Topic: Chicken Breast or Thigh?

[wikiwawa]

I've noticed that nearly all recipes use chicken breast. Just wondering if there's a reason for that, that I've been too thick to realise?

If possible, I tend to use thigh as it's cheaper, got better flavour and doesn't dry out as easily if you over cook it by a minute or two.

Thoughts?

[Geezah]

I tend to use a lot of thigh meat as its tastier, but it is more hard work disecting the bone out of it which is why I think breast is used more often.
Also the breast can be cut into larger pieces for tandoors etc.

[wikiwawa]

Ah yes, I suppose the boning thing makes sense. I'm lucky in that my local halal butchers sells fresh boneless, skinless thigh at around a fiver a pack for roughly 1.5kg, so no waste either.

[Adeypayne]

Hi, by all means use thigh, i do if i am cooking at home , much more flavour. We only use breast in the restaurant because of customers preference, however we do use all other parts of the chicken for staff curries and some on the bone authentic Punjabi and Bangladeshi dishes. Hope this helps 

[wikiwawa]

Thanks Adey, I must say I think that almost all curries benefit from being "on the bone" regardless of the type of meat, but I can see that your average UK diner wouldn't appreciate it. The cheapest quality chicken I can get is deboned thigh, but all the mutton they sell still has bones and despite being a bit more fiddly to eat, it really does make a difference to the flavour.

[976bar]

I tend to use a lot of thigh meat as its tastier, but it is more hard work disecting the bone out of it which is why I think breast is used more often.
Also the breast can be cut into larger pieces for tandoors etc.

The reason Chicken Breast is more popular in restaurants is mainly for two reasons.

1. It's not that cheap, but when buying Chicken breast, it is not as cheap as thighs, but the labour involved in turning boned meat into something you want, it is cheaper in the long run to buy the breast.

2. Most people (in a restaurant) especially the lady folk, would prefer not to pick up chicken thighs in a restaurant and start chewing the meat off the bone, so to speak. They would much prefer cut up breast meat that is easy to deal with....

We go through over 200 kilo of Chicken breast and other meat in our kitchen every week, and from a chef's point of view, we make more money serving Chicken breast than any other meat, (portion for portion).

[wikiwawa]

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense 976bar. As it happens, the thigh I get is already deboned and is great on a domestic scale, but obviously mass catering changes that massively and I can see that breast is easier both in terms of cost and (more importantly) customer perception.

[Adeypayne]

Some excellent points here. I must agree 100% 

[mickdabass]

when I first started eating bir curries, the reply from the waiter when ordering any kind of chicken curry was "Breast or on the bone" which always made me snigger. Cant recall anyone ordering "on the bone" but Im sure they used to

Regards

Mick

[Peripatetic Phil]

Cant recall anyone ordering "on the bone" but Im sure they used to

And they still do.  I ordered one of the two house specials (Chicken Raan, two whole legs of chicken) from the Raja of Kent, Tenderden, less than a month ago.  Absolutely superb, and a very pleasant change from chicken breast.

** Phil.