Blood vein in chicken thights

I always yank it out with needle nose pliers but since we suck at chicken I can't say if it's important or not:icon_blush:

I always take it out. It's easy to lift and pull. I don't want a judge to get it in their bite. Plus it leads to that little fat pocket on the underside front of the thigh that I also dig out during prep.

We actually had a rep bring us a piece of chicken to us during last weekends comp that was inedible because of this exact same thing. What I don't get is how to avoid it in our case. We were super careful about looking for these things when we trim, but the vein literally was in the middle of the meat (not near the bone) and I don't see how we could have caught it. The other thing I didn't get was that the meat was cooked. They showed us the meat and where the judge bit. You could clearly see the vein, but the blood was cooked and solid like a blood pudding almost. No red juices, just cooked blood in the vein which I understand could be offputting and that is how the dice rolls sometimes. We'll just try harder next time.

After one time of seeing a rep after chicken turn in, I ALWAYS take it out. why take the chance?

I used to take it out, then I switched to making sure it was cut/broken by running a knife along the bone.

This year I haven't bothered with it at all and haven't seen any ill effects. Chicken results this year, 1st, 5th, 6th, 10th and 46th.


I don't believe the 46th had anything to do with blood, but I wish it did.........then I could understand the score. LOL

After reading what has happened to some teams on this site, I always make sure to check for the vein and remove it. Why run the risk? If this vein could cause me to get a lower score, I'm going to remove it.