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 only buy boneless chicken thighs now. Much more flavoursome and doesn't have the same issues as chicken breast. Not to mention, slightly cheaper and more meat.

To the posters using chicken thighs- do you cut all the fat and weird bits off first? Or just cook them 'as they come'?

There are a couple of recipes with chicken thighs that my DC love, but I hate how messy the raw thighs look (I know this is pathetic - I stopped eating meat 34 years ago 🤣) I spend ages trying to remove the fat in case it has a weird texture when cooked. Do I need to be doing this??

I didn't realise I had so many questions about cooking chicken!

The reason chicken is normally tender is because they grow super fast to slaughtering size and also sit about doing nothing all their lives. If they had a longer life and walked/ ran about/ flapped their wings they would form muscle and be stringier.
Surely it says where the birds come from on the pack -we import from Thailand and Brazil now.

I buy the highest welfare I can find. Usually second to top shelf chicken! The more expensive the better but "top shelf" out of my reach in more ways than one.
Now that I have read up on frankenchickens, I am going to be even more careful. I would rather eat less meat and the meat be tasty and if possible treating the animals as well as possible.

I also noticed that mini fillets were better, no idea why, but glad to see that confirmed here.

Interesting thread. I’d never heard of woody breast but I’ve just googled it and definitely had some breasts with those telltale lines across. I’ve recently started trying to velvet chicken and had mixed results but I think with the right amount of bicarb it could be a game changer (currently I seem to be adding too much or leaving too long as the meat is too soft!)

M&S chicken is always good. We have stopped buying it from Waitrose, completely inedible

Oh my goodness I just noticed this for the first time the other day - I don't usually cook chicken breasts but the DCs wanted chicken parmigiana, and so they did the shopping and cooked it themselves. I thought, this is odd, the chicken is crunchy...?? I thought they'd just undercooked the breasts somehow but reading about "woody breast" it's clear that's what was going on.

This was from Sainsburys, and I do remember noticing that the breasts were absolutely enormous, bigger than I've ever seen.

Yes have noticed this, may be time to stop buying chicken. No M&S/Ocado/Waitrose in this part of the country. Re the beef mince, I also will not buy the slimy vacuum packed stuff again. Only Tesco have mince in normal style packaging.

I've never had it on a whole bird though. Maybe the solution is to buy whole chickens and cut it up myself.

We get ours from M&S and it's alright. The Oakham gold, they are not too expensive either, about £10. These are whole chickens

It’s Grim AF. We go to the butcher now

Agree- this is the only half decent supermarket chicken now

Thailand imports it from Vietnam to process.

I buy guinea fowl if Tesco have it in. Smaller, but tastier

Buy organic and eat less chicken/meat.

Did you know that 70/75% of all antibiotics produced worldwide (including the ones humans take) are given to animals raised for consumption.

This is usually to prevent disease in over cramped conditions or do encourage artificially fast weigh gain.

If more people looked into where their meat came from they’d be changing what the purchaser or even better yet giving it up all together.

I agree with you about the blueberries. I
think they are picked too early due to transportation and we don’t get them st their best @ExasperatedIs

I just cook as is, I don’t trim any of it off.

i do find it tricker to dice than breast though

It has to be to do with how they are being reared and fed if it’s such a common issue. I got a refund on the Ocado chicken it was that bad!!

Scissors. I trim off the worst of the fat and connective tissue and check for any bone fragments and, if I'm not just flattening them to bake/roast, chop them up with scissors, too.

I went off chicken when I was pregnant and never really recovered my enjoyment of it, then found out my dog has a chicken allergy, so I never buy it now because the risk of him eating some that DD has dropped is not worth the aftermath 💩.

I'm pretty much pescatarian now as other meat is too expensive (even though I love lamb!). I also avoid farmed fish because of things I've watched about the quality/living conditions of farmed salmon 😖

I'd just stop buying chicken tbh - maybe buy turkey instead, or as a PPs said use mushrooms or quorn as substitutes (I use lots of mushrooms in my cooking!).

Yes! Had the exact same problem with Tesco and Waitrose chicken.
i moved to buying the packs of mini fillets, problem solved :)

I know exactly what you mean. I have struggled to find organic chicken which is not tough and chewy, Waitrose and M&S organic chicken is tough and chewy.

The best chicken that is not like this is this corn fed one from m&s; https://www.marksandspencer.com/food/british-free-range-corn-fed-chicken-breast-fillets/p/fdp21050481

I only buy chicken drumsticks from the butchers now and that's fairly infrequent - I eat much less meat than I used to. I'm more fish and the occasional steak now. Chicken drumsticks are high protein and perfect in the air fryer with a quick squirt of oil, salt and peppers. Also good for portion control!

Try making it with quorn mince. Add some gravy before the tomatoes and other stuff. I promise you it’s lovely ☺️