| | There's no question about it. While I love beef and lamb and do increasingly enjoy duck and pork, if I had to choose one meat to live on for the rest of my life, it would definitely be the chicken thigh. Is there any other more versatile, flavorsome, yet affordable meat? With cattle meat, different cuts need different ways of cooking, but with chicken thighs, you will do them justice with almost any cooking method. You can roast it - plain, or with herbs, spices, and sauces. You can deep fry it (thank you, Col. Sanders for your legacy!). You can pan fry it with various kinds of seasonings and sauces. You can boil it ala Hainanese chicken rice. You can simmer it for a few hours and make a hearty chicken soup. You can grill it to make Japanese yakitori, Indonesian satay, and of course, you can simply barbecue it with barbecue sauce. You can stir-fry it with vegetables. You can put it in curries, Thai or Indian. You can make chicken and mushroom pasta. Man, the possibilities are endless.
I'm not sure what's with the obsession in the US and the UK with chicken breast meat. Something about breast meat being healthier and so on. However, a quick online research (and if it's online, it has to be truth, right?) shows that "while it is true that chicken thighs contain twice the amount of fat of boneless, skinless breasts, it is only at a mere 11 grams of fat per 4-ounce serving. That is less than you will find in the same size serving of beef, lamb or pork." Well, at any rate, this bewildering obsession for breast meat can only benefit thigh lovers like me by way of pricing. They say that breast meat is more expensive as it requires more butchery work, but I think the higher price also reflects the higher demand for breast meat.
My only complaint is that sometimes supermarkets don't sell thigh fillets. I still haven't found a way to debone and skin thigh meat quickly. I do know a friend who does, though. I shall implore him to teach me the secret skill!
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| | Posted 4/15/2009 10:38 PM - 31 Views - 6 eProps - 3 comments
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