Chicken: Favorites and Prep

[blue_dolphin]

On 5/20/2007 at 11:53 AM, budrichard said:

A few weeks ago I would have said any locally grown bird but today it's one fed on US grain and not melamine laced feed from China.-Dick

 

1 hour ago, dcarch said:

 

Not sure where you got your information from.

US export chickens to China, not the other way around.

…

dcarch

Given the date, I suspect @budrichard was referring to the “Melamine Incident” where both food products, particularly dairy products, and animal feeds exported from China to countries around the world were found to be adulterated with melamine, apparently in an attempt to appear higher in protein.  
 

 

Edited Wednesday at 06:15 PM by blue_dolphin
To fix link (log)

[dcarch]

15 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Given the date, I suspect @budrichard was referring to the “Melamine Incident” where both food products, particularly dairy products, and animal feeds were found to be adulterated with melamine, apparently in an attempt to appear higher in protein.  
 

 

 

Possible. That was an incident happened around 2009. It seems to me that China today is a very different country. China is a different country every 5 years.

 

dcarch

[blue_dolphin]

9 minutes ago, dcarch said:

 

Possible. That was an incident happened around 2009. It seems to me that China today is a very different country. China is a different country every 5 years.

 

dcarch

The article I cited was published in 2009 but pet foods and animal feeds produced in the US and other countries were being recalled due to melamine-adulterated ingredients imported from China in early 2007 and melamine in chicken feed was very much in the news at the time @budrichard posted his comment in this topic.
Melamine contaminant found in chicken feed
US says some chicken feed tainted

Tainted poultry has entered food supply

So I agree with your conclusion that it’s possibly related to his comment!

 

 

[SLB]

On 9/1/2025 at 1:21 PM, blue_dolphin said:

Judy bird

That's what I'm calling it now, too.  

 

And those Sasso birds look incredible.  Mmmm.  

[Smithy]

I applaud @blue_dolphin and other folks who (a) have access to farmers' market chicken and (b) are willing to pay the fair prices.

 

I don't have access to farmers' market chicken, that I know of, but I do love chicken. Imagine my surprise then I spotted this the other day:

 

Whotta price! I bought 2 packages. I've parted them out and frozen them in packages of 2 and 4. I'll try to do them justice.

[rotuts]

@Smithythat's an excellent price for CkTh's

 

Ive tried them , same price 

 

and found , from MarketBasket  there was a lot of fat under the CkTh's

 

of course this id very variable , depending where you shop.

 

Stop&Shop in my area, their store brand , Ive learned is where I go from now on.

 

Sooo  : what are your plans ?

[Smithy]

29 minutes ago, rotuts said:

Sooo  : what are your plans ?

 

Two I've already baked atop a pilaf. Altogether disappointing: edible, but the pesto I threw into the rice mixture wasn't noticeable. More to the point, the chicken skin was flabby! (I've gotten spoiled by the really crisp fried chicken that a couple of our stores do, that are my special treats.) I think that may have been poor temperature management on my part, though. I'm sure I've managed in the past to cook chicken atop an oven pilaf, removing the lid at the appropriate time so the chicken skin gets crisp. 

 

With that in mind, I'll probably grill the next batch after marinating for a while. i haven't done anything about it, but grilled chicken is a wonderful thing and I have plenty of fixings for accompaniments like tzadziki or tabbouli.

 

Beyond that, I dunno. I'll have to start with a general flavor direction (Greek? Italian? Mexican? Egyptian? etc.) and go from there. The possibilities with chicken are immense. And of course I'll have to remember to remove them in time to thaw!

 

What would you suggest?

 

Edited to add: now that I think of it, I'll definitely use some of it for my version of Chicken and Cauliflower Shawarma, in which I cleverly added chicken thighs to the recipe. It's a sheet-pan roasting process that produces good, crisp chicken along with good, spicy/crisp cauliflower and onions.

Edited 2 hours ago by Smithy
Updated the post (log)

[liuzhou]

@Smithy
 

Smart chicken thigh? AI?

[KennethT]

We rarely get farmer's market chicken, primarily because I would rather pluck out my toenails one by one with a rusty pliers than go through my local farmer's market (the most popular one in NYC and packed with slow moseying tourists) on a weekend (when I do my shopping).

 

Also, most of what I make are "boldly flavored" so I think I'd probably lose the nuance of a high quality chicken.

 

But, one attribute that is important to me when picking a "supermarket" chicken is that it's air chilled.  Not only is it theoretically a lot safer (bacteria-wise) since it doesn't get chilled in a river of punctured innards, it also has a lot less absorbed water so it has more concentrated chicken flavor than an equivalent supermarket bird.