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Chicken · cuts in detail
One bird, two completely different meats
The breast is muscle a chicken almost never uses, pale, lean, and dry within a minute of being ready. The legs carry it around all day, darker, fattier, and almost impossible to overcook. Half the complaints about dry chicken are people using the wrong half of the bird.
Start here
Tap the chicken
Nine cuts across the bird. Tap any one to find out what it is, how long it needs and what it is actually for.
→ Tap a cut on the chart
Nine cuts, one bird
Tap any cut on the chart. Every tile is a photograph of what actually comes over the counter.
The question worth understanding
White meat or dark?
This is the only real decision on a chicken, and it decides everything else, cooking time, method, and whether it ends up dry.
Breast
White · barely used
A chicken does not fly, so the breast is a muscle that has done almost nothing. It is the leanest meat on the bird and the least forgiving. There is no fat inside it to keep it moist, so the window between cooked and dry is about ninety seconds wide. Best diced small for a quick curry, or cooked whole and taken off the heat earlier than feels right.
Breast Fillets →Leg and thigh
Dark · works all day
The legs hold the bird up and move it about, so they are darker, denser and threaded with far more fat. That fat is insurance: leg meat will sit in a hot karahi for twenty minutes past done and still be juicy. It also carries a great deal more flavour. For anything with a sauce, this is the half of the bird you want.
Chicken Legs →For a karahi, a biryani or anything left to simmer, leg, on the bone. For a quick fry or a tikka, breast, diced small. Buying breast for a slow curry is the most common mistake there is.
The second question
Curry cut, or boneless?
We sell both and they cook completely differently. It is worth knowing which your dish wants before you order.
On the bone
The bone releases collagen and marrow into the sauce as it cooks, which is what gives a proper karahi its body. It also protects the meat from the heat, so nothing dries. Slower to eat, better to taste.
Boneless
Faster, cleaner, easier for children and easier to portion. Right for tikka, stir-fries and anything going into a wrap. Diced small it cooks in minutes, do not walk away from it.
Both
Plenty of cooks buy mixed curry cut: bone-in pieces for the base of the sauce, boneless for the body of the dish. Ask and we will bag it that way.
The whole bird
Buying it whole
Cheaper per kilo than any single cut, and you get every part of the bird, including the carcass, which is where a proper stock comes from.
Baby
Around 900g. Small, tender and quick, right for roasting whole or splitting for the grill. Ask at the counter or call the order line on 07479 462297 and we will put one by for you.
Medium
Around 1.5kg. The everyday bird. Roast it, or have us skin it and chop it for curry.
Hen
An older, tougher bird with far more flavour. It needs hours, not minutes, and it makes the best yakhni there is.
The full picture
Every chicken cut, on one chart
Where each cut sits on the animal and what it is called at the counter. Save it to your phone, or tap it to open full size.
Tell us the dish. We will cut the bird.
Karahi, biryani, tikka, a roast or wings for the grill, skinned or not, on the bone or off, cut however you need it, fresh the same day.
Shop all chickenCut names change from household to household and region to region. If you call something by a different name, describe the dish and we will know exactly what you mean.
Cook it with HMC-certified halal chicken from our counter. Hand slaughtered, monitored by the Halal Monitoring Committee, and cut the way you ask for it at 26-28 City Road, Bradford. Collect in about two hours or local delivery within seven miles.
Order halal chicken onlineWhat HMC certified means