Gotta switch to dark meat, friend

I've switched to chicken thighs for cooking at home. Higher fat content makes for more forgiving cooking.

But chicken breast has/had a great protein/dollar/flexibility profile. Unfortunately, the number of woody chicken breasts that I find now in a pack of chicken is off-putting. Doesn't matter whether it is organic chicken or other brands. I've heard that local farmer's market heritage chickens don't suffer from this - I haven't tried any of those yet.

Yeah obviously the heritage chicken is way more money. I tend to look hard for the smallest breasts at the grocery, the big ones are always the worst.

Smaller is better in general when it comes to food. Asparagus, potatoes, lobsters, lamb, veal etc. More flavor

For years, my goto strategy at Costco has been to buy the smallest package of raw chicken breasts. This strategy has begun to fail me recently - as even smaller breasts are beginning to suffer from issues found in larger chicken breasts.

I've canvassed my local stores including Whole Foods and independent markets that buy chicken from regional suppliers. No one has a source of chicken free of woody breast. It is an industry wide problem having emerged from an ever growing need to supply chicken.

What is woody chicken?

It is really three conditions - spaghetti meat, woody chicken and white striping - all the result of chickens having been bred for rapid growth and size. Taste, texture and flavor are negatively affected.

This site explains them with some pictures: https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/woody-breast-myopath...

This is how I identify them:

1. Spaghetti Meat: Raw chicken breast fibers look like spaghetti strands. The top of the breast will look uniform. It is when I've cut into the breast that the spaghetti strands will become apparent. These breasts get boiled and fed to my dog.

2. Woody Breast: This is chicken breast that is tough in texture. Even when cooked, it feels raw or "crunchy". To me, this is really off-putting. I sometimes try to salvage raw breasts by cutting more off (also for my dog). But the taste is so off-putting that I don't care for them.

3. White Striping: You can see this before buying the breast - you'll see white lines across the breast. These breasts can be okay. But often woody breast and white striping coincide. I will cook the breasts if they only have white striping.

So glad you posted this. I’d noticed the weird texture associated with more heavily striped meat when cooking, but had no idea what it was, and wasn’t sure if I was even correct in noticing it.

I’ve sent food in restaurants/fast food places back with that texture because it tasted or feels raw.

Now I know what to avoid at home.

Yeah - the texture is just off. I thought I was undercooking my chicken or that my tastebuds had changed. Lots of discussion of woody chicken on reddit.

This reddit thread references a couple of additional items here:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/vzuul8/what_are_wo...

https://zootecnicainternational.com/featured/understanding-t...

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/76893

The crunchy raw asparagus texture is incredibly off putting.

I’m glad you’ve given me some pointers to detect it, and I know it’s not my cooking either.

Next I hope the industry stops making it in the first place.

This turned me vegetarian