[Hexcles]

Animal welfare aside, I find people in North America really in favour of chicken breast, much more than other parts, say chicken thigh. Yet I myself think chicken thigh tastes much better, especially with the skin (yet again it is usually skinless in supermarkets here, unfortunately). Is it because of nutrition (percentage of fat/protein etc.)? On top of that, chicken feet are considered unacceptable by many...

[dantillberg]

On the bright side: I live in the US, I love the "dark"/fatty meat on chickens, and I don't mind that everyone else here prefers "white"/dry chicken meat because that means a) chicken thighs are often much less expensive, and b) I rarely have to fight over the thighs and other fatty meat when sharing a full bird.

Edit to add: As for why other people prefer white meat, people usually invoke that it tastes better, but I've always figured that this was an acquired taste and that decades of pressure to reduce fat in our diets pushed people continually over to breast meat.

[finid]

It's the effect of decades of advertisement. We've been duped into thinking that white meat is normal and good, when white meat in chicken breast shows a sedentary existence. Truly free range chickens do not have breast meat as white as those from factory farms.

It's the same way we've been duped into believing that we need to eat that bowl of cereal in the morning.

[mason55]

> chicken thighs are often much less expensive

One of the few downsides to shopping in an "ethnic" area in the USA is that chicken thighs are just as expensive per pound as chicken breasts

[ivraatiems]

I agree, it's an acquired taste. I used to hate white meat chicken; I started eating a lot of it as part of an overall weight-loss program. Now, I actually prefer it. Dark meat seems oddly fatty, and has a weird texture. I don't really know why. I will say that learning to properly cook white meat chicken has contributed. A correctly-cooked chicken breast is very different than an improper one.

[Veratyr]

It may interest you to know that outside the US (in Australia at least), "white" and "dark" meat aren't differentiated from each other at all. I was quite confused when I went to an American chicken shop and saw "white" and "dark" meat with different prices.

[trevyn]

The breast is more homogenous, which is a nice touch.

[aklemm]

The preference for white meat is almost pathological. Constantly I hear (I cook and teach people to cook) people complain that they can't get chicken right, that it's dry or rubbery. And then they REFUSE to cook or try thighs instead, which are forgiving and tasty.

[bluejekyll]

When roasting a whole bird, I love to use the turn method. Some people turn the bird three times, I just do it once and find it's awesome (same for turkey).

Basically, cook the chicken upside down for basically half the time, and then finish it breast side up.

Juicy breast meat every time.

[dclowd9901]

Well, you can make breast meat juicy and awesome, but it's just much more difficult, especially with the ridiculous size pieces you get nowadays.

[meddlepal]

I strongly prefer chicken and turkey breast because it's easy to deal with because it does not have bones or cartilage. When it's cooked it usually doesn't have any weird colors and the taste is relatively boring but consistent.

Thighs, wings, drumsticks etc all have problems I just don't want to deal with as an eater.

[karlshea]

You can buy boneless skinless thighs, they're great

[magic_beans]

The bones and cartilage is where the nutrients are.

[js2]

Yeash, what do you do when faced with a lobster or whole crab? Or a whole fish! The cheeks on a grouper, mmmm. Not to mention that the scraps and pickings off a just carved bird carcass are some of the best eating on the thing.

[finid]

...because it does not have bones or cartilage.

So eat the meat and throw away the bones or cartilage. Then go grab the calcium caps afterwards.

[jasonellis]

The preference for chicken breast in the US is because of the "low fat" focus of the past several decades. Chicken breasts have been promoted as a high protein/low fat cornerstone of a meat-eater's diet.

I also wonder if chicken breast consumption has been promoted by the poultry industry because it's easier to increase the size of breasts through breeding and injecting solution than it is other parts of the bird. That means they can produce more pounds of breast (at a higher price) for sale per bird than thighs, wings, or drumsticks.

[ashark]

I think it's both the 80s/90s low-fat push, yes, but also an aversion to eating anything that reminds us it came from an animal. Chicken breast, preferably breaded to make it look even less like something that was ever alive ("nuggets", even better!), pre-sliced turkey breast, cured meats, fish reduced to scale-free filet or stick form, all acceptable. Boneless steak cuts if we want to feel exotic and wild (cooked to medium if we really want that cave-man experience, of course—medium-well otherwise).

Bones, skin, limb-shaped things in general, organs certainly, blood, any recognizable bits really (heads on fish, oh man, that's right out) are to be rejected with expressions of disgust.

Outside the serious hunting/fishing set and self-identified (in their own minds at least) cultured and/or foodie folks, this is the norm as far as I can tell.

