Chicken is one of the most popular meats in the world and, thanks to its versatility, is a staple part of cuisines in many cultures. It's easy to use every part of the bird to create fantastic dishes, reducing food waste while serving customers their favorite food. From tenderloins to drumsticks, there are multiple types of chicken cuts available with unique textures, flavors, and cooking methods. Use this guide to explore the most popular types of chicken cuts and their characteristics to make informed decisions when selecting poultry for your butcher shop, restaurant, or catered event.
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The parts of a chicken used in cooking are the breast, tenderloin, back, wing, leg, drumstick, and thigh. These primary parts have different flavors, textures, and preparation methods due to myoglobin and fat content. However, you can also serve chicken as a whole bird, which offers variety to customers looking to taste a little bit of everything. Since numerous meals contain chicken meat, knowing how each part lends itself to specific dishes and cooking methods allows you to choose the best chicken cuts for your menu.
Check out our list of the types of chicken meat you can use in your establishment. We compiled details about their various cuts, whether they are dark or white meat, and the best cooking methods for each part.
A whole chicken includes every chicken cut without the giblets and provides more options for dishes than buying a specific cut. Moreover, you can prepare a whole chicken in numerous ways, including smoking, deep frying, and grilling. Different seasonings and marinades provide more flavor varieties. You can buy a quartered whole chicken, which has two breast quarters and two leg quarters, or an eight-piece whole chicken.
However, the most significant benefit to a whole chicken is reducing food waste by maximizing returns. Use the carcass to make delicious chicken stock and add leftover scraps to soups and pasta dishes. Shred leftover cuts to use in chicken pot pie, enchiladas, or chili. If you buy poultry with giblets and remove them on your own, the giblets are perfect for authentic Cajun recipes.
Perhaps the most popular cut, chicken breast is lean, mild, white meat consisting of two halves separated during butchering. This cut consists of the flesh beneath the junction of the sternal ribs and vertebrae. It's more expensive than thighs, wings, legs, and drumsticks and has various health benefits. However, cooking a chicken breast properly is vital because it dries out when overcooked, ruining the dish.
There are four types of chicken breast cuts:
Chicken tenderloin has many names in foodservice, including chicken tenders, fingers, strips, and goujons. Found under the breast cut, tenderloin meat comes from both sides of the breastbone and isn’t attached to the ribs. Due to its location, it has a tender texture and is moister than most white meat cuts. It is perfect for breading and frying for a family-friendly dish.
Often included in other cuts of meat, the back extends from the base of the neck to the tail and contains the vertical ribs and hip bones. Pieces of the back are also part of some wing and leg cuts, and there’s often not much meat left of this cut after butchering the rest of the bird. While there’s some meat, the bone and tissue content makes it challenging to remove it. As a result, chicken back is primarily used for soup and stock.
As a staple of sports bars and gameday menus across the country, chicken wings are white meat cuts served either whole wing or in portions. Cheaper than breasts or thighs, wings contain less meat than other cuts without sacrificing flavor and pair well with various sauces. Despite being white meat, wings are juicier than breasts and have a concentrated flavor that makes them great for cooking in a smoker. In addition to regular wing cuts, boneless wings are an option for appetizers and happy hour menus.
There are four types of chicken wing cuts:
Chicken legs are a delicious and versatile cut of meat cooked and served multiple ways. Though many people use chicken legs and drumsticks interchangeably, a leg cut of meat includes both the drumstick and the thigh. Chicken legs also take longer to cook than drumsticks and thighs, and the meat is more flavorful due to the fat and bones inside. It's ideal for a single-person meal since it's filling and contains protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals.
There are two types of chicken leg cuts:
As the lower part of the chicken leg, a drumstick is often served alone as a crowd-pleasing finger food. The cut is separated at the hock and knee joints and contains the patella with the thigh removed. However, drumsticks are also part of chicken leg cuts with the thigh. With a characteristic pink hue, drumstick meat is very juicy and flavorful. Many people prepare drumsticks with strong seasoning and marinades to enhance the flavor, then grill, bake, or fry them in oil.
A chicken thigh is the upper part of the leg separated at the knee and hip joints. As a favorite dark meat cut, thighs have more fat, moisture, and flavor than chicken breasts. They are commonly prepared with marinades to bring out the juiciness of the meat with various cooking method options. Additionally, chicken thighs tend to be less expensive than breast cuts.
There are two types of chicken thigh cuts:
While these chicken cuts are rare in foodservice, you can still find them at butcher shops or with your whole chicken. Some cultures consider these chicken parts delicacies, making them ideal for restaurants specializing in foreign cuisine. Adding one of these chicken cuts to your menu will pique the curiosity of your customers and set you apart from the competition.
The difference between dark and white meat is the number of muscle fibers and myoglobin in each type of meat. Dark meat comes from areas with slow-twitch muscles used for long periods, such as the legs, so those regions receive more oxygen and myoglobin as the chicken moves. It tends to have a juicy, flavorful taste compared to white meat and contains many vitamins and minerals.
White meat comes from areas with fast-twitch muscles that only support short bursts of movement, such as flapping wings. Therefore, these areas receive less oxygen and myoglobin, resulting in a lighter color. White meat has a low fat content and is dryer than dark meat, so correct cooking is crucial to maintaining texture and flavor.
The most common white meat cuts of chicken are breasts, tenderloin, and wings.
The most common dark meat cuts of chicken are thighs, legs, and drumsticks.
Use the following chicken cuts diagram to understand the different types of chicken cuts.
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