Not according to Sherman, but he’s not the brightest shark in the lagoon.
On a chicken or turkey, the breast, wings, and ribs are white meat, and the rest of the bird is dark meat. A turkey “breast” often contains at least some rib and wing meat as well as the breast portion. This is so they can charge premium prices for those portions. Duck, as someone else said, is all dark meat.
Some years back, diet “experts” started advising everyone to only eat skinless chicken breasts, as this choice was supposed to be the leanest available animal protein that was easily available. The price of chicken breasts skyrocketed. Chicken breasts, especially boneless skinless chicken breasts, are very easy to throw on a grill or otherwise simply prepare. They’re also easy for a novice cook to cut up, as there’s really no wrong way to cut them. Cutting up a whole chicken sometimes intimidates people who have no knowledge of joints on the bird.
Chicken leg quarters (the thigh and drumstick portions of the bird, which are not separated from each other) are usually the cheapest available chicken choices at the supermarket, if you’re on a budget and looking for a bargain. They’ll have the skin on, which might or might not be desirable for your needs, and they’re easily separated into drumstick and thigh, if you feel you need to cut them up into serving sized pieces.
I like dark meat in moderation. I like white meat in moderation. What I hate with venom is a bird that’s never moved in its life & is all white. Disgusting slimy white thigh meat ugh.
While I agree that cutting up a whole chicken takes a bit of skill to do right, chicken breast/fillets are actually fairly hard to cook well. The process itself is straightforward, but you have to get the heat and time just right or you’ll end up with a dry chewy tasteless bunch of meat, and you don’t want to risk undercooking them. IMHO chicken wings and similar cuts are actually much easier; they don’t dry out as fast, so you can cook (sautee) them slowly with a little moisture in 0.5 to 1 hour or on really low heat for a couple of hours with no real strict “deadline”. Plus they taste better
Dark chicken meat also contains more fat, another reason why it tastes better and takes longer to cook.
When I was a kid I’d only eat the drumstick because my mother would overcook the bird and the white meat was just as you say. When I was on my own I started sauteeing skinless breasts, usually slightly overcooking them, but not as much as my mom, so they were much more palatable. But once by accident I did cook one just right, and I was amazed at how much better it was than my usual efforts.
I had a happy “accident” when roasting a chicken a few years back. I used to roast chickens regularly and would usually wind up with dry white meat that was then only suitable as chicken salad, and succulent dark meat that was just done. One day I was in a real hurry and started roasting the bird upside down (breast side down). I looked at the chicken after about an hour and realized what I’d done. I flipped the chicken over and finished cooking. After I let it rest, I cut into it hoping for the best. The dark meat benefitted by being more cooked and had deeper flavor. The breast meat having been protected by juices running into it, was just perfectly cooked and was very flavorful and juicy. This is the way I roast chicken now for great flavor. Hope this helps.
If you really want to see the difference between light and dark meat, try a turkey. The light meat is near-white and very dry, whereas the dark meat is definitely brownish and is much juicier.
Since the factual aspects of the OP have been pretty much answered, and the discussion has turned to cooking techniques and taste preferences, it may be time to send this from GQ to Cafe Society.
Now that this is in Cafe Society (and I didn’t even so much as HINT to Colibri to move it), I feel compelled to say that the thread title has always reminded me of that great Dr. Seuss classic, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
I never liked ordering fried chicken because I didn’t know what the difference between light and dark meat was, and a crackly low-fi drive-in speaker didn’t seem like a good place to start a discussion. I just want legs and wings.
‘White meat’ is fowl. Including chicken, turkey, duck. ‘Dark meat’ is the areas on these animals that get the most use and is hence chewier, darker in color, different in flavor- usually just the legs in commercially-raised animals. The more exercise the animal gets, the tougher and darker in color it’s meat will be. On animals that fly the breast will be fairly dark too.
‘Red meat’ is USUALLY mammal. Beef, bison, ostrich, horse, mutton, goat, even rabbit and technically, pork (meat from a pig that is allowed free range is not pale and tender like our commercially farmed pork).
My husband only likes chicken breasts, which I think is such a shame as to me, meat cooked on the bone (any meat, including chicken) has so much more flavour.
I’m going to roast a chicken this weekend, and I’ll try medstar’s upside down trick. The best bit of the chicken, after all, are the bits you tear off the carcass, piping hot, and devour secretly in the kitchen before serving everyone else.
