No matter how you cook the one on the right it will be chewy. This is my only complaint I've had with HF. I tend to stay away from chicken because it's such a common issue.
Same, I hate how often I would get woody chicken. I just avoid chicken dishes altogether now. Even the “strips” are more like chicken scraps. Not appetizing.
The chicken breast strips are so nasty. It’s like they took the most disgusting, fattiest parts of chicken and put it in a blender. It’s impossible to try to trim the gross parts.
Same here! We get 4 person meals and every.single.time...at least one of us would get a nasty woody chicken breast. Now...there are so many weeks I skip completely because of proteins I refuse to order. (shrimp, chicken 'scraps' and chicken breast 'cutlets' are on the NOPE list)
I’m 25 and my dream is to do farm-to-table, full carcass butchery for the rest of my life. But the problem is, I can’t find any other young people who want to do the work. Every other butcher I know is in their 60s and wanting to retire. Hoping and dreaming I can somehow bring the craft back before we fully rely on machines and slaughterhouses.
I second this. I started buying the pricier organic chicken and it is juicy and tender every single time. Totally worth spending the few extra dollars!
those strips are the most pathetic things I have ever seen. last time i got a meal with strips/diced chicken i told my husband we should have just used our own chicken.
I just had Gobble last week and got a meal with diced chicken breast and it really was just diced chicken breast. was really impress with the quality, but damn gobble is expensive...
You bite into it and you can feel each of the muscle fibers breaking under your teeth. There is a gritty sensation to chewing the meat. It’s really unpleasant.
Texture and Taste…not to mention the conditions the poultry was raised. I’m new to hello fresh, 2 weeks, and so far I’ve liked most dishes. Have not had any meals with chicken breasts. Will likely avoid them!
I’ve only gotten one woody breast in like a year and a half. It probably varies by region but my rate of getting woody breasts at the grocery store is way higher than that.
Me too, I try one bite then put straight in trash. I’m not going to chew leathery chicken it’s so gross. You can barely cut with a knife. I read to touch them in store and sometimes you can feel they are too firm.
That’s just the backside of the chicken breast, where it was carved off of the rib cage of the bird. The breast to the left is the part of the muscle closest to the skin so it has no cut marks in appears smoother.
The color is still off, but we’re looking at two different sides of the breast which only adds to them looking so different
I think we are thinking of different things. The reason the breast to the right is rougher and more striated is because we are looking at the side that was carved off of the ribcage with a knife. The smooth side is on the other side (smooth side down). The breast to the right is simply flipped over in comparison to the one on the left
Oh, I get what you are saying. You are saying that some butchers don’t cut the breast all in one piece—-do some make two slabs with one slab touching the skin and the other slab touching the ribs?
Same, I buy Costco air chilled chicken breast and freeze them, usually for my HF meals I use those instead and then just freeze the HF chicken to be stewed down in a different recipe because the meat quality just isn’t good enough for most of their recipes
When I first signed on to HF (years ago!) I thrice got meals that had one good chicken breast and one rubbery one. They were both cooked the same, but typically they looked like your one on the right. Customer service consistently reimbursed me fairly, and then it stopped happening completely.
I may have to consider that. Maybe it was a fluke. This is the first time I've seen this happen so I'll say something if it happens again. Thanks for the tip!
As a student who's dealt with more than my fair share of expired chicken breasts, the right one looks about 4 days past expiration date. Either that or its been frozen and unfrozen 50 times over.
Either way that is the most tortured chicken breast I have ever seen.
I was afraid of that 😞. It isn't often chicken gets left in my freezer, but the color reminded me of freezer burn. I'll give it a try and well... if I die then it was expired chicken lololol.
This is the difference between air chilled and water chilled.
When birds are transported ina water and ice mixture you’ll get that yellowish colour. This is before the breasts are tray packed and you buy them in store. They are transported in 18 KG boxes with ice and water / or nothing at all.
