Skinless boneless chicken comes in a package of frozen "shingles". Thaw one out, shake some stuff on it and slap it on the grill or in a pan. Eat it all...no bones, no skin, no muss..........and not much taste but for the stuff you shook on it.
Just once try taking a whole cut up ( or butterflied) chicken, seasoning it with just a sprinkle of salt....and grill it until the skin is nicely browned, even a little charred in places....Tastes nothing like a BLSL slab of poultry.
Linda C

Ruthanna, you are so right. When I was a kid on the farm, I remember trying to snitch a little extra skin when we had fried chicken. Everyone in my family loved it.
Fast forward from the sixties to the eighties and suddenly chicken skin became a no-no. Unhealthy, etc. It also became tasteless, as Linda pointed out. I really saw the difference when we had the deli. We made large quantities of chicken salad everyday. At times I would roast breasts with the skin and bones and you could sure tell the difference (I never poached the chicken, but that's another issue). The chicken salad went from excellent to WOW when I used the skin on breasts.

I don't really understand the "guck" factor either, but then, I was raised on a farm and helped clean freshly killed chickens. Just a part of life.

Nancy

Almost as interesting a discussion as which came first - the chicken or the egg?

I still get farm fresh chicken$, and also purchase commercial chicken because the price is much lower. I also like the convenience of chicken breast tenderloins or cutlets. There IS a huge difference in flavor, texture and the "guck" factor. The "guck" factor may have to do with the fact commercial chicken is frozen and thawed before we get it, and it's been shot full of water/chemicals/salt that affect the meat.

I re-read "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee recently and noted how much bacteria is associated with the skin on poultry, while muscle meat of other animals is relatively low. "Bacteria and molds break down the surface layer of meat by digesting the proteins and carbohydrates into a liquefied film, producing hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and ammonia gasses in the process". That might be the "guck".

Growing up, those freshly slaughtered hens were quickly processed and slapped into the frying pan, roaster, or soup kettle. It wasn't until the late 1960's that we had a stand-alone freezer large enough to store meat. The 1951 refrigerator had a freezer about 12-inches square.

Because of quick processing at home, the bacteria and molds on the skin hadn't had much time to "guck" things up. I remember dad didn't even like the frozen chickens as well, so think of the flavor/texture changes with commercially prepared chickens.

The skin was removed in processing because of the fat content, as Nancy noted. I also think if the skin was removed, they could process poultry faster. I also bet it was a move associated with the fact the post baby-boomer era consumers didn't know how to cut-up a chicken and the market for chicken fell. Hamburger is just the perfect Q & E food.

First came the cut-up whole chicken - I remember being a 9 or 10-year old wielding a butcher knife to cut-up a chicken at home. We would NEVER have purchased one that was already cut-up. Eventually, the general public had more money to pay for the "prime" pieces - all those skinless, boneless chicken breast pieces individually frozen in a jumbo-size bag.

Then people learned to spell CHOLESTEROL in the 80's and the low-fat move of the 1990's... As we became a richer nation, we've always had more food choices to go along with it, not fewer. With each additional process, it's cost the consumer more. Marketing 101... In 1959 the choice was a whole chicken - period!

I can still go to the grocery store where my parents got their groceries in the 1950's. It's about the size of a convenience store. There's probably more space on the pet isle and the cereal isle in most stores now.

-Grainlady

I much prefer to cook with a whole , cut up chicken and I rarely buy boneless , skinless breasts. If I need a "cutlet" for a dish like chicken piccata, I skin and bone it myself. I refuse to pay the price for someone to do that job for me. The skin I toss, the bones I freeze for stock.

Many Americans have become fad sheeple when it comes to their food. I think it began when the feminist movement sent so many women into the workplace. Moms weren't home to teach their kids the "home economics" to make them competent cooks, shoppers,and budget managers.

When I first moved out on my own, it would never have occurred to me to pay more to have my chicken cut up or to buy expensive convenience foods that I could perfectly well cook from scratch.

I watched friends I went to school with eat lots of fast food, frozen dinners & expensive convenience foods as they struggled to learn how to cook. And that was back in the 80's...there wasn't near the crazy kind of things in stores that there are now.

Little packages of cheese, salami & crackers called "lunchables" and frozen, crustless PBJs for kids lunches. Pre marinated, precooked pot roast, pre stuffed chicken breasts, pork chops, steak roulades for dinner. Pre washed, bagged salad greens, sometimes even coming with the dressing and fixings. Pre peeled & chopped fruit trays, veggie & dip trays. Containers of precut onions, frozen vegetable mixes with seasonings, and a frozen convenience food aisle that boggles the mind.

If you don't mind spending lots of money, you can eat quite well without ever having to do anything but open packages and zap with a microwave.

Anyway, as Americans became more helpless when it comes to the home arts, they became more susceptible to food fads & health scares. Let the advertisers tell them that oat bran is good for them, and all of a sudden there's oat bran in everything. Boneless, skinless chicken is "healthier" so people buy it automatically, not seeing the incongruity of serving it with a pasta alfredo!

Pah! You can keep it. Except for certain stir fry dishes and the like, I want my chicken with the tasty skin. And I'll buy a whole chicken for 89 cents a pound, cut it up myself and get legs & thighs for dinner, breasts for stir fry or sandwiches & bones & scraps for soup instead of spending twice that to buy the parts already cut up in packages.

But grainlady is right, I learned to cut up a chicken when I was a kid...to someone who was never taught, such a basic skill must seem awfully daunting.

"Boneless and skinless" isn't synonymous with frozen.
I get my chicken fresh, at a farmers market, skinned or boned or not, as I request. The taste is great. Those bags of frozen things aren't worth cooking.

I agree christine, there are fresh plump and tasty breasts available; I gladly pay the market to do it for me, I'm not too good at the deboning task.

The flat frozen ones in a bag are tasteless for sure.

I always have a bag of "chicken shingles" in the freezer...I can have a meal on the table in 1/2an hour with them...or I can make a white meat chicken salad in a little more time, or add a bit to some home made broth and have a hearty soup. Iam not about to give up my slabs of tasteless chicken with all the added solution etc.
But I can sure cut up my own chicken and when I had a family at home, did all the time. I would buy 4 or 5 chickens, cut up and have a package of boneless breasts, thighs, legs, wings and "soup" stuff".....myf riends thought it was amazing that I did that!LOL! And I didn't have the bone splinters from the whacked up chickens from the store.
By the way...I learned how to do that From one of those old Julia Child shows.
Linda C

We raise and butcher the chickens ourselves, they run around and eat natural food. I can't eat the frozen boneless breasts injected with water and salt anymore. I also like range fed beef and farm raised pork.