jaymer

Despite the other guy with foul language and an attitude, I wanted to say how much I appreciate your tips and suggestions! And I'd send that 5:30 pizza (on Page 2) back - but what do I know? I don't have a ton of posts under my name!

Then, another full case or retail packs from Sams (6 packs, 43.24lb), don't know if the box said Amick Farms or not. Same lighting as the original set. 1st picture - 6 breasts, 8.65 lbs (138 oz). Thats an avg 23 oz per breast. Nowhere near the white-striping, except in the one OBVIOUS breast. I threw half of that breast out. Only 1 in the case was "dark", shown in the 2nd pic. 4th pic shows how some breasts also contain some breast meat from the other side. This is waste, as I have to cut it off to remove the middle seam, so it reduces my yield. Overall, much better on the white-striping disease, but still more waste than I'd like.

OK, this was the next chicken after the case from RD. I planned to take EXACTLY the same pics, but it got late at night and wasn't going to be the same. A case of "retail packs" from Sams - from Amick Farms. (more in the next post)

How did they cook up? Well, during prep, you notice that they cut differently. If you were pre-cutting chicken fingers, then you can feel the knife "grinding" against something as opposed to just slicing into a smooth "normal" breast. I cooked some strips for fajitas, and its not possible to cut a cooked strip [thats going on a tortilla] with just a fork - its harder, springier, tougher. And when you bite cooked white-striped chicken, there's a mouth feel thats just not right. There is resistance - you feel/hear something in your head from your teeth thats not there on normal chicken - not like an apple slice - softer like a pear, but you know something's off. If a restaurant tried to use this for a center of the plate piece, like a chicken parm, or grilled chicken breast, the customer is definitely going to notice something. Problem is, the prep guy probably didn't care and the owner will never know cause the customer might not say anything. To be fair, if you're not cutting the chicken when raw, the prep guy can only go by training to see the white stripes - because the whole breast REALLY doesn't look that different to most prep guys, no offense. But hopefully you know what I mean. Anyway, what are you going to do, take half a case back to your supplier. Or multiple cases, cause its going to be there in every one I would imagine. This was the first time I had an ENTIRE CASE of this crap. Most of this chicken was ground up for chicken salad, so once its real small, I'm not sure you can tell. Although I didn't notice it in this case, in the past I almost threw up biting a piece of it from homemade chicken parm. I thought I had eliminated the bad pieces and my wife got some and when she said "I think you missed a piece" I tried to dismiss her - cause I thought she was imagining it, but then she made me try it and it was gross tasting as well. jaymer... PS _ I'm doing another case tomorrow - I think I might just buy a case from Sams Club - it comes in Member's Mark retail packs. Its $.35-.40 cents more / lb. but probably worth it.\ I will definitely take similar pics to compare.

A friend of mine sent me this 5 months ago - its his neighbor in Cincy Ohio area. pretty cool idea. was before the summer, so I don't know if they baked to death during the heat. jaymer...

Prepped about 25 lbs of random breasts the other day - here they are. Every piece in the 40b case was GIANT, and almost every one showed white stripes. These were purchased from Restaurant Depot - Tampa. Koch Foods chicken. jaymer...

ya, thats it. the comments at that link are a bunch a BS. but here https://www.buzzfeed.com/venessawong/our-giant-fast-growing-chickens-make-for-bad-meat-activists?utm_term=.dijOJXAR3#.ufVKA0dp2 multiple people talk about this situation thx - i honestly thought no one else knew about this issue

To you fellow caterers and restauranteurs who buy cases of chicken, have you noticed a trend of "bad chicken" in the last year or so, w.r.t. breasts that seem "harder" than normal, or discolored? When you cut into one of these, its definitely not the same texture as a "normal" breast. And if you're unlucky enough to taste one, you feel it hard and a weird taste. Last spring I was getting breasts from my local GFS Marketplace. While high on lots of stuff (unless you have a truck account with discounted SKUs), sometimes their market price is right in line with Restaurant Depot, but you don't have to buy entire cases to get the good price (pork loins, butts, odd packs of ribs, etc.). So I was getting cases of breasts and noticed and odd piece or two out of each 10-lb-group in the case which were as I described above. Not until after cooking (and tasting) did I realize something was really wrong. My wife asked me to taste a piece of her chicken parm and I almost heaved, while 3 others were fine. So i stopped getting stuff there after 3-4 cases, effectively switching growers, and hadn't noticed it again until this week with a case from RD. If you pound them (to tenderize and/or normalize thickness), you probably won't notice it. If you have a prep guy slicing breasts for chicken fingers, you probably won't be told about it because he most likely won't notice (or care). If you're cooking whole breasts (smoking, as I was), you don't notice at all until a customer would complain about it on his plate. (From splitting the two halves and trimming fat, you don't cut into them enough to experience the texture difference.) Only (in my exp.) if you handle each breast and notice a color diff (mine had lines, like the grain, very visible across the top) OR you are cubing/slicing each beast then you can actually feel a graininess through the knife as you cut. OK, enough rant. Hope to hear from someone who noticed this and found out how/why. I'm sorry I can't afford to buy "non-randoms" where this may not be an issue. I thought random only meant in the weight, and not the quality thx jaymer...

