Kitchen

[AnneMary]

I'm glad I saw this. I bought my first (large) bag of frozen plain tenders at Costco a couple of weeks ago. Don't know why I bought them as I usually buy whole, breasts, thighs, etc., but I thought they might be different. And they sure are. I was so disappointed. They are very thin pieces with tendons running thru at least half of them. I only fixed them once and breaded them thinking it might make them a little more 'substantial". Big mistake. You couldn't taste any chicken. It was too thin.

I thought maybe I just got a weirdo batch of them or something until I read what you guys have written. Live and learn, and even at my (older.....much older!) age, I'm not too old to learn: buy my fresh breasts and cut my own tenders. I threw them out after reading all your comments. No use trying to save something that doesn't even taste, and gads.....those tendons!!!

[madcity411]

On 1/20/2014 piperbay said:

I don't buy the frozen chicken breasts anymore either. No matter how I cooked them they came out tough. The only ones I buy now are the bone in breast. Cheaper and more flavor IMO.

Hi Piperbay. I cook chicken breast in a Rocket Grill, which use parchment cooking bags, and the result is juicy, flavorfull everytime. I agree, that bone-in chicken parts have more flavor, but I have found using pressure cooking and other methods using cooking bags including oven baking, the results are alway great!!

[ennui1]

On 1/21/2014 ceh said:

I even save bits of meat that are in between the fat and grizzle and use them in stir frys when I have enough.

Oh! Gristle.

[Harpa]

I never buy store chicken anymore; I get it at a local farm market. But sure enough, when I get tenders, the tendon is on most of the time. I just use my kitchen sheers to cut it out before freezing or using fresh.

[Deadeye Daisy]

Why not just buy whole chickens and cut them up? Far less costly. Takes less than 3 minutes to cut up a whole chicken. Also means you have the wing tips, backs, neck, and bones (if you're boning the breast and thighs) to toss in freezer until you have enough to make stock.

Easiest way is to buy 5 or 6 chickens at a time, and do the cutting all at once, then freeze.

[nyc1]

Buy a FOODSAVER and do it yourself. I typically hate food that has been frozen due to freezer burn, but the Foodsaver is excellent and will prevent the freezer burn (as long as you freeze the item for a reasonable amount of time). I've had several and have used Foodsavers for about 25 years and always recommend it to friends.

[vonIam]

Don't know what happened to my post

[vonIam]

On 1/22/2014 madcity411 said:

On 1/20/2014 piperbay said:

I don't buy the frozen chicken breasts anymore either. No matter how I cooked them they came out tough. The only ones I buy now are the bone in breast. Cheaper and more flavor IMO.

Hi Piperbay. I cook chicken breast in a Rocket Grill, which use parchment cooking bags, and the result is juicy, flavorfull everytime. I agree, that bone-in chicken parts have more flavor, but I have found using pressure cooking and other methods using cooking bags including oven baking, the results are alway great!!

Madcity, are you able to cook sandwiches such as grilled cheese in your rocket grill without squishing the heck out of the bread?

[Poodlepet2]

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Oz sounded the alarm about our chicken being processed in China-and it's going to appear everywhere, from canned soups and frozen chicken products to restaurants. I don't know when this is going into effect but we found a local butcher. To our delight, he might be just a few pennies more, but a) we are supporting a local small business b)we are supporting a hard-working local farmer c) we are thinking our chicken is much fresher because it did not have to travel too far at all d) it's probably a little healthier than the mass produced big name brands and was probably inspected more carefully-ie-by our local butcher whose reputation depends on quality.

Poodlepet