What You Need To Know BEFORE Grocery Shopping For Chicken!

What You Need To Know BEFORE Grocery Shopping For Chicken!

If you’ve ever gone to the grocery store to buy chicken, you might have been intimidated by the offerings at least once or twice. Organic? Cage free? What does it mean… and does it even matter? This is what you need to know about buying chicken.

Chicken is chicken is chicken, right? Not really. So, what’s it supposed to look like, anyway? Here’s what Bart Pickens, executive chef at Party Fowl, has to say:

“The skin should be a yellow tint, and the meat should be pinkish and natural-looking in cut or shape. Fresh chicken should not have an odor. Breasts should be pale pink with very little fat and dark meat should be dark pink with some white fat.”

If you know what chicken should look like and how it should smell, you’ll be able to make the right choices when faced with rows upon rows of chicken in the refrigerated case at the grocery store.

He also recommended looking for grass-fed chicken, rather than chicken that was fed corn or other feeds.

Though buying large quantities of frozen chicken is easy and convenient, it’s not going to result in the tastiest meat. For that, you want chicken that’s fresh meaning it’s never been frozen.

Chicken that’s labeled as “fresh” has never had an internal temperature below 26 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the freezing temperature for poultry. Why does that matter? Well, freezing and thawing can change the texture of foods, and chicken is no exception.

Keep watching the video to see what you really need to know before buying chicken again!