I appreciate all the ideas. I'm NOT interested in using "leftover chicken"... as stated in the first post. I'll have to look up a lot of these recipes, but I definitely have plenty to go on. BTW, Using this chicken on a pizza works fine. I have to say the easiest and really yummy option is to toss on salad - I'm finding I make a huge salad a lot more since I have a large supply of protein to add to it. Mostly I use cold, but sometimes I'll dice up dark meat and nuke for 1 min while I prepare the salad, then drain it and toss in. Easy, cheap, fast.

I have large amounts of SV chicken, both white (boneless, skinless breast) & dark (boneless, skinless thighs). I already use it for LOTS of stuff... from chicken to go in kids' lunches to quickly toss onto salad. Its super quick to stir fry/saute some onions/brocc and toss in chicken. Had chicken tacos last night - use a griddle and toast up strips of meat and tortillas. If we leave the thighs whole, my boy likes to toast buns & eat plain chicken sandwiches. Loves the thighs much more than breasts. Easy italian is a pan of hot sauce with tossed in cold white meat to warm in the sauce (flame off). Serve over pasta. Easy! Or I'll make a curry base and after ALL the veg/liquid is done, simply add a few lbs. of diced chicken and voila! But I'm running out of ideas... we don't need to be eating Pasta every meal and a lot of rice with the Indian. I'd like to find other flavor profiles to make where I can simply "add chicken at the end" and I've got a family meal. Remember the chicken is already cooked and stored cold. Thanks for [hopefully] some great ideas!!! Jaymer...

Toliver.... DING DING DING Thats where I saw it. Ours started making these horrid Brisket sandwiches with cole slaw... and it used that collar. Thanks, I'll ask them for some. Jaymer...

I probably could make a few as a test. But I need a 70-lb stock, longer than 11 inches, coated preferable (for grease/etc). I'll check with a print shop friend and see if he has something. I was just stunned I spent so long searching and couldn't find it. Maybe that rest. made their own also. Thanks!

Whew, thats a long topic! So i was watching a Triple-D episode where a restaurant owner made this tall sandwich... like a pork sandwich with cole slaw and other stuff. They assembled this paper-based "ring" (texture seemed like coated business card) and then put the bottom bun in it. Then proceeded to pack in the meat & toppings, then top bun. Customer removes the ring at their table. Keeps all the insides from falling out while building it in the kitchen. I've spent 40 minutes on google trying to find this item, or even an image of a sandwich made this way. I'm hoping someone here can find out how I can order some of these. Thx for the help Jaymer... PS Obviously, I'm not talking about std. deli wrap paper. And I'm not interested in just some wrap to enclose a sandwich before serving. Can't use a metal ring. Its going to be disposed of. If I want it to go around a 4-inch bun, thats pi * d for circumference, (3.14159*4), so its a cardboard piece thats probably 13-14 inches long and 2-3 inches high. It had a notch near each end so it locked into itself.

@caroled I'm a bit hesitant to keep that going as you describe. Heck, I don't even like adding a freshly reheated batch into the same container of older collards that have been sitting on the serving line. For example, if I put a couple of quarts of collards on the lunch line (and of course they are held at safe temp), and if I have some left over come dinner, I don't want to add my "fresh" collards into that "older" juice. The lunch ones are still delicious... just "older". So I don't want to degrade the fresh batch. If I cooked collards in "old" collard juice, then I think it would affect the flavor of that batch. But thats just a wild guess. True, I AM looking to find something neat to do with leftover "old" juice... but it just seems wrong to start fresh collards off that way. thx J

This is from/for my restaurant. I use a 12 gallon tilt steam kettle to cook a batch... only about half full. I used a Zojirushi rice maker with washed, white CALROSE to try my first batch with collard juice. The grains were not mushy, but they were very sticky. Maybe some oil or butter might have helped. Surprisingly, I like the flavor from using our leftover green bean juice more. Even after adding 8oz of collard juice to the cooked rice (and a Tbsp of salt) it wasn't really that good. still looking... thx @caroled - I cook them weekly. I guess I could roll that liquid into the next batch. @ttogull - I don't cook many beans from scratch, but it would be interesting to see how much flavor (if any) got into the beans.