[dantillberg]

On the bright side: I live in the US, I love the "dark"/fatty meat on chickens, and I don't mind that everyone else here prefers "white"/dry chicken meat because that means a) chicken thighs are often much less expensive, and b) I rarely have to fight over the thighs and other fatty meat when sharing a full bird.

Edit to add: As for why other people prefer white meat, people usually invoke that it tastes better, but I've always figured that this was an acquired taste and that decades of pressure to reduce fat in our diets pushed people continually over to breast meat.

[finid]

It's the effect of decades of advertisement. We've been duped into thinking that white meat is normal and good, when white meat in chicken breast shows a sedentary existence. Truly free range chickens do not have breast meat as white as those from factory farms.

It's the same way we've been duped into believing that we need to eat that bowl of cereal in the morning.

[cr0sh]

> We've been duped into thinking that white meat is normal and good

It's also why McDonald's McNuggets are now made with "all white meat" - except it isn't breast meat. Its a mixture of meat and meat by-products that have been blended and bleached. It has a mouth-feel unlike either dark or white meat chicken; it's a unique combo (I am not against McDs or their nuggets, btw).

I remember when McNuggets first came out - there were three distinct shapes. Only the "round" shape was white meat - and actual all-breast meat. The other two shapes were dark meat. Today, there are only two of the same three shapes that I recall, and both are of the blended "white" meat.

Which is a shame - I liked the variety more before.

[mason55]

> chicken thighs are often much less expensive

One of the few downsides to shopping in an "ethnic" area in the USA is that chicken thighs are just as expensive per pound as chicken breasts

[gumby]

Not if you live in one of those ethnic white enclaves.

[ivraatiems]

I agree, it's an acquired taste. I used to hate white meat chicken; I started eating a lot of it as part of an overall weight-loss program. Now, I actually prefer it. Dark meat seems oddly fatty, and has a weird texture. I don't really know why. I will say that learning to properly cook white meat chicken has contributed. A correctly-cooked chicken breast is very different than an improper one.

[Veratyr]

It may interest you to know that outside the US (in Australia at least), "white" and "dark" meat aren't differentiated from each other at all. I was quite confused when I went to an American chicken shop and saw "white" and "dark" meat with different prices.

[trevyn]

The breast is more homogenous, which is a nice touch.

[cafard]

And there I think you have it. I discovered as a parent the homogeneity is the key to "kid food", chicken breast being an excellent example. I remembered preferring Campbell's chicken soup, with its uniform little white cubes of chicken and homogenized fat to the version that my mother, where the chicken was raggedy looking and the fat floated unevenly.

[cr0sh]

I absolutely hate Campbell's chicken soup, but I think it has more to do with the high salt content, and the fact that it was what I was given by my mom to me when I was sick with the flu.

My wife's chicken soup, with dumplings, though? I'll have a couple servings of it no problem!