Chicken Breasts - Best one to buy?

vicwatson

I am looking for large, preferably free range or organic, chicken breasts, I think the breasts tend to be smaller on free range or organic chicken????

Wondering if any of the multiples supply decent sized ones? I'd love to hear peoples experience/suggestions. Would I be better to buy whole chickens than just the breasts?

TIA

SB_Part2

If you're looking for large then the butchers is probably the best option.

If that's not an option I think the Aldi one's are bigger than average.

harr

I find the on the bone breasts bigger than fillets ..I just bone them myself always seem a lot bigger than buying fillets ....butchers is where you will get the best value chicken breasts on the bone...same as free range I find the best value in ALDI where I buy a full free range chicken and debone it ..I think a medium free range in ALDI is about 6 quid ...

vicwatson

SB_Part2 wrote: »

If you're looking for large then the butchers is probably the best option.

If that's not an option I think the Aldi one's are bigger than average.

Tks, I'm looking for Irish, properly sourced, don't want imported chicken, I want to buy the best there is, one with the best flavour etc

harr wrote: »

I find the on the bone breasts bigger than fillets ..I just bone them myself always seem a lot bigger than buying fillets ....butchers is where you will get the best value chicken breasts on the bone...same as free range I find the best value in ALDI where I buy a full free range chicken and debone it ..I think a medium free range in ALDI is about 6 quid ...

Cheers for that

harr

vicwatson wrote: »

Tks, I'm looking for Irish, properly sourced, don't want imported chicken, I want to buy the best there is, one with the best flavour etc



Cheers for that

The ALDI chickens are all from Irish farms ...

whiskeyman

harr wrote: »

The ALDI chickens are all from Irish farms ...

the fresh refrigerated ones anyway.

I'm not certain on the frozen ones.

I've posted on here before that I got a chicken wrap from aldi (made in IReland) but had Brazilian chicken in it.

If you really want 'the best there is' you'll be paying for it.
Organic / corn fed chicken is a lot dearer.

vicwatson

harr wrote: »

The ALDI chickens are all from Irish farms ...

Yes but am looking for something a bit special.

Ideally free range organic large chicken breasts, maybe they don't exist, as in maybe free range chickens don't grow as large as the houses ones??

Mary63

Supervalu is your best bet.

Aldi chicken is seemingly mostly french.It could be wrapped in an Irish wrapper but that doesn't mean the chicken was reared in Ireland.

whiskeyman

Mary63 wrote: »

Aldi chicken is seemingly mostly french.

got proof / source for this?

Mary63

A craft butcher told me that, he does work for supervalu though.Seemingly you can legally say chicken is Irish if it is enclosed in an Irish wrapper.This was news to me.You should be careful buying smoked salmon too.If the wrapper says Irish smoked salmon it could be from Scotland, you have to buy the salmon thats says smoked Irish salmon.

Dunnes chicken comes from the North of Ireland.

I know I thought my local butcher was selling Irish chicken but when I asked him he told me his chicken came from the Netherlands.Some of the chicken we are buying has come from Taiwan.

meeeeh

vicwatson wrote: »

Yes but am looking for something a bit special.

Ideally free range organic large chicken breasts, maybe they don't exist, as in maybe free range chickens don't grow as large as the houses ones??

Aldi chicken breasts are ok. You could also check independent farm stores with local producebor good butcher. But frankly if you are going for the taste then you would be just as well off using whole chicken. Breast is the most boring bit so don't expect miracles no matter what you use.

whiskeyman

Mary63 wrote: »

A craft butcher told me that, he does work for supervalu though.Seemingly you can legally say chicken is Irish if it is enclosed in an Irish wrapper.This was news to me.You should be careful buying smoked salmon too.If the wrapper says Irish smoked salmon it could be from Scotland, you have to buy the salmon thats says smoked Irish salmon.

Dunnes chicken comes from the North of Ireland.

I know I thought my local butcher was selling Irish chicken but when I asked him he told me his chicken came from the Netherlands.Some of the chicken we are buying has come from Taiwan.

Fresh Aldi chickens have the Board Bia assurance mark, so they are Irish.
You're biased friend may be thinking of a different chicken product.

The smoked salmon one should be well known.
There's a big difference between Irish smoked salmon, and smoked Irish salmon

A lot of butchers I've visited sell dutch chicken - you'll notice the 'NL' mark on the packet, and they won't be marketing it as 'Irish' either.
I remember reading 90% of chicken sold in restaurants / delis / canteens was imported.

If you're buying foodstuff with chicken as an ingredient, it's a lot hard to trace it back - see my example of the fresh wrap from Aldi above.

But where it's being marketed as Irish, I'm pretty sure all Aldi fresh meat is Irish.

blahblahbla

I learned this from speaking with a butcher. Most meat labeled Irish is not actually raised in Ireland but imported from other countries and packaged here.I'm not sure how you can identify from the label where the animal was raised. Also fillets always seem to have alot of excess water in them, you might be better off with a full chicken as you may get more meat from it.

meeeeh

blahblahbla wrote: »

I learned this from speaking with a butcher. Most meat labeled Irish is not actually raised in Ireland but imported from other countries and packaged here.I'm not sure how you can identify from the label where the animal was raised. Also fillets always seem to have alot of excess water in them, you might be better off with a full chicken as you may get more meat from it.

