Breasts or thighs? What do you prefer?
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I’ve never been fond of breasts, I’ve always been keen on thighs. I find breasts dry and stringy, even when people tell me they have great breasts I’m usually disappointed. Thighs, however, rarely disappoint me. Thighs are succulent, juicy and moist without any of the dry stringiness of breasts.
I was recently challenged by my blogger friend, Mabel Kwong, to try to prepare breasts and make them as succulent, juicy and moist as thighs.
Well, until recently, I thought it would be impossible, but now that I am cooking sous vide, I may be able to find out if I can make breasts as well as thighs.
I mean I have my MEATER wireless meat thermometer, but in my mind, a meat thermometer is more for safety rather than texture and mouthfeel. I could poke my MEATER wireless meat thermometer into a breast and cook it precisely using the app until the internal temperature reaches the safe point for a breast. Such an approach wouldn’t necessarily guarantee a soft, tender, moist, and juicy breast.
The one disappointment though with this challenge is that I couldn’t find a breast with the bone in and skin on. I know I could have bought a whole bird and dissected out the breasts and thighs but I didn’t want to buy a whole bird. I wonder if dissecting out the breast can be called a mastectomy, I expect not. Dissecting out the maryland though, I reckon could be regarded as a hindquarter amputation.
So for this challenge, I used a breast sans skin and bone along with a thigh with bone in and skin on.
The cooking conditions I chose were 60 °C (140 °F) for three hours which should successfully pasteurise the flesh of harmful microorganisms.
The most common microorganisms of concern are Salmonella and Campylobacter. Both are pathogenic enteric bacteria which can cause not only diarrhoea but severe abdominal pain which presents as colic, along with fever and occasionally in severe infections, especially in immunocompromised persons, bacteræmia. Campylobacteriosis is also associated with arthritis and Guillain Barré Syndrome. Salmonellosis also has its share of nasty post-infectious problems too. It’s really important to ensure your meat is pasteurised and you handle your meat with tender loving care.
This advice goes for all forms of poultry.
If you read my recipe on sous vide kangaroo, you’ll also know there are concerns about parasites too.
I bought everything from Coles.
The zucchini noodles were prepared by Coles and in a microwave radiation-safe plastic bag.
I cooked sous vide with my Anova Culinary Precision Cooker.
Recipe
- Chicken thigh bone in skin on
- Chicken breast sans bone and skin
- White onion
- Garlic
- Iodised salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- Zucchini noodles
- Cheese
- Worcestershire sauce
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Season the breast and thigh with iodised salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
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Place the breast in one vacuum bag and the thigh in another vacuum bag.
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To each bag, add a couple of cloves of garlic and some freshly sliced onion rings.
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Vacuum seal the bags.
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Pre-heat the water bath to 60 °C (140 °F) and submerge the bagged breast and thigh.
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Cook in the water bath for three hours.
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Remove the breast and thigh from the vacuum bags and pat dry with paper towel.
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Sear the breast and thigh in a hot frying pan with foaming butter.
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At the end of three hours, cook the zucchini noodles using microwave radiation.
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Toss the zucchini noodles into the hot frying pan with more foaming butter but now flavoured with chicken juices.
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As you stir the zucchini noodles with chopsticks, add some grated cheese and then some Worcestershire sauce for flavour.
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Plate up the breast and thigh side by side on top of the zucchini noodles.
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Shoot a photograph.
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Eat the meal.
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Determine which is better, breast or thigh.
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Wash the dishes.
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Write the recipe.
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Write the blog post.
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Hope the people who read your blog share this recipe all over the internet.
Disclaimer
I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner.
The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste.
I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
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Questions and answers
Why thigh and not breast?
I’ve always been a thigh bloke. I’ve never liked breasts. I find breasts dry and stringy and tasteless. Large breasts are the worst. I hate the way breast meat clings to my teeth. Thighs though are dark meat, and I really like dark meat. It’s always moist, juicy and tender. Dark meat is full of flavour.
So, what is the verdict? Breast or thigh?
Well, after this sous vide cook, I can say, this breast was succulent, moist and tender. It was soft and yielding without being mushy. It wasn’t dry and it wasn’t stringy. This breast felt good in my mouth, I could really enjoy the mouthfeel, texture and flavour.
I now know how to enjoy breasts.