[metaxy2]

There's a large contingent of dark meat eaters here in North America as well, and we also find it a mystery.

[js2]

As well, you have really mess up to overcook thighs. They are one of the easiest/tastiest things to cook over charcoal. Meanwhile, a minute too long and you've ruined white meat. I've since learned that the guidelines for cooking white meat are very conservative and I can cook breasts to a lower temp than I'd thought[1], but then I have the opposite problem - some white meat eaters seem to prefer overcooked meat.

[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/complex-origins-f...

[bpicolo]

There are plenty of Americans grossed out by chicken feet for sure, but to be real they're not convenient to eat. I suspect that's along the lines of the breast preference as well (no skin, bone to deal with for most sold in stores).

I cook mostly with thighs, for sure. Much prefer the flavor, but also they're 1/3 the price.

[keehun]

I prefer chicken thigh myself, but the best chicken I've tasted to date comes from the hands of an experienced chef who made the chicken breast the most tender and delicious chicken I've ever tasted. The dish also included the thigh, but it didn't come close to the breast. It's as if the thigh is much more forgiving but has a lower potential ceiling than the breast which is much less forgiving but can be insanely delicious.

[jasonellis]

After drying out breasts using a number of other cooking methods, I've found sous vide to produce breasts that are unbelievably juicy.

[Slaul]

I personally do not enjoy fatty meats. I much prefer the leaner breast meat over the fatty dark meat. Partly a texture thing for me.

[vollmond]

More anecdata: I strongly prefer dark meat for taste, but I like that I can eat white meat without feeling like I need a shower afterward due to grease. Also I like having less fat (I get enough of that as it is).

So what it comes down to, is if we get a whole precooked chicken (roasted or fried, whatever), I'll go for the wings and thighs, but if we're just buying a big pack of something to cook at home, I usually just pick up a half-dozen breasts and call it good.

[scott_karana]

As a North American child, I grew up with hideously overcooked chicken and turkey from cheap supermarket freezers: the skin was always a crunchy mess of solid cellulose and burned glazes, the dark meat was a brown pile of fibrous sludge, and the dry breast meat had the only bearable taste and texture (and only after adding sauce...)

After I learned how to cook for myself, chicken became a completely different, wholy enjoyable food.

[tartuffe78]

I think it has to do with being told fat is bad for so many years. Obviously it is in excess, but now as people come more aware of carbohydrates and other issues with an unbalanced diet things may change.

My wife will only eat the breast, because she doesn't like the greasier feel of dark meat. I'll eat either but don't have a strong preference so we mainly just get breasts.

[gumby]

Interestingly, the marketing of the white breast meat was almost a problem but worked out well for Big Chicken: they overdid the marketing of breast meat and had a problem of how to dispose of the thigh meat (there's only so much pet food required) but nowadays most is exported to Russia where the bland breast meat is not desired.

[cr0sh]

> they overdid the marketing of breast meat and had a problem of how to dispose of the thigh meat

Actually, a portion of it is bleached, and used as "white meat" for those frozen shaped chicken products like chicken patties and nuggets...

[abandonliberty]

Much of it comes down to people's discomfort with meat.

White meat is consistent, reliable, mild-flavored, and often is served such that it contains no clues that it came from a living animal.

Those not comfortable with murdering for food shouldn't do so by proxy.

[cr0sh]

One of the things I'm grateful to my parents for is teaching me where meat comes from. I mean, I knew it was a dead animal, but to really know...

We lived on a county island in our small city (now larger) in California; so we could have farm animals on our property. My parents raised ducks, chickens, rabbits, geese, pigs and one time a cow. We had "farm fresh" eggs every day; in fact, we had so many my mom would sell them from the house as a way of making some side money as a stay-at-home mom, while my dad worked for the county (road maintenance).

I was witness to numerous chicken beheadings, and know exactly where and why the phrase "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" comes from. I even help to pluck the carcasses with my mom.

I later watched my dad skin and gut our rabbits, which we later cooked and ate for dinner.

Same with the pigs and the cow (we had a local butcher come and shoot them, they were then pre-prepped for transport to the butcher's shop, where he aged and prepped/packaged them - we had a large chest freezer to hold the meat after).

I have no illusions about where our meat comes from. I have no illusions that it was once living and breathing. If there is anything that disturbs me about our current "factory farm" system of meat, it would be the occasional piece of chicken - almost always a wing piece - where the bone is broken, leaving me to wonder whether that happened pre or post-mortem.

I don't want any animal to suffer before death, even if I am going to be eating it later.

[maverick_iceman]

Good for those of use who prefer chicken thigh with skin.

[wordpressdev]

I like both breasts and thighs.