“I’ll bet a dollar we get something this time besides [fried chicken] ribs and neck,” said Leon. “How do you suppose breast would taste?” [Later ….] “He gave me a big bite of breast. It was sort of dry and tasteless; I didn’t like it. “Why, I think neck or back beats that all to pieces!” I said in surprise.

“Fact is, they do!” said Leon. “I guess the people who ‘wish to choose breast,’ do it to get the biggest piece.” I never had thought of it before, but of course that would be the reason.

From Laddie, by Gene Stratton-Porter In Stratton-Porter’s 1913 quasi-autobiographical novel about her childhood on her family’s Indiana farm, for Leon and Little Sister (a.k.a. Stratton-Porter) the most exciting thing about their older sister’s wedding was the opportunity to try white meat chicken for the first time. In those days, adults were always served first, and as the youngest of 12 children, by the time the platter got down to their end of the table those big pieces were always gone. My grandfather, one of nine children, had similar memories of chicken dinners at his family’s Springfield farm. But when they ate chicken breast, they discovered what every chef I’ve ever encountered as well as any “foodie” knows: white meat chicken is bland and often dry; the dark meat has the best flavor. That’s even more true with today’s industrial chickens produced in CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations).

The white meat has almost no taste, and the dark meat isn’t much better, because the birds can’t exercise and are given growth hormones so they can be slaughtered at a younger age. Why is it that Americans make such a big deal about “white meat chicken”? I’m more than a little irritated with what seems to be almost a fetish. “All white meat” is touted in ads and predominates in published recipes, except in “foodie” magazines such as Gourmet and Saveur. It’s gotten so extreme that food industry “scientists” developed a method to convert dark chicken into white. It involves centrifugal force and chemicals. Sounds disgusting to me! Do folks want blandness? “Tastes like chicken” really means something doesn’t taste like anything. Do they just want that biggest piece? Do they think that “white” is better, somehow purer or more healthful than “dark”? Yes, white chicken meat does have a few less calories. Exact calorie counts differ somewhat, but on average say that skinless dark meat has between 15 to 30 more calories per 3 oz. serving than skinless white meat. (It would be interesting to compare calorie counts for CAFO chicken and free-range).

But the dark meat also has many more nutrients — including iron and B vitamins. In my family the competition was always for the tastiest parts, no matter how the chicken was prepared. Any pieces left on the platter were usually breasts. My husband, Peter, always chose breasts when I first met him. Flavor had nothing to do with it; his mother didn’t allow eating with fingers, and the breasts were much easier to manage with knife and fork. I’ve since corrupted him. Since I prefer dark meat does that mean I never eat chicken breasts? Not at all. Because they’re large, they’re especially suitable for stuffing, as in the recipe below or for recipes requiring a cutlet. Even though they’re less flavorful than dark meat, the breasts from sustainably raised birds are tastier than even the dark meat of those sad CAFO chickens. If you’ve never had a truly free-range chicken, try one from the farmers’ market or Food Fantasies; you’ll be astonished at the difference.

Contact Julianne Glatz at [email protected].