The popularity of chicken breast is inseparable from the help of stars. It is said that when Eddie Peng Yuyan Swift filmed Guild Wars, in order to reduce the fat to the limit, she insisted on eating only boiled chicken breast and protein for a long time. And Huang Xiaoming ate chicken breast for making a movie, which made her dream full of chicken breast.
Is chicken breast really so magical? But I remember there was no chicken breast at all more than ten years ago. At that time, people said that beef was the best healthy food.
At first glance, it's really the same thing, but if you think about it carefully, you will find the problem: why not compare with lean meat, but choose pork belly with too much fat? The fact is that any type of pure lean meat is similar, about 75% water, 20% protein and 3% fat. These three substances are interwoven into three tissues, namely, muscle tissue responsible for exercise, connective tissue (collagen) that combines muscle fibers, and adipose tissue that provides energy.
Although the protein and fat composition of different meats are definitely different, there is essentially no difference between eating chicken breast and pork lean meat. And it's chicken. Why give up delicious chicken leg meat and choose bad chicken breast meat?
People always like delicious food. In that case, why not skin the chicken leg? The more I think about it, the more I feel that there is a problem. The generally unpalatable chicken breast deliberately creates a myth: If you can't insist on eating boiled chicken breast, you can't have a good figure like Eddie Peng Yuyan, Yu Yan and Huang Xiaoming.
But the fact is that chicken leg meat is a better source of protein than chicken breast meat. Because generally speaking, the quality of meat (texture, color and taste) depends on the arrangement and relative proportion of muscle tissue, connective tissue and fat tissue. This is related to the location, age and activity of meat.
When the chicken stands and walks, its legs should constantly exert strength, so its texture is tough. Nowadays, chickens can't fly, and they haven't even walked a few steps since they were born, so their breasts rarely exercise. Therefore, chicken breast is tender and has less connective tissue than chicken leg. Generally, chicken leg protein contains 5%-8% collagen, while chicken breast contains only 2%.
On the other hand, almost all the chicken you eat is mass-produced. In order to save costs, chickens are kept in captivity to reduce unnecessary activities and feed supply, and they are slaughtered when they are underage, because the muscle growth rate of animals will slow down when they are adults.
Moreover, almost all modern chickens come from fast-growing varieties. A chicken of 1.8 kg can be raised in 6 weeks with 3.6 kg of feed. This kind of chicken grows fast and doesn't live long, so its meat quality is quite boring. So the taste of chicken breast can be said to be worse.
To make matters worse, all the chicken breasts you bought in the supermarket are frozen. Although freezing can prolong the shelf life of meat, it will definitely destroy muscle tissue and further reduce the quality of meat.
The most serious thing is to destroy the nutrients of muscles. Because when raw meat is frozen, ice crystals will pierce the cell membrane. When these ice crystals melt, muscle tissue will be rapidly lost, and muscle tissue is rich in salt, vitamins, protein and pigments. If it is boiled, the nutrients in the meat will lose more. Compared with the thick chicken leg, a thin piece of chicken breast will become extremely unpalatable if cooked in water.
Chicken breast is not worthy of the name, and its popularity is probably due to illusion or deliberate marketing.
First of all, the parts of meat are divided into three grades, and the most delicious and least delicious parts always sell the best price. For chickens, chicken legs and wings taste better, so the price of chicken breast is naturally cheaper.
Secondly, chicken breast is not delicious and easy to be unsalable, so families and restaurants generally don't buy it separately. Therefore, those guys with developed limbs and simple minds are the best sales targets. They often don't understand the art of cooking, so cooking chicken breast has become a sacred product of fitness.
Finally, chicken breast is sold without skin, so there is no subcutaneous fat. But drumsticks are always skinned, which gives the illusion of a lot of fat. If you are really afraid of that kind of oil, wouldn't it be nice to skin the chicken leg before cooking?