how to tell if it's restructured chicken or real breast?

Question

Many times you buy a frozen product or get a meal at a restaurant and it says it's chicken. Technically it's allowed because it is "real" chicken it simply leaves out the detail that the real chicken has been shredded and reformed with the aid of potato starch. I'm not taking nuggets here, I'm talking grilled chicken "breasts".

OK, so what I want to know is if there is an easy way to identify whether the chicken is actually a cut-from-the-bird breast or one of these restructured things with the grill marks painted on. Is there something in the texture? taste? look? Sometimes I suspect it may be but am never sure.

Answer 1

Sure your senses can tell. First, it looks fake - real chicken breasts are rounded, with a natural tapering shape. Second, chicken is actually strings of meat, but when cooked tender, it is not stringy, but if you look at where you bit, you can see it is not solid looking like a beef burger (does that make sense??). Third, can you break a piece off? A real chicken when you pull a piece off by hand, you can only get it off one direction (the string thing again). With a rebuilt breast, you can break a piece off any direction.

Answer 2

"Restructured chicken?" I have no idea where you got that name from, but if it is a chicken patty then generally it is flat and of a regular shape. While a chicken breast is slightly mounded and irregular in shape.



Plus one bite and the texture will tell you. You must not have much chicken in you life if you can't tell.

Answer 3

ofcourse the inside of fake chicken looks scrumble, but real chicken its smooth and you ripp pieces from it.

Answer 4

easiest way to tell, pull it apart, and if it comes apart with fibers that stretch across the cut of meat, it hasn't been reformed.