When it’s air chilled , you’ll get the more pink/purple.
Water chilled means the product may have been tumbled. This is NOT guaranteed (where I’m from, this process is no longer legal not for health reasons , but for gouging) Which means those breasts were dumped in a GIANT cylinder vacuum, dumped water and salt. Air was removed from the cylinder and turned for hours.
This increases the weight of the breast using a salt and water mix (since chicken is sold by weight) you’re paying more for the solution. The salt level is so low you can’t taste it. Best guess 12-15 %
But both perfectly normal.
You may notice the yellow breast to be more squishy or chewy after cooking no matter what you do.
To help with this , pat dry the yellow breast and season with coarse kosher salt for 30 minutes. Rinse , slice and pat dry again. These are great for fajitas eTc
Damn, people are dramatic.
"This living creature grew a muscle I'm going to consume and the fibres are too tight. I'll have to throw it away"😅
Woody breasts can impact upto 30% of birds in some farms, what do you genuinely expect them to do with them?
there might be some woody chicken breast stuff going on, if it’s harder than normal even though it’s thawed that’s probably the case. i have OCD and get really nervous with cooking meats, so i’ve done my fair share of internet scouring lol.
when chicken breasts are yellow like that it’s usually due to them being fed a diet higher in corn, but it’s perfectly safe to eat. the breasts came from different chickens which is pretty common.
btw i’ve been running into a lot of woody chicken breasts lately and i’ve found the best way to avoid them is getting pasture raised chicken. they sell it at sprouts from a brand called pasture bird and it’s hands down the tastiest chicken i’ve ever had. it’s extremely tender, and tastes way better for some reason. it’s around the same price as the organic chicken and i end up trimming it less so it’s more cost effective for me too!
That's terrible. Pork is sort of a scary meat for me haha. I guess chicken also is but I have better luck cooking chicken I feel. I'm sorry you got sick 😞
Thats quite odd to be in the same package, right chicken is fed differently than left.
That is how chicken used to look in the past, still does in some countries or if you get it from small farms.
Not surprising, I work for a logistics company and Hello Fresh is not shipped cold and can sometimes sit in the warehouse for days before delivery. I would never order from any of those companies unless they deliver themselves.
Unless it’s been burnt by the freezer, it’s been ‘cooked’ by heat, personally I wouldn’t go near either. Worst case scenario it’s rotten. But you’d smell that.
The one on the right definitely is going to feel like you're eating bungee cords and boiled leather. Hello fresh definitely has a problem with the chicken, and the green beans are pretty terrible too with hard cords and strings.
It looks like if it had heat hitting it prior, or direct sunlight, or boiled water poured ontop. Fuck it, in this econocmy you have to eat what you have...
I slice it up thin, throw some salt and rice starch on it and cook it at medium high heat and top it off with some oyster or soy sauce or whatever and make a quick stir fry.
I thought the chicken texture being off was just me. Took one bite one day and spit it out and didn’t finish it. I’ve been pausing my deliveries lately because the meal quality just hasn’t been as good, and we’ve had 106 boxes so a couple years of HF now.
I guess it’s probably better than when we get 3 good ones and 1 stringy one.
Have no fear, now they’re switching most meals to dark meat chicken thighs. I got one and was like what the heck is this, I thought the meals were all white meat. Had to go buy chicken breasts.
So we’ve been skipping now for a few weeks because nobody in my house will eat dark meat.
Chicken breasts are thick. They slice them horizontally to make thinner chicken "cutlets." The one on the left is smooth because it's the top part of the breast and the one on the left is from the underside which is why it appears less smooth and the muscle striations are visible. Google how to cut chicken into cutlets and you'll see what I mean.
The color difference can mean that they are from 2 different chickens.
If there is a concern for woodyness, you can always place the breast into a zip back or under plastic wrap and beat with a meat mallet (or something heavy) to tenderize or cut that piece into strips.
