Both of life are cheap and few are better, but for a long time this has been true of chicken thighs. That advantage was passed like Shiboles Food lovers: The thighs are juicy and tasty, almost half the price, and almost half the price, down to the boneless, skinless, and flavorless breasts, the best monarch in America.
Well, the secret is revealed. On my recent trip to the grocery store, I picked up a pack of boneless thighs that cost a lot of money. In fact, thigh costs have been steadily creeping upwards over the years, surpassing breast costs for most of last year. In recent months, breasts have once again won the price, but it seems no longer certain of the continued advantage of white meat. Home cooks embrace the flavor and versatility of dark meat. High-speed casual restaurants such as Chipotle and Sweet Green have it all over the menu. After decades of running, the age of white meat in America may finally end.
That era began in the 1980s. This is the first plant dedicated to the open breast meat in the United States. “Before that, meat on the roof was very expensive and unusual,” Paul Aho, a consultant in the poultry industry, told me. Eating chicken means getting all the chicken, skin, bones and more. However, when processed plants began to atomize chicken into parts, the popularity of boneless, skinless breasts exploded. Americans have learned to love not only slabs of white meat, but also nuggets, putty and bids. In an age where we were obsessed with low-fat, low-cholesterol diets, white meat was also considered a healthier option. Breast demand has fueled the expansion of the entire poultry industry in America, Aho said.
Of course, billions of chickens raised for breast meat also have billions of thighs, legs, wings and organs, which are probably a by-product of breast production. US producers have learned to export boned thighs and whole legs that consumers don’t care or like favourable meat. Russia was its main customers, followed by China and Mexico.
However, boneless, skinless chicken thighs were absent as a wide range of meat products in the United States Until the 2000s. This is partly a story of industrial innovation. Over time, the thigh accumulation process became more automated and less labor-intensive for boneless dark flesh to produce. For example, the Baader 632 thigh fillet system boasts processing 230 Thighs 1 minuteBy yanking the flesh straight from the bone. Aho points out that automation tends to work better on thighs with only a single straight bone than with breasts that stick to multiple curved bones. Devon’s breasts usually can’t remove their muscles neatly and can’t leave more meat behind.
With boneless thighs raised, American chicken producers have seen the opportunity to sell dark meat at home at a higher price than unharmed thighs reach overseas. They began to produce more deboned thighs. Sanderson Farms, a chicken producer in 2019 I said Los Angeles Times Compared to a few years ago, one or two years ago, that there is a quick thigh accumulation ability in all seven plants for large birds.
If the fully unharmed thighs are definitely thighs, then the boneless, skinless version is more familiar to Americans who grew up on similarly processed breasts. Devon thighs are easy to throw grills, put sandwiches in, shred, or put in bite-sized pieces for a burrito. In fact, cooking is easier than breasts. Because they don’t tend to dry out after being left in the pot for too long for 5 minutes. Easy and quick optimization recipe developers have made their “Mass appeal. “I certainly admire much more dark meat than I used to,” said J. Kenji López-Alt, a food writer and cooking author, who prefers perfectly cooked chicken breast.
Matt Basaldo, who heads North American poultry for market information intelligence company Expana, points out two other reasons for the popularity of thighs. Chicken breasts are still popular thanks to the diversification of American palate, thanks to the popularity of dark meat and Latin American cuisine, and the rise of high-speed casual restaurants where thighs were thinking of tasting the taste. Their sales have also been growing throughout this period. But “I have a massive overshoot of it on my thighs,” Basaldo told me. Chicken breasts have increased by 3.9% over the past three years, while thigh sales have increased by 15.9%, according to marketing research firm Circana.
Ironically, it was unattractive in some respects because it focused on white meat breeding chickens. Anecdotely, I’ve heard shoppers put off on woody breasts and spaghetti meat. Chicken breasts have almost doubled since the 1950s, and these muscle irregularities have become common enough to worry about the industry About 20 years ago. Wooden breasts cause an appetite-stimulating, almost crunchy texture. The spaghetti meat comes out in a mushy, thread-like manner. Casey Owens, a poultry scientist at the University of Arkansas, can tinker with his diet by slowing down growth and slaughtering birds that slaughter birds at low weight. However, small, growing chicken is less profitable. Owens is also studying ways to make woody breasts more attractive through additional treatments. When endured, the excess connective tissue found in woody breasts is less dense and perhaps a favorable texture.
As demand for dark meat continues to rise, chickens selected for their larger breasts may no longer be economically optimal. Will the industry start breeding birds on their thighs? “I actually brought it to the breeding company. Ten or 15 years ago, they’d just scoff at the idea,” the idiot said. “Now they say, ‘maybe we need a more balanced bird.’ ”
