Have they bred the flavor out of chicken?
 

I am increasingly disappointed with chicken, both home and out. I have cooked it twice in the last 2 weeks and both times it was dry and flavorless. Tonight’s skinless breasts, sautéed and cooked with cream soup, were dry as a bone. I understand. No skin, no fat = no moisture, no flavor.

Last week it was a whole chicken, though. Skin, bones, fat and all. How can you cook something in liquid, in a crock pot, for 10 hours and it doesn’t absorb any of the moisture. I hate to sound like the cranky old man, but I think someone has ruined chicken.

What "brand"(s) of chicken did you buy? Where did you purchase it from?

David

First it was pork, then it was turkey, now it is chicken.

Tonight’s chicken was from Publix, no brand specified. The whole chicken was Perdue, purchased at Publix.

The short answer is yes. Chickens are bred today to grow as much meat (specifically breast) as quickly as possible while eating junk.

Buy a good free range heritage bird and you simply have to roast it for excellent flavor. It’s a lot more expensive and a lot less meat, but a world of difference.

Agreed if your (chicken) breasts are skinless. They will have absolutely no flavor as farmed chickens go.

WRT crockpotting a chicken for 10 hours, you may need to somehow brown the bird first in order to caramelize the sugars. And perhaps adding chicken stock and salt to amplify the chicken-ness.

Or, as thelark suggests, roasting or grilling may be a better way to go especially with a free range bird.

David

A few years ago I would buy the Costco cooked chickens. Lots of meat for cheap price. After the third purchase, how can you have thousands of chickens....hundreds of thousands across the country....all same size and lousy flavor? End of Costco experiment. Now I'll pay twice the price for a much smaller whole cooked chicken and am twice as happy. No store brands, just premium locally grown.

Food supply in USA is criminal. How about some politicians/bureaucrats doing something in favor of the population? Ingredients.......you don't want to know.

Agree. I'm amazed at the size of chicken breasts these days when I get one at the butcher counter of my nearby Kroger. They are HUGE and I can tell you they didn't look like this years ago.

Another approach to getting more chickeny flavor: purchase and cook dark meat. Again, buy pieces with skin.

David

I haven't noticed a big change in the taste/flavor of chicken over the years except for the breast meat. Now, it has to be breaded and deep fried, brined/injected, or grilled/fried just barely to the safe zone to be edible. Longer cooking of breast meat in soups or stews makes it worse not better.

I think I’m done with chicken breasts. I’m not a big fan of thighs, but I will continue to grill drumsticks. They remain my wife’s favorite.

You might want to try brining which adds flavor and moisture. When I but chicken breasts, I only buy skinless and boneless. I think some people overcook chicken which is sure to dry it out. I am not advocating for rare chicken but overcooking is often the cause of dryness. And chicken needs a fair amount of salt to bring out flavor.

Yesterday, I read about white striping disease, where fat deposits grow within the muscle tissue, in commercial chicken because of their rapid growth diet. The study sampled grocery store brand chicken across 29 states and found 99% had white striping. The disease increases fat content on average by 224% and decreases protein content by 9%.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...en-study-finds

So my advice would be don't buy factory farmed chicken. Try better chicken, see if you can detect flavor and moisture differences, and report back.Two brands I'm familiar with are Cooks Venture (heirloom chickens) and Mary's (organic).

Mary's is what I've been buying at Raleys.. Big difference from their store brand.

I only buy free range, corn fed chicken. It actually tastes of something. I have never had decent chicken in the USA, but then I don't cook it often when I'm at my home there.