Shopping for Chicken
Compared to beef and pork, which possess myriad cuts, often with alternate names, chicken can be less confusing to shop for at the market. That said, there are particular considerations you should be aware of when shopping for chicken.
Whole: Broilers, Fryers, and Roasters
Whole chickens come in various sizes. Broilers and fryers are younger chickens that weigh 2½ to 4½ pounds. A roaster (or oven-stuffer roaster) is an older chicken and usually weighs between 5 and 7 pounds.
We found that specimens that are “water-chilled” or “enhanced” (injected with broth and flavoring) are unnaturally spongy and are best avoided. Labeling law says water gain must be shown on the product label, so these should be easily identifiable. When buying a whole bird, look for those that are labeled “air-chilled." Without the excess water weight, air-chilled chickens are less spongy in texture (but still plenty juicy) and taste more chicken-y.
Bone-In Parts
You can buy a whole cut-up chicken or chicken parts at your supermarket, but sometimes it’s hard to tell by looking at the package if it’s been properly butchered. If you have a few minutes of extra time, consider buying a whole chicken and butchering it yourself. See our video on cutting up a whole chicken for more details.
Boneless, Skinless Breasts and Cutlets
If you’re buying boneless, skinless breasts, you should be aware that breasts of different sizes are often packaged together, which is a problem since they won’t cook through at the same rate. Try to pick a package with breasts of similar size, and pound them to an even thickness.
You can buy cutlets ready to go at the grocery store, but we don’t recommend it. These cutlets are usually ragged and of various sizes; it’s better to cut your own cutlets from breasts. See our video on making your own chicken cutlets for more details.
Ground
Ground chicken is typically sold one of two ways: prepackaged or ground to order. The prepackaged variety is made from either dark or white meat. Higher-end markets and specialty markets grind their chicken to order, and therefore the choice of meat is yours. When it comes to flavor, however, our tasters were unanimous—dark meat is far superior. In most of our testing, we found ground white meat chicken to be exceedingly dry and almost void of flavor. The dark meat was more flavorful and juicy due to its higher fat content.
