Chicken breakthrough!!!!

[Jenise]

Today I found the ever-elusive whole split breast on the bone, skin-on!!!! Smart chicken brand at my local co-op.

I confess I've never seen this. But don't think I've looked for. We have a few recipes for bone in split breasts, but the skin is integral.
But if needed can't imagine taking skin off split breasts would take more than a minute.

I've used the Smart Chicken brand for years, the best chicken I have found. I stopped using Foster Farms because they were having too many issues. Smart Chicken also has an organic line, which is what I buy. Your meat person can tell you more about how they air-chill and process them. I buy a whole organic chicken and have the meat person cut it up for me, putting the two breast halves in another package. I use the breast for a couple of special recipes I love.

Smart Chicken is also what I get when going to the grocery store. Haven't seen split breasts on the bone, though.

[Jenise]

I confess I've never seen this. But don't think I've looked for. We have a few recipes for bone in split breasts, but the skin is integral. But if needed can't imagine taking skin off split breasts would take more than a minute.

It doesn't. For Bob and I, I frequently marinated one large chicken breast of this kind then roast it and serve the slices over wild rice with a champagne gravy, or something like that. Made a wonderful roast chicken meal without buying the whole chicken. Or used to--this is the first time in several years that I've seen bone-in/skin-on breasts. We had a conversation in here about it some time back bemoaning the way the industry bends over backwards to cater to those less skilled, and it was interesting that what I see here in hte PNW was more or less true all over the country. Too, there might be a separate profit motive--all that factory-removed chicken skin probably ends up in cat food.

Karen, Smart Chicken's been available here for a long time and I'm a frequent buyer of the leg quarters. I agree with you re them vs. Foster Farms. But bone-in/skin-on breasts from them or anyone else have not been available.

My local supermarket (Market Basket) always has bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts as well as boneless, skinless breasts. Ditto with thighs. I noticed that, since the "chicken tenders" fad caught on, the boneless, skinless chicken breasts no longer have that part of the breast meat. It's cut out and sold separately as chicken tenders. I rarely buy chicken breasts. I prefer bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs because I find the meat more flavorful. So I don't know if the bone-in, skin-on breasts also have the "tenders" removed.

Market Basket doesn't carry Smart Chicken brand. In addition to their house brand they do carry Bell & Evans chicken and another premium organic producer whose name escapes me right now. They also carry Perdue chicken.

When I was shopping there yesterday they had spatchcocked chickens for sale. I hadn't seen them there before.

Indian dishes always call for chicken skin to be removed. Bones are often left in to provide extra flavor.

-Paul W.

Seems a little strange to leave the bones in for flavor while removing the skins and the flavor they provide?

[Jenise]

Seems a little strange to leave the bones in for flavor while removing the skins and the flavor they provide?

I haven't seen that. Here, it's been b/s or neither. And neither has prevailed almost exclusively for a few years, all based on the assumption that the consumer wants meat-only.

"Karen, Smart Chicken's been available here for a long time, and I'm a frequent buyer of the leg quarters. I agree with you re them vs. Foster Farms. But bone-in/skin-on breasts from them or anyone else have not been available."

That is why I have the meat dept cut up the chicken for me. I get a package of what I want. Also, saves me from doing the work at home, I call and order what I want and when I get to the store it is ready for pickup.

[Jenise]

You're lucky you have a store that will do that for customers, Karen! Wouldn't happen here.

Seems a little strange to leave the bones in for flavor while removing the skins and the flavor they provide?

Apparently Indians have an aversion to skin on their fowl. Just as Westerners have an aversion to the typical Chinese practice of leaving the heads and feet on cooked fowl.

-Paul W.

My apologies, I somehow read OP as bone in skin off. Which is not what Jenise said! So my response reads as nonsense (well, which isn't that unusual).,

You're lucky you have a store that will do that for customers, Karen! Wouldn't happen here.

What? Really? All the grocery stores I go to here will cut whatever one wants. What is the meat department for if not to assist customers? I called Raley's the other day because they have stopped carrying cross-cut beef shanks. They told me it was a winter cut???? However, they offered to order the shanks for me and cut them when they arrived. We have a great meat and seafood shop here in town as well, and they will cut and do anything one asks for. They used to call them butcher shops, but I guess that is not the term anymore. I used to take my knives to Raley's meat dept for sharpening when we had one on our side of the river. It left, and the other Raley's is on the other side of town and a bit north. I never go that way, so I have a mobile unit come to the house, which also takes care of some of the hospital's sharpening work.

Real butcher's shops in supermarkets are becoming less and less common. More and more groceries just carry prepackaged meat and poultry provided by dealers. According to the head butcher at the supermarket I frequent (they still offer full service butchery) it's becoming increasingly difficult to find staff. It's a skilled--and rather dangerous--job.

We do have a few dedicated butcher shops in the area.

-Paul W.

Not surprisingly, things here are similar to up where Karen lives. Raley's will cut meat to order as will a couple of other chain grocery stores. We have a couple of longstanding, true butcher shops here as well, where all of the people working behind the counter are career butchers. We also had a very high end nose-to-tail butcher shop that closed a few months ago as they just couldn't sell enough of their very high-priced cuts. I guess there's a limit.

When I met my future hubby, Gene, he was partnering with his dad at a full-service butcher shop in Eureka, CA, right on Humboldt Bay. They served all the restaurants, cafes, and hotels in Eureka and the surrounding area, plus lockers for the locals who needed them. It was a great business, and they did very well. Gene had his own plane, and after we got married, he went to flight school to finish his aviation education. A year later, he bought a private air service here in Redding and went into charter service, training, and airplane maintenance. He remained the family butcher, bought our half beef, and it had to be aged for so long, all wrapped for the freezers we had, always filled with great cuts. I did not grow up with much beef, as grandpa raised chickens and rabbits, and we always had the freshest of fish, being right on the coast. I learned how to cook the beef; he took over all the BBQ stuff. We always ate well! I grew to love most meats, but still favor chicken, pork tenderloin, good baby back pork ribs, halibut, shrimp, and Sea Bass.

It will probably come as no surprise that the tradition of full-service butchers is alive and well here in flyover country. In our little burgh of 70,000 (not so different from Redding) we have two different full-service butcher shops. One of those two is happy to take your newly-slaughtered deer and butcher it to your specifications. Both make their own sausages.

So we had a great butcher down the block - snout to tail, great charcuterie as well - until COVID hit, he closed the second week and never came back.,
Our big supermarket (Stop & Shop) gets in some prepackaged stuff and cuts up some primal stuff. But the staff is not what I'd call butchers, and I wouldn't ask for anything custom. Luckily DeCicco's in Ardsley (neighboring town) has a real butcher. Stew Leonard's as well. I get some of my meat at the farmer's market, but anything custom I'd need to order a week in advance.