You can't just package imported chicken bits and label it Irish. What you can do though is import bits of chicken, stick breadcrumbs on and sell it and badge it as produced in Ireland.

coylemj

I believe the bags of chicken 'bits' that are supplied to the catering trade (mainly for curries) are all imported from Asia. Most whole chickens are supposedly Irish but you can never be sure with the larger cuts like breasts and legs. I bought a pack of breasts (not claiming to be organic or freerange) in Lidl the other day and there was a name of a farm in Co. Monaghan on the label so they were probably genuine Irish chickens.

OP wants to 'buy the best there is' which suggests that money is no object so maybe he should try Cavistons in Glasthule.

harr

As mentioned whole chicken or chicken breast labelled as irish and board bia stamped has to be farmed and butchered in Ireland ... again as mentioned nothing stopping a food processor buying in chicken from other countries and making a new product with that chicken and then sticking a made In Ireland sticker on it... supermarket or butcher are not allowed buy in whole meat products and just put irish labels on them..
Poster above is correct in stating that the majority of chicken breast/pieces in butchers is Dutch ...same as the majority of poultry in irish restaurants comes from over seas especially Chinese takeaways or fast food outlets.

vicwatson

meeeeh wrote: »

You can't just package imported chicken bits and label it Irish. What you can do though is import bits of chicken, stick breadcrumbs on and sell it and badge it as produced in Ireland.

Yes, as they do with a lot of "Irish" chicken goujons

vicwatson

coylemj wrote: »

I believe the bags of chicken 'bits' that are supplied to the catering trade (mainly for curries) are all imported from Asia. Most whole chickens are supposedly Irish but you can never be sure with the larger cuts like breasts and legs. I bought a pack of breasts (not claiming to be organic or freerange) in Lidl the other day and there was a name of a farm in Co. Monaghan on the label so they were probably genuine Irish chickens.

OP wants to 'buy the best there is' which suggests that money is no object so maybe he should try Cavistons in Glasthule.

Thanks. Names names that's what I'm after :pac:

Edit - just looked at Cavistons, no chicken by the looks of it

bobgaf

http://www.jameswhelanbutchers.com/

Mary63

This butcher told me you can package imported chicken and label it as Irish meeeh, I was taken aback but he said its totally legal.

Its like calling suicre Irish sugar, there is no sugar made in Ireland and hasn't been for years.

meeeeh

Mary63 wrote: »

This butcher told me you can package imported chicken and label it as Irish meeeh, I was taken aback but he said its totally legal.

Its like calling suicre Irish sugar, there is no sugar made in Ireland and hasn't been for years.

No it's not. Irish name is used Suicre but it's not claimed as Irish. The same goes for Boyne Valley honey etc.

Your butcher is wrong. You most definitely can't label raw imported chicken as Irish. You can label processed chicken as produced in Ireland.

caviardreams

Unless it is clearly specified as Irish, I think it is fair to assume a lot of chicken fillets in butchers are actually Dutch/non-Irish (I even saw a pack in one butcher branded "Sli Eile" to give the impression of being Irish but the produced code was clearly NL and it never stated it was Irish or had the Bord bia mark). I actually think when it comes to chicken fillets - the traceability in Supermarkets is better than butchers - supermarkets cannot label a fresh, unprocessed chicken fillet as Irish and use the Bord Bia mark unless it is Irish reared.

I personally always buy Irish free range chicken fillets - I have tried a good few places and really like the Farmers to Market range - you can get them in Super Valu and Tesco - and the code is also the same as on the SV own brand free range fillets so they must produce those too (though may use a different quality fillet etc. - who knows!)

They are pricey - personally I find the best bang for your buck with free range chicken fillets is Tesco:
https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=290300668
Very competitive price wise, and I find them much nicer than the LIDL and Aldi free range ones (even though I generally find all the other aldi/lidl meat top notch). I think it really depends on the farm they come from with chicken - the ones in Tesco tend to be from Limerick, Newcastlewest and Cavan and a few other places and I find they are reliably good.

Regarding the size, sometimes bigger is not necessarily better - if you find they are too small just serve 2!

coylemj

vicwatson wrote: »

Thanks. Names names that's what I'm after :pac:

Edit - just looked at Cavistons, no chicken by the looks of it

You'll have to visit their shop in Glasthule if you want to buy their chicken i.e. chicken isn't listed under 'Shop Online' but if you click on 'Food Emporium', then 'Seafood and Fine meats', you'll find this in the 'Fine Meats' section...

We stock Free Range and Organic Chickens; 100% Irish and locally reared.

http://cavistons.com/food-emporium/seafood-fine-meats/

Lady Haywire

We always get organic chicken from a market, I could only remember the packaging saying Kildare so I just googled it and it's ''Margaret McDonnell, Ballysax, Curragh, Co. Kildare (licence no 4233) who is certified organic chicken producer.''

Few different places seem to stock it but you can also buy it online it seems.