Chicken breast vs thigh (on bone)

[lesliepc16]

Hello knowledgeable chowhounders,

My parents will be in town and I am prepping to make them a nice dinner. I tried this recipe that was posted on Amateur Gourmet:

http://www.amateurgourmet.com/the_ama...

...where you braise chicken breast on the bone in hard cider with bacon bits, roesmary, parsnips and shallots. It's fabulous, but I think it'd be better with chicken thigh. Any rule of thumb when to use either?

Thanks.

[anigozanthos]

I hate braising thighs. Thighs smell gamey to me. I don't see anything wrong with braising chicken breast as long as the skin is on (boneless.) Works great for me in all my recipes. The secret is to not overcook or else the meat will be tough.

[lesliepc16]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to try the recipe with chicken legs (thigh/drumstick). I knew you were the right people to ask :)

[Bobfrmia]

I have never found anything that a breast was better than a thigh for. Chicken speaking.

[jfood]

Braising and breasts do not work well together. My family INSISTS that i always include the white meat for them when I braise and I just don;t get it, but hey, they're the customer. I only eat the dark meat in a braise. It's like comparing and over-well steak to a beautiful medium rare. BTW, Mrs Jfood orders meat med-well and her fish cooked all the way through.What can I say.

[pescatarian]

It looked like they were baked/roasted in a single layer on a roasting pan, perhaps with a little seasoning (not a lot) and some kind of oil or liquid (but not a lot). There were about 15 pieces in the pan. I didn't ask her how she made them, these are just my observations. But then again the wild rice she served was all globbed together, lol

p.s. I have no problem with squimishnness when preparing food, but I still have an aversion to chewing on gristle and cartilage and skin (I used to give my bones to my mother when I was a kid to "clean"). I actually prefer red meat to poultry. However, since I have started eating meat again, I am trying to be more open-minded and try things I don't think I like. The trick is having them prepared right. So perhaps I need to figure out how to make dark meat taste good on its own (outside of roasting the whole bird).

[pescatarian]

As someone from a whitemeat only family (well except for when I was a kid, but I don't have fond memories of eating the polka) and as a person who only recently started eating meat again, I generally stick to white meat. Last night I tried the chicken thighs that my friend prepared and the best way I can think of describing them is "gummy and dry". It didn't make me want to try more. Perhaps it was a bad preparation.

[FlavoursGal]

That's funny. When my husband and I got married, he was a white meat kind of guy. After a couple of years of marriage, during which I'd occasionally "forget" to buy a breast for him when cooking parts, it suddenly dawned on him that he really did prefer dark meat, and only thought he preferred the breast because he'd never had the chance to eat it as a kid.

As the younger of two brothers in a family in which the youngest member got last dibs on everything, he'd always ended up with the dark meat. Once his brother left home and he got to choose the white meat, he assumed he liked it better.

My favourite parts are the thigh portion of the leg and the fligel.

Just curious - how did your friend prepare the chicken thighs?

[orangewasabi]

what is the fligel? is that the bit of the wing with the two bones rather than the drumette?

[FlavoursGal]

No, orangewasabi. It's the Yiddish word for wing (the whole thing). And a "polke" is the Yiddish word for drumstick.

[orangewasabi]

is there a Yiddish word for the part of the wing that is not-the-whole-wing and not-the-polke?

[FlavoursGal]

Backtrack...

The polke is not the drumette portion of the wing - it's the drumstick that's attached to the thigh.

I know of no Yiddish word for parts of wings. In the old country, and in Bubbies' kitchens around the diaspora, the wings remained intact - there was no reason to separate them. The word "fligel" was sufficient, for Yiddish-speaking Jews, anyway.

This was before the Buffalo wings craze, which changed everything and which, I believe (although I'm guessing here), resulted in the creation of the word "drumette." Incredibly, I've even seen the word "wingette" to describe the other section of the wing. The three sections of the wing may be called, with some accuracy, the drumette, the flat wing tip, and the wing tip.

[orangewasabi]

Thanks for the correction, re the polke, FlavoursGal. I must have had wings on the mind last night. Though I am not sure I could use the term wingette in public.

[FlavoursGal]

The dark meat of poultry is, in my opinion, much more flavourful than white meat, and has great texture. It is very hard to "kill" dark meat, whereas it's extremely easy to overcook white meat.

I use legs almost exclusively when cooking chicken parts, whether they're bone-in or boned.

Last night, I made an onion and prune tagine using skinless, boneless turkey thigh meat, which I cut into large chunks. It had great flavour and texture. And the skinned thigh meat browned beautifully.

The only problem with cooking chicken legs for guests is that there are a lot of people who absolutely refuse to eat anything but the breast meat. And it's virtually impossible to get them to eat dark meat.

[NYchowcook]

I'd say if you're braising, use the thigh. They're more forgiving timewise in staying moist and flavorful.
Breasts in m view, are best sauteed quickly and boneless.

[xnyorkr]

It is getting so that I substitue boneless, skiness thighs in most single-piece chicken recipes these days. I certainly think they grill better. I think for braising, thighs would work better for you.

[Chinon00]

Speaking Chow to Chow, don't bone and skin contribute significant flavor to dishes? Also, how well do skinless chicken pieces brown (as the recipe proscribes)?

[Chinon00]

Although breasts are bigger than thighs it shouldn't make a major difference (in terms of doneness) because the brasing time isn't very long. Other than that there's the fact that breast meat is white and thigh meat is dark (which is just a matter of preference). The stumbler for me would be the presentation. It may sound silly but a breast makes a better presentation than a thigh. If you must use a thigh try and find the thigh-drumstick combo. It would also make a better presentation IMHO.

[Candy]

Tryig to braise a chicken breast is a very bad idea unless you can get chicken breasts from old stewing hens. The variety currently available in most groceries are far too lean, they will seize up and be dry and tasteless. Use the thighs.

[Candy]

PS, even boneless, skinless chicken thighs will be moister and tastier than the chicken breasts.