Chicken: To Be Or Not To Be Boneless

All opinions are mine and mine alone.

As the title suggests there are people who have a preference on whether they want the bone still in their cooked chicken. Some of these people even have phobia-like attitudes to this, feeling as if they could choke on the bones. This could have developed from being young and the experience got scary, even if the experience was not a personal one. I thought I would discuss the different ways we think and cook our chicken dishes to explore the world of chicken lovers mentality so here we go: 

Chicken bone cooked in but then removed before consumed

This has mixed feelings because this can be fine to cook but some look at the red color left on the chicken meat. When the bone has been extracted and it gives off a sign of rawness, this can be misconstrued as looking uncooked but if the temperature did reach 82 degrees Celsius then it’s just the bone coloring the meat. 

If we think about the bonuses of this cooking for a moment, it is beneficial with giving chicken more flavor from what the bones hold in there. For example, making chicken stock is very flavourful from the bones just simmering in water and vegetables for hours to extract the goodness, this is the top tip for making chicken tortilla soup, this method gives the soup a creamy feel too. I have made chicken and tarragon terrines, which involved steaming whole chicken in vacuum bags and sous vide style cooking it and this pulled all the flavor from the bones, next I did have to finely extract the bones before rolling up the chicken mixture in cling film for the then the cooling method. Doing this style of chicken will still be a little controversial to some but the burst of flavor is no lie.

Chicken cooked boneless

This way to do it is no hassle to anyone but the types of people that would argue that the chicken could use a bone flavor that got thrown away which is a waste but there are still other things to come from cooking just the meat. If making a curry you won’t want to keep the bones because later on it will be a pain to find and remove the bones, and you could miss some doing this. It is easier to marinade chicken without the bone too, the chicken meat absorbs deeper and quicker when it’s cut up into smaller pieces, you can, of course, have chicken marinading with bone but you won’t penetrate the flavor in well enough. To stuff chicken would not be so easy still with bone attached especially chicken kievs where the chicken needs breading too. While on the subject of breading, you can also batter chicken which is a popular boneless way of eating chicken and it’s gaining more popularity all the time.

Chicken on the bone

Above has been mentioned about breading and battering chicken, this is ok for the bone-in type chicken eaters but it’s just using a little bit more caution when biting in blindly to meat. But this isn’t the end of on-the-bone eating, now a classic roast dinner of roasted chicken is a whole chicken in the oven for an hour or more, then served to patrons carved off the bone with crispy skin sometimes. Roast chicken is a great way to enjoy the meat, the meat stays juicy for longer after being cooked because as a whole bigger item, the mass of itself protects the meat within from drying out. Not forgetting chicken drumsticks or thighs which in a dish are very good in a saucy dish because again the bone reveals chicken with a deeper, meatier, more chicken flavor.

Conclusion

Everyone has their own opinion of chicken, so you could be a person who will eat it without thinking about any of this opiating, but there are the people who do care a lot about this, personal preference is getting more intense every year and it’s important to take into account.

You personally could eat chicken every which way there is, but if you have a partner that doesn’t eat off-the-bone then you have to think carefully when you prepare and cook for them. 

What makes chicken such a popular food choice?

Everyone, no matter their age, enjoys chicken. It’s less expensive than beef, or pork of the same quality. It’s one of the easiest ways to get protein into your diet. It’s vital to the body’s nourishment at every age. So just remember that bones sometimes matter to people.