Cook's Country Chicken taste test

cpw · Apr 25, 2013

I was watching Cook's Country (or it could have been ATK) the other day, and they were doing a taste test of several different chicken brands, for flavor, texture, etc. The taste testing results were that the brands that were air chilled had a far superior product than those that were liquid chilled. The winning brand was Mary's chicken, and the runner up was Bell & Evans. I know a few teams use Smart Chicken, but that wasn't one of the samples, but being air chilled seems like it would have made it one of the top results.

Just passing on the info. I thought it was pretty interesting.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/overview.asp?docid=38414

landarc · Apr 25, 2013

I buy Mary's Chicken normally, it is quite good.

cpw · Apr 25, 2013

Unfortunately for me, I can't get any of them here. Maybe with Whole foods opening soon, I can get some there. I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to get some of the Smart chicken shipped here to use in my next comp.

deguerre · Apr 25, 2013

We're pretty much limited to Tyson's and Sanderson's Farm and the God knows where it came from unnamed family packs here.

deguerre · Apr 25, 2013

Unless you're not talking about cut up chickens.

hogzillas · Apr 25, 2013

One caveat to their test is which ones were "enhanced" & which ones weren't??? I look for the non enhanced which Publix carries where most have Tyson enhanced around here w/ some Sanderson Farms but don't know offhand if theirs is enhanced or not.

Smoothsmoke · Apr 25, 2013

Whatever is on sale is the test kitchen winner in this house. It's usually Foster Farms.

The_Kapn · Apr 25, 2013

I saw that episode.
Good information for sure.

TIM

JS-TX · Apr 25, 2013

Is brining air chilled chicken counterproductive? Especially if you are brining for 6-8 hours?

cpw · Apr 25, 2013

JS-TX said:
Is brining air chilled chicken counterproductive? Especially if you are brining for 6-8 hours?

That's a good question. It seems like on the show,they've been doing dry brining more often than wet brine, but that's more to help with crispy skin.

Also, I happened to be at publix this afternoon, and their organic chicken is air chilled. I might have to give that a try.

1MoreFord · Apr 25, 2013

hogzillas said:
One caveat to their test is which ones were "enhanced" & which ones weren't??? I look for the non enhanced which Publix carries where most have Tyson enhanced around here w/ some Sanderson Farms but don't know offhand if theirs is enhanced or not.

All the Tyson's I've seen is enhanced and all the Sanderson's I've seen is Not enhanced. I buy Sanderson's.

Cook's Country Chicken taste test

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