Rubbery chicken thighs

[Mrs Miggins]

I've had 2 disasters with chicken thighs lately where they have turned out tough, rubbery and really not very nice at all. One was an oven baked dish with rice and chorizo and chicken thighs, the other was a pan-fried dish where you just sort of fry the chicken with honey, soy, lemon and a bit of water.

What I just don't know is whether I'm over-cooking them or under-cooking them.

Any ideas anyone?

 

[chymaera]

Any ideas anyone?

It may well be the source of the chicken. If they are old laying hens the only way to stop them being as tough as old boots is to steam or pressure cook the meat before you do anything else with it.
(Cheap chicken pieces are always a tad suspect wherever you buy them.)

 

[dessiato]

Probably over cooking them. If you use them in a casserole style then cook them for a very long time to get them to fall off the bone, other wise cook until they are just cooked.

 

[equationgirl]

I'd go for the chicken being crap in the first place.

It'd be hard to undercook a chicken, you'd certainly know about it soon enough, and doesn't it just go dry if you overcook it? I've never known it to go rubbery.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

I've never known it to go rubbery.

That's what's bloody confusing me! I've never known chicken to go rubbery either. Dry yes - rubbery - no!

The thighs were free-range from Waitrose both times which doesn't necessarily make them good but it's not like I'm buying the cheapest possible shite off the market.

 

[co-op]

I'd go for the chicken being crap in the first place.

.

That'd be my first guess - where did you buy it?

A lot of cheap meat is truly dodgy stuff - and that really does include stuff from apparently reputable supermarkets. Some chicken meat is pretty aged by the time it is offered up as "fresh" - it's been imported (frozen) from Brazil or Thailand or one of the big poultry supplying countries. It is usually then thawed in somewhere like Holland with its high-tech meat processing industry. It will also be "tumbled" - mixed with water (absorbing as much as another 30% weight - I think the legal limit is 15 or 20% but it is routinely higher) + various off-products from other meats, fats and proteins etc etc...

Can't remember all the details of the processing now, but basically the trays of cheap chicken pieces in supermarkets are just rank.

If it was expensive organic chicken on the other hand, then my theory is a pile of pants....*


*edit - ah I see you've answered - they're Waitrose. Hmmm.

 

[Spudinka]

Because free-range chick chicks have more room to run about they have more muscles than unhappy chickens, this can make the meat tougher and more I suppose rubbery than the crap we are used to eating. Perhaps it needs cooking for longer to break down the muscle fibres.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Just bumping me own thread to see if anyone from the "day shift" has any ideas about my horrible rubbery thighs *fnar*

 

[Santino]

No, madam, it's just the way I walk.

 

[Sunray]

Thigh meat is usually easier to cook as its got a higher fat content to breast, so will be harder to get wrong. Breast will go dry if you over cook it.

Rubbery very much sounds like the chicken.

Sainsbury's and Tescos now do UK sourced genuine free range chicken meat which I think tastes very nice indeed. Give that a go.