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Yesterday, I smoked 26 split chicken breasts. Most were consumed immediately at a family birthday dinner for a young nephew; the rest we froze. The chicken was tender and tasty despite a troublesome end to the four hour smoking process where one rack of breasts reached the required temperature sooner than the rest. With white-meat chicken, end-cooking-temperature is critical, go over it and the meat becomes dry, tasteless, and tough. And, of course, opening the smoker to remove something early slows and complicates the cooking process. We bought the chicken at the local Walmart. Chicken is the only kind of meat I'll buy at Walmart. I claim the rest of their meat must make the long trip from processors in China, although I know that really isn't true. The split breasts were packed 5 to a package which meant they averaged a little over a pound apiece and were too big for convenient servings. For the last several years, the same weight-packaging contained 7 breasts. I have to wonder whether this is an example of Walmart's commitment to continual profit improvement and the result of a calculation involving the cost of chickenfeed, growth-time and worker's wages. I'd like to find a store that sells half-pound split chicken breasts. That would be more consistent with the downsizing of our 401K. I end with pictures of two cooking experiments that looked great but tasted terrible. |
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