Canned Chicken

[NoNiceTime]

Has anyone ever tried one of these before? Care to share your thoughts?

Picture

[jayt90]

The picture link is not working, and without it I'm not sure I know this product.

I keep cans of Kirkland breast meat in my pantry, but, like tuna they are a rainy day thing, and never get used.

Fresh chicken or parts are just as easy to prepare.

[NoNiceTime]

The picture link is not working, and without it I'm not sure I know this product.

I  keep cans of Kirkland breast meat in my pantry, but, like tuna they are a rainy day thing, and never get used.

Fresh chicken or parts are just as easy to prepare.

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try this:

picture

[jayt90]

Have never seen that. Is it packed in gel like canned ham?

[tastykimmie]

The picture link is not working, and without it I'm not sure I know this product.

I  keep cans of Kirkland breast meat in my pantry, but, like tuna they are a rainy day thing, and never get used.

Fresh chicken or parts are just as easy to prepare.

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try this:

picture

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scary

[racheld]

Just once. (wince)

A friend and I gave a bridal shower at her house---I did the food; she provided the place, etc. We served chicken salad, made fresh that afternoon from skin-on/bone-in breasts.

Her bachelor brother got some of the leftovers, and I can remember what he said, "That chicken salad was JUST DELIGHTFUL!" So, disarmed and flattered, I consented to make him some, telling him the list of ingredients to buy.

He instead brought the can, for my convenience---Sweet Sue herself, and it was just NOT RIGHT. The gray, speckled cylinder came whole out of the can, with a "smock" like those gooey, awful canned tamales. I'd seen souse, and that's almost what it looked like---the speckly, cloudy loaf in the deli case.

It was almost impossible to debone (due to pressure cooking, or re-cooking in the can for safety reasons)---anyway the whole mass was a soft, gelatinous bowlful of stuff, with all the tiny backbones and bits of cartilage cooked so soft as to almost pass for meat---just horrible to remove.

And then, after all that effort---I think I could have put the whole thing through the chinois---it was THAT mushy; the salad itself had no texture, save for the celery and apple bits and little pieces of boiled egg. You coulda served it in pristine balls out of an ice cream scoop.

I hated that bowlful to go out of my kitchen, but by the time I finished, it was too late at night to start over with fresh. Been there, done that.

So, from my one Sweet Sue experience, I say "nay" unless you're planning soup. Just be careful of the bones.

ETA OKAY---now I read your review of it on your blog---I was afraid I was gonna have to "delete" this for fear of being quoted. I trust that will not happen, though our opinions DO coincide.

Edited March 7, 2008 by racheld (log)

[rlibkind]

Based on some googling, it appears that that Sweet Sue brand had been owned by Sara Lee until a bit more than three years ago, when it and another shelf-stable meat division were sold to Bumble Bee Seafoods, itself the US division of a Canadian open-ended investment company (Connors Bros. Income Fund). Sweet Sue's line is apparently still marketed under that name, but the more likely driver for the acquisition was so that Bumble Bee could easily enter the market for canned boneless chicken under its own brand. Just such a line introduced about a year ago as "Bumble Bee Prime Fillet Chicken Breast". No whole chicken under the Bumble Bee brand, though.

[Toliver]

My Aunt Mary, who raised my mom in rural Kansas, would can chicken. It got them through the winter months when they didn't have live chickens on hand and the early spring months when the new mail-ordered chickens weren't old enough.

Everything has its time and place.

[JimH]

Rachel, the description alone almost turned me into a vegetarian. It made Spam seem appetizing (with apologies to Hawaiians, Pythons & those who enjoy Spam).

[Ndy]

Good God, that sounds completely vile.

[Batard]

I love the label: does it come pre-stuffed like in the picture?

http://stuff4restaurants.com/blog2/wp-cont...ned-chicken.jpg

Mmmmm, mmmmm, it's full of "Home Style Goodness" (gag!).

This is what my grandfather called "trench food": fit only to eat during times of war or extreme duress.

[mizducky]

I have always wondered about those danged canned chickens. I see them in the store, in with the other canned meats and fish, and have been torn between curiosity as to what the contents were like, versus dread over what I expected them to be like. Now I'm glad that dread has always won out!

The canned whole chickies I've seen have been a different brand, but now I can't remember its name. I'll have to snap a photo of the can the next time I see one in the supermarket. (Nope. Not buying one now, even for a photo-op. Maybe someday as a gag gift. Emphasis on "gag.")

Edited March 8, 2008 by mizducky (log)

[Pierogi]

Oh. My. GOD.

This is so wrong, so very wrong, on so many levels. Mercifully I have never seen, nor, until this thread, heard of such a thing.

Now I just need my mental Etch-A-Sketch to make it all go away.

[rooftop1000]

that just reminded me of an episode of M A S H when Charles got a canned Pheasant and he and Major Hoolihan got sick

yech

t

[naguere]

My Aunt Mary, who raised my mom in rural Kansas, would can chicken. It got them through the winter months when they didn't have live chickens on hand and the early spring months when the new mail-ordered chickens weren't old enough.

Everything has its time and place.

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A lovely historical touch there Toliver. Thanks.

[racheld]

Apologies to Ndy, Batard, Pierogi, Ducky Dear, Rooftop, and Jim---sorry for the nausea. And to anyone else, in perpetuity---it's too late to fix now. It was just that bad, and retrospect has not dimmed its grue.

And Jim---I cannot see a post of yours without thinking of Baby Langston---sorry.

[hummingbirdkiss]

I am sorry someone has to open and cook one ..there has to be a reason for this!!! some one some place perpetuated this chicken in a can thing..there must be some family recipe that is only good if you use this can o chicken!

I know exactly where I can buy one

it was 4.95 and I stood in wonderment ..wondering wtf???

[hummingbirdkiss]

I googled whole canned chicken recipes and came up with this ..perhaps I need to google bunker recipes for the end times?

wow

[racheld]

On further reflection and research, my "review" wasn't THAT bad. Witness the following:

My Webpage

It's not MY webpage---belongs to a fellow experimenter named Paul Lukas.

Well, you DID ask.

Edited March 8, 2008 by racheld (log)

[jbh]

Yes, the brand was Sweet Sue.

Don't go there. Don't even think about it.

[tupac17616]

now that i've seen this thread i may have nightmares tonight. geez.

[JimH]

And Jim---I cannot see a post of yours without thinking of Baby Langston---sorry.

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No Problem, of the time I've lived in Texas most of it was in Houston. Parts of the film were shot right down the road.

[haresfur]

When I worked in bush camps in northern Canada, we maintained a supply of canned food that was intended to keep you going if the supply flight was delayed. As such it had to be something that wouldn't disappear because of midnight munchies, or more likely sheer boredom. The canned chicken was firmly entrenched at the bottom of that barrel.

Well, boredom is a powerful thing and one time, when the fresh meat was gone, we broke into the canned chicken. The sound of opening the can has already been described. I can only say that the taste was everything you imagine it to be.

[Darienne]

Host Note: This post and the 10 following were moved here from the Soup Topic

Just spent Sunday am re-reading this soup from page 1. Wonderful recipes and have saved several of them to try. We are great Soup for Supper eaters (alternating mostly with Salad for Supper) and one cannot have too many soups to enjoy.

A question from the Eight Can Taco Soup:

• 1 (12.5 oz.) can white chicken breast, drained

I don't think I've ever seen such a thing in Canada. Is it a regular item in most USA grocery stores?

[lindag]

Here in the U.S. you can get this canned chicken from Costco. Does Canada have Costco stores?