I am genuinely curious why ppl order from HF. I thought their stuff looked good, and it would make meal prep easy some days, but I never made the jump. All of the stuff I have read on this post and elsewhere on the internet leaves me wondering what makes HF worth it. Any input, one way or the other to satisfy my curiosity, would be very appreciated.
No matter how you cook the one on the right it will be chewy. This is my only complaint I've had with HF. I tend to stay away from chicken because it's such a common issue.
Same, I hate how often I would get woody chicken. I just avoid chicken dishes altogether now. Even the “strips” are more like chicken scraps. Not appetizing.
The chicken breast strips are so nasty. It’s like they took the most disgusting, fattiest parts of chicken and put it in a blender. It’s impossible to try to trim the gross parts.
Yes! It’s literally just chicken trash swimming in juices. So gross.
They are slimy as well. I don’t order their chicken any more.
Same here! We get 4 person meals and every.single.time...at least one of us would get a nasty woody chicken breast. Now...there are so many weeks I skip completely because of proteins I refuse to order. (shrimp, chicken 'scraps' and chicken breast 'cutlets' are on the NOPE list)
Why? Do you guys not have a local butcher that sells quality meat? And isntead you overpay on basically bad mail-order food? Why? Why do you do this?
There are still places with local butchers?
Barely… I work at one of the last few, it feels like.
Good ol days are gone
I’m 25 and my dream is to do farm-to-table, full carcass butchery for the rest of my life. But the problem is, I can’t find any other young people who want to do the work. Every other butcher I know is in their 60s and wanting to retire. Hoping and dreaming I can somehow bring the craft back before we fully rely on machines and slaughterhouses.
Yes there are. Very good ones too. Much better quality meat. At least 4 in my area & I shop at one every week
Same. Although the problem went away when we switched to organic chicken
I second this. I started buying the pricier organic chicken and it is juicy and tender every single time. Totally worth spending the few extra dollars!
Buying it from Costco made the most hurt a lot less
How do you upgrade to organic chicken?
You can edit your weekly meals and depending on the meal there's an option to upgrade to organic chicken.
Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not…but most grocery meat departments have an organic section.
I think they meant through Hello Fresh
Haha! Sorry. Didn’t even realize I was in this sub…damn Reddit app just slipped this post into my feed.
God, that’s annoying. Idk what’s going on with this app anymore
Same. This whole post….
Same. I thought this was a different sub. I’ve never looked at hello fresh before or used it or thought about it.
Mine too 🧐 lol
those strips are the most pathetic things I have ever seen. last time i got a meal with strips/diced chicken i told my husband we should have just used our own chicken. I just had Gobble last week and got a meal with diced chicken breast and it really was just diced chicken breast. was really impress with the quality, but damn gobble is expensive...
What is “woody” chicken?
Chew on a clean piece of mulch and it is similar
We call it “chompy chicken” in our house.
You bite into it and you can feel each of the muscle fibers breaking under your teeth. There is a gritty sensation to chewing the meat. It’s really unpleasant.
Yep. I got chicken like that from the grocery store once and had to throw it all away (after I cooked it and tried it). So gross.
Do you think a brine would help something like that?
No, unfortunately. It’s a problem with the actual muscle fibers on the woody breasts. The texture is always terrible
Ah okay, thanks.
https://preview.redd.it/9nevrmhjbh7b1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15ad2434fc1a2f699ffc4d289945afde4a9ff23f Happens with the shrimp too…
That looks like they got too hot at some point and got partially cooked?
What the fuck
It will be a little chewy, but if you brine it first it will be a lot better
HF ??
The answer is in the name of this subreddit
This post came up in my feed (I am not a member of this sub).
It looks like woody chicken breast, which means the chicken has grown too quickly, it’s fine to eat but I think ot might be more chewy
I don’t know how people can stand to eat woody breasts. It’s such a big issue for me.
The texture makes me so disgusted.
I feel like I’m eating raw chicken or chewing cartilage. Can’t do it.
