pounding chicken gets stingy
I'm hoping someone can answer this question. I got "fresh" chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts from the meat counter at the local grocery store. Since they were various sizes, I tried pounding them to get the to a consistent size for cooking times. Well as I was pounding them the breasts tended to split and in some places they got stingy looking. They were thick stings about 1/8" wide, but then instead of nice looking pounded breasts I had a mess of stringy meat,
What did I do wrong?
Pounded to hard?
Pounded to soft?
Wrong type of surface? I had a piece of plastic wrap on the bottom and top of them.
Bad quality meat?
I'm making Fajitas tonight and the breasts that we got are really thick and varous sized again. I'm thinking of pounding them to get them to a consistent size again for cooking times, but I'm afraid they will get stringy again.
6 Comments
Thanks all for your help.
I have to add that these were LARGE breasts, each was in excess of a pound, so I think that may have something to do with it.
What were you using to pound them? I like to use a heavy, flat pan so that one or two thwacks is enough to flatten them. I also butterfly them if they are way too thick before pounding.
Voted the Best Reply!