diced chicken breast and again it’s rubbery and chewy!
Why is it so hard to find nice chicken?! Where is everyone buying their chicken from? Ideally I’d like organic but the cost of it is ridiculous!

I find the mini fillets are much better

No it’s not that. When it’s raw and you cut it, it’s crunchy - a bit like a watermelon. Known as woody chicken. Think it’s because the chickens have been grown too quickly.

whilst we are talking about chicken….as I said earlier upthread I buy breast from the butcher now. I still buy whole chicken from the supermarket purely because it has the cooking timing on the packaging.
how do you work out how long to cook a chicken if you buy it from the butchers?

Signed, a full grown 40 year old woman who had got this far without knowing 🙈

I’ve stopped eating meat altogether - I never ate much anyway, but if the texture is wrong, it just puts me off completely.

It’s usually 20 mins per pound.

I’ve found it in chicken from every supermarket, including Waitrose and M&S. I always try to buy higher welfare meat, but the presence of these ‘woody’ breasts - usually one in a pack of 2 or 4 - is ubiquitous, which is an indication of how poorly and ridiculously quickly most poultry is raised, regardless of welfare or quality claims.

Other than going vegetarian, I’m not sure what the answer is. If you enjoy meat, you have to make peace with how shittily most of it is produced.

I tend to buy chicken thighs rather than breasts now. Not because they’re cheaper, but because they taste better and are less of a gamble when it comes to consistency. But it doesn’t escape me that I’m participating in a hugely barbaric delivery system which results in widespread issues like this. And the prices are still rising beyond affordability for many families, so the whole fkn thing is basically broken.

https://actnow.thehumaneleague.org.uk/page/184422/action/1?ea.tracking.id=website-link-page-who
clicknon the supermarket to find out if it’s a frankenchicken

I rarely cook chicken breast these days, instead we have thigh (curries, stir fry) or roast.

I have a question about mini fillets!
(Which i assume are the small flappy bits attached to the larger breast?)

The ones I get seem to have a white tube running through them - a vein maybe? So I never cook them whole, I cut them into two straips and throw the white bit away. Is that how you're meant to do it? I assume the white tube bit would taste/feel unpleasant to eat - or do you not notice it?

I'm vegetarian but cook mest for DC

Marinade it for an hour or two in
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, 1.5 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp red wine vinegar, chopped garlic, and spices. i don’t bother with the vinegar.

It tenderises chicken and is much nicer .

Google “chicken, uk, woody breast syndrome” but do it at a time when you are not about to eat! 😬

A lot of it is about post-Brexit cost hikes and supply chain changes.

The universal rule is 20 mins per 500g + 30 mins, 200C.

(Obvs with a rub of olive oil, S&P and dried herbs on the skin, half a lemon up its bum, whole bulb of garlic halved underneath, basting and checking as you go 😉😋)

If you’re unsure, always check it’s cooked by piercing the thick bit of the thigh with a skewer and pressing gently to check the juices than run out are clear. If there’s any tinge of pink or bloodiness, its not cooked through.

Free range from supermarkets is the worst. It's like they got too much exercise, all sinewy. I only buy from the butcher now.

So does buying whole chicken solve the problem? Aren’t they also pumped with the same hormones? Or are you buying organic whole chicken?

As some others have mentioned, try using mini fillets instead. I’ve been doing this a few years and it’s so much better.
If I do occasionally need a whole breast for a recipe I buy a smaller pack of two as they tend to be small breasts and the woody breast thing is less likely to occur. Avoid the bigger packs as more likely to have bigger pieces which aren’t as nice.

You can also see by looking at the meat, if it is pale with lines that you can see in the meat then avoid. The meat is normally nicer when it’s got a bit more colour and looks softer if that’s makes sense.
thigh also nice but it takes me ages to cut all the yucky bits away!

Strangely I’ve noticed the same and I wondered why. It’s actually put me off buying it. I find Morrisons seems to be the best quality. I’ve stopped buying meat from Tesco

It’s a bit of tendon/sinew, which would be chewy and not have a very nice texture - I do the same, just snip out the white bit with scissors before cooking. Those little underside strips of breast are usually the best bit if you cook a whole chicken, so I definitely think mini-fillets are preferable to whole breasts for tenderness.

You can leave that in and you can’t tell
once it is cooked, it makes no difference to texture that I have noticed. I normally just pull the little bit of skin/fat away and then either cook whole or chop into pieces x

Get them from Costco if you can. They’re the best

I've found my people. DH thought I was being weird because chicken breasts he cooked no matter which way were turning my stomach the last couple of years. I'll only buy chicken thighs or wings with bone in. Make a dry rub shake everything around in a plastic bag and put back in the fridge until needed for dinner. The thighs are okay in the slow cooker too.

If DH roasts a whole chicken my heart sinks because it's two days of crap. I sneak it to the dogs.

I'd never heard of woody chicken or frankenhens which sounds awful.

I have almost entirely given up buying meat from
supermarkets now (the only exception is duck). I buy everything else from the local butcher. It’s definitely more expensive, but I rarely eat meat more than twice a week. The butcher’s meat is local, tastes better, and I have never had a chicken with woody breast.

I buy a normal one, and I’ve never had a whole chicken that’s had the chewiness you can get from a breast on its own, I’m sure it’s still filled with water etc but I’m not sure it’s the water that causes that awful woody breast thing.

Definitely going to try local butcher now. I have tried Abel and Cole but they’re sooooo expensive only ever bought if had a voucher from there.

Yes I found Morrisons the best too. Sainsbury’s the worst I found though they have been for years.

I always pop chicken breasts in a roasting bag with a bit of oil and some seasoning and cook on about 170 for about 40 mins and they come out lovely can just put a fork through and shred the chicken. I do this for my curries and pasta and just add to the sauce, or just use for a roast, salad etc .
I was so fed up of buying rubbery chicken beasts but this is a gamechanger