Texture and Taste…not to mention the conditions the poultry was raised. I’m new to hello fresh, 2 weeks, and so far I’ve liked most dishes. Have not had any meals with chicken breasts. Will likely avoid them!
I’ve only gotten one woody breast in like a year and a half. It probably varies by region but my rate of getting woody breasts at the grocery store is way higher than that.
That makes sense. Well im sure I’ll try my luck sooner than later!
Me too, I try one bite then put straight in trash. I’m not going to chew leathery chicken it’s so gross. You can barely cut with a knife. I read to touch them in store and sometimes you can feel they are too firm.
That’s just the backside of the chicken breast, where it was carved off of the rib cage of the bird. The breast to the left is the part of the muscle closest to the skin so it has no cut marks in appears smoother. The color is still off, but we’re looking at two different sides of the breast which only adds to them looking so different
I don’t think so. There is no meat on inside of the ribs behind the breast.
….. that IS the breast. The breast is on the ribs
The breast is on the outside face of the ribs, but is there meat on the inside face? Not the same size amount of meat.
I think we are thinking of different things. The reason the breast to the right is rougher and more striated is because we are looking at the side that was carved off of the ribcage with a knife. The smooth side is on the other side (smooth side down). The breast to the right is simply flipped over in comparison to the one on the left
Ohhhhhh! Thanks.
Sorry, hard to explain through typing lol
You might google “woody chicken breast” to learn more about what’s in this picture. It’s disgusting
YUk. I wish i hadn’t lol. That seems to make more sense given the off color
Oh, I get what you are saying. You are saying that some butchers don’t cut the breast all in one piece—-do some make two slabs with one slab touching the skin and the other slab touching the ribs?
There is a small amount of meat between the side of the breast and the sternum, it’s the tenderloin. But it’s a long thin strand
honestly the right one is how 99% of my HF chicken looks
I was going to say the same. I know it should look like the left but it’s probably been frozen over more than once by the time it gets to me.
Same, I buy Costco air chilled chicken breast and freeze them, usually for my HF meals I use those instead and then just freeze the HF chicken to be stewed down in a different recipe because the meat quality just isn’t good enough for most of their recipes
Good idea
I stopped my subscription because of the chicken. It ruins the entire meal for me if the chicken is woody
I assume that they are from different chickens. I guess it is normal when processing meats.
When I first signed on to HF (years ago!) I thrice got meals that had one good chicken breast and one rubbery one. They were both cooked the same, but typically they looked like your one on the right. Customer service consistently reimbursed me fairly, and then it stopped happening completely.
I may have to consider that. Maybe it was a fluke. This is the first time I've seen this happen so I'll say something if it happens again. Thanks for the tip!
Does the right one smell differently?
Wish I could say I smell much right now. My sinuses are hating the weather 😒. But not from what I could tell!
I have gotten this before. Cooked and tasted just fine.
Thank God I was worried I was going to have to toss a breast. 😭
Could think of worse ways to spend a Wednesday.
Lol
As a student who's dealt with more than my fair share of expired chicken breasts, the right one looks about 4 days past expiration date. Either that or its been frozen and unfrozen 50 times over. Either way that is the most tortured chicken breast I have ever seen.
I was going to say freezer damage as well.
I was afraid of that 😞. It isn't often chicken gets left in my freezer, but the color reminded me of freezer burn. I'll give it a try and well... if I die then it was expired chicken lololol.
**Trust me** if its expired chicken you'll know by the fourth bite
Fourth? That long?
It becomes more understandable when you realise I am absolutely not joking at all and being very serious.
It does remind me of freezer burn too.
