You see it all the time: “Made with 100% white meat chicken;” “Contains premium breast meat turkey.” Personally, I prefer dark meat; it’s moister and more flavorful. But I can’t find products that contain only dark.
Why has the dark meat been relegated to the back of the bus?
White meat has fewer calories, more protein, and less fat than dark meat. Both are fairly good for you in the grand scheme of things, but breast meat is slightly better.
I think it’s also a preference thing. Most people prefer white meat, according to my lifetime observations.
Most people in North America, perhaps. I’ve learned that dark meat is much more popular in other areas, particularly Russia and a lot of Asia.
I don’t think you can ignore the visual consistency factor. Dark meat comes in all different shades, even from the same chicken. White meat is pretty consistently the same color and may be more visually appealing for that reason.
White meat is low fat. Like most meats that means low flavor. It’s not touted as superior so much as preferred here in the US.
I agree.
I’m pretty sure the biggest factor in the idea that it’s superior is the lower fat thing. I mean, “boneless, skinless chicken breast” seems to be the main protein staple in most weightloss programs.
I’d rather take the few extra calories and have thigh or leg meat.
White meat, the way it’s usually served, is easier to eat with a knife and fork. It makes nice, attractive slices for the platter. Dark meat either has the bones in or has been deboned in a way that leaves it lumpy.
And if you’re talking about fried chicken, the breading and frying re-introduces the missing fat, balancing it back out. Sometimes fried thighs can be too fatty.
I always figured the “white meat is the good stuff” trope to be what our parents told us so that the kids would cart away the white meat while the adults got what they considered the good stuff: the dark meat.
Dark meat is where it’s at. Chicken breast gives me choke.
White mean basically means chicken breast, which is one of the most boring foods on the planet. Boneless, skinless chicken breast? I’d rather eat a rice cake. Maybe if you butter it, bread it and beat it with a hammer… But still… Legs and thighs are far superior.
Obtaining an equivalent amount of dark meat would be a more difficult task for a butcher or butchering machines I think. Chickens and turkeys are bred specifically to have large breasts; I’m not quite sure why turkeys don’t fall over forward. But, the breasts are easy to harvest.
I did visit a Mexican supermarket sometime back and they have a large section devoted to chicken. In addition to legs and thighs, they also had a leg/thigh combination which had been stripped from the bone with the skin on. Pretty good butchering I think, but I bought some and they were very good fried.
That said, I have always been a fan of dark meat chicken and turkey and have also wondered, like the OP, why the preference for the white meat.
Bob
Yeah, when I was growing up, it was the legs and thighs that were always fought after in the bucket of KFC chicken. It wasn’t until the mid-to-late-80s or so that I remember seeing white meat somehow becoming “premium” meat. I don’t dislike breast at all–I do cook with it reasonably often–but as for a piece of fried chicken or any chicken where I’m eating it on its own for the chicken flavor, it’s legs or thighs for me. I treat breast like meat tofu.
In recent years there has been some reversal of the trend. This from a 2012 WSJ article but only because I am not quickly finding the more recent article I have read.
Okay, this more recent bit, this year …
Suddenly I’m beginning to believe that people, me included, enjoy white meat because we’ve been told it’s the superior cut. I may have to rethink this. I have never bought thighs.
So, the breast is white and everything else (including coveted wings) is dark? Hmmmmm…
This is actually true in my family. White meat preference skips a generation, because the kids get what the parents aren’t as fond of. It’s a perfectly cromulent system, if you ask me. Now pass the drumstick, please!
Nah, breast of chicken has been considered more refined and elegant eating than the other parts since way before low-fat diets became popular.
We in these days of industrially produced battery poultry tend to forget that in the days when all chickens were more or less free-range, their leg muscles grew rather tough and stringy as they walked about, particularly as they got older. The soft and tender young dark meat of today’s farmed chickens is substantially different from the chewy drumsticks of a hen of a certain age back in the day. Breast meat was originally preferred because it was noticeably more tender and fine-textured than the chicken’s walking muscles.
Complete opposite in my house. The kids get our rejected dark meat, and they gobble it up like it’s punkin pie.
I’ve noticed on cooking shows that they always use the dark meat, and rarely the white. I supposed it’s for the juicy and flavor. For me, when I eat bird, I don’t want bird flavor. I prefer the bird meat to simply be a carrier of whatever sauce or seasoning I put on it. That’s why I like the white.
The thigh is the best part of the chicken, I agree. I read a couple of years ago that they used to ship the dark meat off to Russia where it’s much more in demand, but Putin put an end to that market in order to protect local industry.