At first I misread the OP and planned to reply, “I’m a member of the Trenchcoat Mafia. The only race I hate is the HUMAN race. Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.”
But then I figured out what the OP really was talking about.
So what does that mean to me? Well, I definitely prefer dark meat over white meat, but I don’t think I’m a black panther. (How would an “Uncle Tom” reply to this, anyway?) I think it means that I enjoy chicken not for the taste and the smell, but for the satisfaction that a lower life form suffered in great pain all its life solely for my ten minutes of temporary pleasure…
Ahhh…now I have a craving for Popeye’s. Thanks a freakin lot.
OK, I admit it – I was taken in at first by the title of the OP. I was going to tactfully suggest that perhaps the BBQ Pit would be the best place for this.
But then I read the whole post and got me thinking … mmmm … BBQ Chicken … :homerdrooling:
Oh, and to the actual subject matter at hand: The nice thing about that awful dry tasteless white meat is summed up in one word: MARINATING. Because it has so little of its own to contribute to a dish, it is a wonderful platform for marination and absorbs flavors quite well.
I was just like you when I was younger for the same reason: when my mother cooked chicken (or turkey), the white meat always came out very dry. It was only after I moved out that I found white meat could be moist, too.
Most of you out there probably have known all along why white meat tends to get dried out, but it was a revelation to me when I read the reason fairly recently: you have to cook white meat less because it has less fat than dark meat. That’s all there is to it. If you’re cooking a whole chicken or turkey, you have to make sure the breast cooks less than the dark meat. You have to use some troublesome method to do this, such as cover the breast with foil. That makes it understandable that many cooks don’t do it.
But a boneless breast that’s cooked just long enough stays juicy and tasty. Just don’t cook it too long - no marinade or any special technique is required (unless you want a particular flavor).
Turbobaby, I knew there was a reason why I loved ya.
I’m on the black pather side (what else would you expect? I like my meat with FLAVOR). Sure, you can marinate white meat, but if you overcook it by accident, then it’s still dry as a bone.
It’s a shame that my husband is a white meat-lover. He just doesn’t understand the joy of dark meat.
Oh, I’m a hippie through and through. I can’t waste good meat. It’s unethical. I could probably eat a whole chicken by myself, which is probably also unethical. How can you not trust someone like me? I can appreciate the finer points of all poultry. My gf, on the other hand, will not touch dark meat. She just knows if she does, she’ll never go back.
I’m definitely a a white supremacist. Dark meat tastes wrong to me, and though it’s probably my imagination, I swear it tastes coppery. But then, the only part of the chicken (oposed to a turkey) I really like is the breasts. However, I only drool over breasts if they’re boneless, skinless and come from a chicken
White meat is just too dry. I don’t care how you cook it, how you marinate it or whatever you do to it. It’s just too dry unless you have some kind of sauce or gravy on it.
My wife made me eat some turkey breast insisting it wasn’t dry. It was so dry, I could barely swallow it.
I’m not saying that white meat can’t be made to taste good. Exactly the opposite. White meat has very little flavor on its own. If you have to marinate something to make it taste good, what is the point? Health, shmealth. Life is too short to avoid fat. A good roasted chicken or beer can chicken on the grill makes for a very moist breast, but however moist it is, it still “feels” dry when eating it. Even in a pot pie where the breast meat is simmering in gravy it comes out like wood pulp.
Before roasting a turkey, I inject the breast with melted butter. A lot of butter. It makes it edible, and the wife loves it, but I still go for the thigh. I also love duck and goose, because of the insane amount of fat they have. Eat a fatty thigh and take an extra walk around the block afterward. On a whim a while back I boned some thighs, covered them with spices, sliced garlic and portabellos, folded them up, wrapped them with thick sliced bacon to hold them together and baked them until the bacon was crispy. Absoluted heaven! I tried the same with breasts and it was like eating bacon, garlic, and mushroom flavored cardboard. I cook a lot of chicken breasts, experimenting, trying to like them, trying to find a way to make them edible, but in the end, it is always the same. White meat has only two useful purposes. Chicken/turkey salad sandwiches and filler in soup.
If you like white meat, more power to you, more dark meat for me and thanks for keeping the price of thighs low, but who is the sleaze that demanded AWMC in their burritos, pot pies and such? It is like chicken jehovahs are out there trying to convert the world to eating the healthy part of the chicken, and slowly winning. Stores sell packs of drumettes, but not the forearms. Why oh why?? Are we destined to live in a Demolition Man world where Taco Bell rules (which it does) but only serves health food?