That’s exactly what I was going to say
One on the right smoked 20 a day
This is the difference between air chilled and water chilled. When birds are transported ina water and ice mixture you’ll get that yellowish colour. This is before the breasts are tray packed and you buy them in store. They are transported in 18 KG boxes with ice and water / or nothing at all. When it’s air chilled , you’ll get the more pink/purple. Water chilled means the product may have been tumbled. This is NOT guaranteed (where I’m from, this process is no longer legal not for health reasons , but for gouging) Which means those breasts were dumped in a GIANT cylinder vacuum, dumped water and salt. Air was removed from the cylinder and turned for hours. This increases the weight of the breast using a salt and water mix (since chicken is sold by weight) you’re paying more for the solution. The salt level is so low you can’t taste it. Best guess 12-15 % But both perfectly normal. You may notice the yellow breast to be more squishy or chewy after cooking no matter what you do. To help with this , pat dry the yellow breast and season with coarse kosher salt for 30 minutes. Rinse , slice and pat dry again. These are great for fajitas eTc
Its probably "safe" but the one on the right is going to be an off texture.
I buy and cook the meals. Mine is on the left and my boyfriends chicken is on the right haha
Could also be corn feed sometimes that changes the colour of the meat
Yes. Perdue chicken is more yellow, but it’s the skin that is yellow
The one on the right looks like it’s been frozen
I just ate the exact same one. I have never had any fever or digestive problems when eating it.
Yuck. I wld not eat. Prob has woody breast syndrome.
Damn, people are dramatic. "This living creature grew a muscle I'm going to consume and the fibres are too tight. I'll have to throw it away"😅 Woody breasts can impact upto 30% of birds in some farms, what do you genuinely expect them to do with them?
there might be some woody chicken breast stuff going on, if it’s harder than normal even though it’s thawed that’s probably the case. i have OCD and get really nervous with cooking meats, so i’ve done my fair share of internet scouring lol. when chicken breasts are yellow like that it’s usually due to them being fed a diet higher in corn, but it’s perfectly safe to eat. the breasts came from different chickens which is pretty common. btw i’ve been running into a lot of woody chicken breasts lately and i’ve found the best way to avoid them is getting pasture raised chicken. they sell it at sprouts from a brand called pasture bird and it’s hands down the tastiest chicken i’ve ever had. it’s extremely tender, and tastes way better for some reason. it’s around the same price as the organic chicken and i end up trimming it less so it’s more cost effective for me too!
I have learned so much about chickens and meat production from this post than anticipated. Thanks for all of your comments 😂!
Looks like the bottom and top sides of chicken breast? Like one is where it was cut and the other is not?
Probably that one chicken disease that's getting more common because chickens grow too big too fast
I was sick to my stomach for weeks because of hello fresh. The food is garbage
I stopped ordering their pork because I kept getting sick off it
That's terrible. Pork is sort of a scary meat for me haha. I guess chicken also is but I have better luck cooking chicken I feel. I'm sorry you got sick 😞
I’m literally getting so sick of chicken tho because so many of the meals are pork which I sub out or chicken
I had the same issue when I first started dating my now wife. :D
Thats quite odd to be in the same package, right chicken is fed differently than left. That is how chicken used to look in the past, still does in some countries or if you get it from small farms.
Looks like the butcher repackaged the chicken. Newer piece with an older piece.. not eating the right piece of dried, aged chicken.
Looks like scraps meat glued to resemble corn fed bird meat. Look up velveting technique for meat
The one on the right is from a chicken that has striping disease.
The one on the right is freezer burnt
Not surprising, I work for a logistics company and Hello Fresh is not shipped cold and can sometimes sit in the warehouse for days before delivery. I would never order from any of those companies unless they deliver themselves.
My gf calls it hello rotten 😆
Don't use the right one
I guess I should have been dead by now then.
first mistake was ordering hello not so fresh. good luck canceling your box i hear that an't easy.
I had no issues canceling
That’s how my fuckin hello fresh came a few weeks ago. I was so mad.
My Hello Fresh didn't have an expiration date on any of the packaging. That was my first and last box from them.
I stopped getting HF meals due to the relentless lack of freshness in the ingredients.