How do you reckon you could make better breasts?
Better breasts I reckon have skin on and bone in. I must go on a quest to find breasts with skin on and bone in.
What about other species?
I’m keen to try this again but using duck.
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Final thoughts
Please tell me dear reader, breasts or thighs? What is your choice? Please tell me why you prefer breasts or thighs.
Are you on Pinterest? Please tell me your Pinterest URL so I can check out your boards. My Pinterest boards can be found at Yummy Lummy Blog.
Looks great:) Frugal chicken drumsticks for me, so I guess thigh. Breast fillets cost too much, in Australia at least.
I also need to try wings Serina
Breast Gary, sorry. I just really like my ‘meat’ lean and homogeneous! I know it’s maybe not as tasty, but the predictable texture wins out!
Now that I know how to get a tender moist breast Michele, I will probably cook more breast than I have before.
I prefer the dark meat – sweeter and juicier. But my local Chinese restaurant makes the best white meat on a stick!
Likewise, I like the dark meat.
Thighs.
Likewise brother
Thighs are my fav
Mine too, Gloria.
I’ve always been a fan of dark meat (both thighs and legs). I end up eating a lot of breasts because they’re what is on the menu (and because Paul likes them more than dark meat), but I personally prefer thighs. They just taste better (/actually have some taste).
Thanks, Sarah. Maybe, you should cook whole chickens for an even and fair distribution. I like the thigh and leg too.
I do make whole chickens pretty regularly when we have a little extra time in the evening – it works out well for both of us.
I like both but breasts are less forgiving and more prone to drying out whereas thighs aren’t. Glad to see that you enjoyed them!
Thanks Lorraine, now that I’ve found a way to enjoy breast meat, I’ll eat it a lot more.
Sounds like this turned out so well 😀 Maybe more breasts soon. What green garnishing did you put on top?
For me, it’s breast all the way and the trick to avoiding dry breasts is really to be very careful of not cooking it too long, not using too hot heat and enough juices to flow through the entire breast. Breast with skin is hard to find, have to agree with you on that. I wonder why skinless is so popular.
Thanks, Mabel and thanks for challenging me to cook chicken breast. I broke up some parsley with my fingers and sprinkled it over the chicken.
I think I can now eat more chicken breast, but I really want to find some with the skin on. Truth is, I’ll probably go for duck breast before I try chicken breast again.
I have some chicken maryland pieces in the refrigerator and I reckon they will be done sous vide too.
Parsley is great. This weekend I have some fresh thyme and dill in my fridge.
With skin on, there could be the challenge to not burn the skin 😀 Sounds like your fridge is full and looking forward to seeing what you cook on Sunday and Monday 😀😀
I cooked spaghetti bolognese earlier. Tasted great. But couldn’t do a nice spiral presentation. Need to try again 😀😀😀
Keep practising that spiral presentation Mabel and then you’ll be able to upload a video to Instagram 😃 👍
I have a porterhouse steak for tomorrow and then my usual salmon for Monday.
I also have some dill, it will go nicely with the salmon.
It was fail right away when I tried the spiral presentation tonight 😃 Need to watch YouTube of that before I actually attempt it 😃😃
Could have given you all of my thyme and dill for your fish. I don’t know what to use them with – only have bacon and beef mince in the fridge lol 😃😃😃
Thyme definitely for both bacon and beef. Dill goes well in salads.
I take your word for it. Will probably end up chucking the herbs in in what I choose to cook tomorrow and hope for the best 😂
Fingers crossed it all tastes good. I hope you share on Instagram.
With daylight savings ending, it will get dark earlier so it will probably affect the quality of my dinner food photos 😒😃
😂😂😂 An extra hour of sleep will help you feel good though 😃😃😃
I don’t have a fancy photography lighting setup like you, Gaz 😂😂 We will see. I plan on staying up through that extra hour. On weekends and holidays, my bedtime is at 2am, 3am 😂
I’ve been lying in bed for the last hour 😂😂😂
Get some rest, Gaz. I need to finish this blog post for later this week and get a move on with my book 😑😃
Sleep well Mabel. I’ll catch you later 😃👍
Breast. Fortunately in my family two of us are breast and two of us are leg.
Living alone I get a choice. I am grateful though that so many people like breast. When I go out I often getting thigh which suits me 😃