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Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: jimmy2x on December 13, 2009, 04:31 PM

Title: cheapo chicken
Post by: jimmy2x on December 13, 2009, 04:31 PM
i always use cheap chicken, i guess a takeaway would do likewise. The thing is whenever frying or boiling once cut into chuncks i always seem to get this scum that comes off the chicken. Its just little bits of chicken that float around in the oil or water, perhaps this realy is just normal but for me i think it quite horrible. It also means i have to pick the chick bacxk out and chuck the oil/water away so that the final dish is no infected with this chicken scum. Maybe this is realy about the use of frozen chicken breasts more than the quality of the meat, i always use frozen due to cost retraints, ie a curry needs to be many times cheaper than a bought equivelent, and 2 fresh chicken breasts come in at about ?2/3 on average from a supermarket. With everything else needed for a curry this would breach the cost of a home cooked curry to about ?5, im sure it dont cost a takeaway anything like that to produce. i thus buy frozen breasts 6 in a pack, i buy 3 packs at a time wich i get for ?10 so 18 breasts, making just over ?1 for the meat of each curry, to me this seems about right.

Im sure many here use high quality meat as after all for your own consumption you want to use the best.Anyhow farmoods 3 packs for ?10 works for me, except for that very annoying chicken scum i need to tackle each time. I would be intrested to know what others do to obtain their meat, maybe im just shopping in the wrong place.

regards
Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: Willyeckerslike on December 13, 2009, 06:26 PM
Hi Jimmy,

I buy whatever is the cheapest too, to me chicken is chicken especially when "currying" or "tikkaing".  I get fresh if available on bogof or 3 for the price of 2 & freeze it.  I know that companies bulk chicken breast up with water and probably some chemicals so this is probably the scum that we get.

cheers

Will
Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: Mikka1 on December 13, 2009, 09:06 PM
Water?
Anyway this generally means you are not cooking it at a high enough temperature or you have added too much (WATER) or oil to seal the meat. This happens with any meat, red or white.

Still confused..... Water?
Hope this helps?

Its just little bits of chicken that float around in the oil or water, perhaps this realy is just normal but for me i think it quite horrible
Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: Secret Santa on December 13, 2009, 09:23 PM
Anyhow farmoods 3 packs for ?10 works for me...

Yes that's what I use too. I was dubious at first, one, because of the cost (roughly 50p a fillet!) and, two, because the packet clearly states they are injected with water!

I've used these in curries though and tikka and they come out fine, injected water or not.
Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: Willyeckerslike on December 13, 2009, 09:37 PM
the bulking up with water has been going on for a while in the UK.  I think it was a Dutch idea but I stand to be corrected.  Basically they tumble the chicken breasts in water till some is absorbed not sure of the amount. Usually this is the cheaper chicken available but I think it works great.
http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/faq/waterchickenmarch03faq/ (http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/faq/waterchickenmarch03faq/)

cheers

Will
Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: Mikka1 on December 13, 2009, 10:34 PM
Ok injecting is getting to me, sorry.
How and when do then inject water? When it is dead, alive during processing? I've raised chickens in the wild but I'm assuming that this is an after course? Still now I think about it I do remember a news story of this kind some years ago so is it true?

And if so? How and when please? 
Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: Mikka1 on December 13, 2009, 10:41 PM
That's ok. Scary...........

Natural Chicken Not So Natural (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOhhMa-RnH0#normal)
Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: CurryOnRegardless on December 15, 2009, 09:29 AM
Next time you are shopping, in any supermarket not just the 'budget' ones, try to bear a few things in mind. The RSPCA have a few interesting things to say about animal welfare in farming CLICK HERE (http://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaigns/chickens).
Also remember that there have been no significant changes to food standards enforcement since THIS ARTICLE (http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/85/85504_supermarket_chicken_freshness_inquiry.html) was written.
A further point to bear in mind is that the restaurant trade buy their meat from wholesale suppliers who in turn source their products from the cheapest producers. These days this largely means foreign (Asian) imports so given the sorry state of domestic meat production just what do you think you are actually eating, 'fresh' chicken, do me a favour, it's reconstituted, re-formed, re-textured, made from 'protein slurry' that inevitably contains 'meat' from other sources.

Bon appetite.
CoR


Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: jimmy2x on December 15, 2009, 09:46 AM
it's reconstituted, re-formed, re-textured, made from 'protein slurry' that inevitably contains 'meat' from other sources.

Bon appetite.
CoR

yeah but its cheap and tastes just fine in a curry and does you no harm. unlike the rspca who inevitably hate humans.
Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: CurryOnRegardless on December 16, 2009, 05:34 PM


yeah but its cheap and tastes just fine in a curry and does you no harm. unlike the rspca who inevitably hate humans.

You like paying for water, fine carry on paying for it.....
Title: Re: cheapo chicken
Post by: chinois on January 20, 2010, 01:52 AM


yeah but its cheap and tastes just fine in a curry and does you no harm. unlike the rspca who inevitably hate humans.

You like paying for water, fine carry on paying for it.....

That doesnt make sense dude. Jimmy and others have said they buy that chicken bcos it's cheap. If it was cheaper without injected water they may buy that instead.

I shop similarly, however i see the injected water as a positive thing. I often cook my unmarinated cubes of chicken in simmering water for about 4-6 mins before adding as normal to the final curry. The result is a beautiful thing: succulent, tender and tasty. I get a lot of compliments on the 'quality of my chicken' would you believe it.
I know ethical or at least organic farming is the way forward and i am trying to be more responsible recently but when you get compliments on your frozen iceland chicken it makes you feel like blowing raspberries at that crowd.  ;)