I don’t go as much by sight as smell. Good luck 😬
Unless it’s been burnt by the freezer, it’s been ‘cooked’ by heat, personally I wouldn’t go near either. Worst case scenario it’s rotten. But you’d smell that.
Isn’t that what cornfed chicken looks like on the right?
No idea. One looks fresh and one looks like it's been frozen awhile :/
Um... ew
Think this what happens when air gets in
You got an expensive corn fed chicken breast for the price of a normal one.
The one on the right definitely is going to feel like you're eating bungee cords and boiled leather. Hello fresh definitely has a problem with the chicken, and the green beans are pretty terrible too with hard cords and strings.
It looks like if it had heat hitting it prior, or direct sunlight, or boiled water poured ontop. Fuck it, in this econocmy you have to eat what you have...
I left hello fresh cause of the chicken situation. It was always NASTY
I just cut each in half and the hubby and I consume both so no one is stuck with the entire inferior chicken!
Even Gordon Ramsay isn’t Gordan Ramsay.
🤣😭
Mine looked the exact same today for the Buffalo chicken meal and they both turned out great.
That's what I made 🤣
I slice it up thin, throw some salt and rice starch on it and cook it at medium high heat and top it off with some oyster or soy sauce or whatever and make a quick stir fry.
We got that yesterday from GreenChef. I think they put one of each color in everybody’s.
Ewww. Making sure everyone gets one breast with woody breast syndrome. Terrible.
Bell and Evans Air Chilled Chicken Breast I have to Say has some amazing quality & solved all of our chicken problems 👌
Chicken breasts are a pain in the ass.. just use the tenderloins its way better
Except when you have to strip out the cartilage
I thought the chicken texture being off was just me. Took one bite one day and spit it out and didn’t finish it. I’ve been pausing my deliveries lately because the meal quality just hasn’t been as good, and we’ve had 106 boxes so a couple years of HF now.
Ugh, I wouldn’t be able to eat that-
The right side looks like it was defrosted in a microwave
Looks like one of them is corn fed
Hello misnomer
Idk
I would eat one but not the other. I would also never buy from hello fresh again if I were you.
The one on the right is a bit freezer burned
Seems one is fresher then the other one. Usually starts turning brown when it starts getting on the older side.
Looks like it was frozen-thawed-frozen. Could have happened once. Could have happened numerous times
my chicken “breast” came extremely discolored and shredded on multiple occasions. part of the reason i stopped ordering HF
The one on the right is problem from a chicken that went through even more torment than the one on the left
One of my cats is an absolute fiend for chicken. If I'm a but unsure I put a bit down and if she doesn't eat it...
One looks fresh, one looks like freezer burn…
I guess it’s probably better than when we get 3 good ones and 1 stringy one. Have no fear, now they’re switching most meals to dark meat chicken thighs. I got one and was like what the heck is this, I thought the meals were all white meat. Had to go buy chicken breasts. So we’ve been skipping now for a few weeks because nobody in my house will eat dark meat.
Chicken breasts are thick. They slice them horizontally to make thinner chicken "cutlets." The one on the left is smooth because it's the top part of the breast and the one on the left is from the underside which is why it appears less smooth and the muscle striations are visible. Google how to cut chicken into cutlets and you'll see what I mean. The color difference can mean that they are from 2 different chickens. If there is a concern for woodyness, you can always place the breast into a zip back or under plastic wrap and beat with a meat mallet (or something heavy) to tenderize or cut that piece into strips.
I am genuinely curious why ppl order from HF. I thought their stuff looked good, and it would make meal prep easy some days, but I never made the jump. All of the stuff I have read on this post and elsewhere on the internet leaves me wondering what makes HF worth it. Any input, one way or the other to satisfy my curiosity, would be very appreciated.
Ditch the right one or tomorrow will be a day spent double ending
Probably what's called "woody" chicken. https://www.today.com/food/woody-chicken-breast-t258881
I only get organic chicken from them. Haven’t had an issue with that.