Fast Food Chicken Joints...

Hi choudhary03, You've made a good observation here. The home cook has a vested interest in producing quality, while the fast food joint is focused on profit. Thanks for your thoughts!

Hi asawako48162, Thanks for mentioning the Chinese restaurants - they do have chicken in a lot of their dishes, but it's usually thrown in with so many other ingredients that it's hard to mess up. I have a lot of respect for Chinese culture and cuisine. Can't say I'm too hot on the idea of fricasseed feline or dog dumplings, but who hasn't eaten rabbit or pigeon or crocodile at some time or other? Just between you and me, in a perfect world, we'd avoid eating meat altogether, but it's most certainly not a perfect world. In fact, in the Christian tradition (and it's the truth - trust me on this) God made it known to Noah after the Flood that thenceforth, the consumption of flesh would be permitted owing to the substantial reduction in the world's abundance. Don't even get me started on the beef industry - they pump those animals so full of synthetic chemicals that IMO it's madness to eat it (if you value your health).

Hi olivemai, The deep-fried thing really turns me off. As for those hydrogenated vegetable oils, that's a source of way more problems than most people even suspect. Funny how the onset of the Western Type II Diabetes epidemic closely tracks the introduction and proliferation of hydrogenated oils in the food chain. Including (gasp!) margarine. But that's another story, for another lifetime (ie, not the lifetimes of all the people who are going to croak because of it). BUT back to the chooks - lucky you to have free range specialty shops in California!

I agree! I wish there were more places with fast vegetable and fruit dishes that are healthy for you and taste good too!

Hi tinkerick, One thing I will say about fast food joints and chicken, is that IMO the burger franchises (like McDonald's & Burger King) seem to do a better job with the chicken than the specialty chicken places. Also, non-franchise chicken specialty shops probably do a better job than the franchised outlets - otherwise they'd go under real quick. Personalized touch, versus mass-produced stuff, maybe. But I've gotta be honest here - I avoid KFC and Red Rooster like the plague! From repeated experience over many years, I have the firm mindset that anything from those places is just horrible.

also if it is fried the oil must be fresh. stale rancid oil makes chicken taste just awful. grilled is best of course.Ilike Burger Kings Italian chicken.

Hi nicholejade, That's quite a range of chicken outlets you get to choose from! As far as I know, there's not so many chicken franchises in Australia. I only know about KFC and Red Rooster, though there's probably more. Do the Chubby Chickens have more body fat, or are they just turkey-sized chickens?

Chubby Chicken has less than KFC I find. But then again I'm sure they get their chickens from a different distributer than the other does.

Hi chiyosan, KFC has clearly seduced you with their "secret herbs & spices". If you ever need to go into a witness protection program and assume a new identity, I'll volunteer to take your place and eat your mom's chicken instead!

I'm with you re the pharmaceutical companies. They have way too much power and influence and the finances. I am wary of any major corporation and my belief is that they control the government. As for cattle...my best friend is a farmer out here in Pilliga where we live and yep, you guessed it....cattle. Cattle with not one iota of a chemical in or outside of them. I guess you must be talking feed lot cattle or grain fed. I've not been much of a beef eater for about 10 years that I'm aware of. I found it tastes awful or is taste less, tough and too expensive. The only beef I eat now is home grow and what a difference. I had a T_Bone tonight, my least favourite cut normally, and it was just yummy. As for the where nuggets come from, I can't tell you that. I do know they are generally more nugget than chicken. The only thing I now about roosters is a couple of funny jokes.

Thank you for BR dodguy. I a bit surprised but pleased too. Thanks again.

Hi Modestah, I have a theory that the fast-food chicken franchises coat everything with bread and batter so you can't count the wrinkles. That, and lots of grease, seem to be standard ingredients in the fast-food chicken formula. Knowing just how pleasing and satisfying a well-prepared chicken dish can be, all I can say is - what can they possibly be thinking? IMO the burger joints often seem to do a halfway reasonable job with their chicken options. Even Chinese and Pizza outlets manage to add consumer value, or "enhance the customer experience", so to speak, by incorporating chicken into their dishes. It might be that chicken is just not suited as the core commodity of a fast-food franchise.

Hi liquidblot, Your logic is devastating in its eloquence and simplicity. And I'd hazard a guess that you're right, too. I suspect the mass-produced aspect of these operations is their undoing. And yet, they do seem to continue operating, year after year. I guess there's enough people who are easily enough satisfied to keep them in business. Not me, though.

Hi gemini_rose, When I'm reincarnated, I want to come back as your children!

Hi Foxfire1875, It's a little strange, maybe, but in my experience even the drumsticks from the fast food joints are a horror story - wizened, half-burnt little sticks with barely a shred of flesh left under their greasy, cauterized surface. Another post here motivated me to check, and according to [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken ], hormones aren't supposed to be used in Australia or the USA for growing chickens for eating. So in theory, the Franken-Chicken shouldn't actually exist in those countries. I say "in theory", because on the one hand I don't trust any info put out by the pharmaceutical cartels or their government stooges, and on the other hand there's a whole lot more chemicals than just hormones which are fed to chooks to turn a profit, and on the third hand (yes, I'm multi-dextrous) just what Do they do with the poor old chooks who've busted their egg-hole pumping out produce for the masses? On that last question, I smell a loop-hole (amongst other things). But I'd guess you're absolutely 100% right on one point - very doubtful indeed that the fast-food joints would be using free-range.

Hi Hatley, It's good to get some inside info on this subject. I believe that health regulations require changing the frying oil daily in fast food outlets - at least, in the USA and Australia, and probably most other Western countries. So who would have guessed that many fast food joints re-use the oil until it's rancid (and beyond)? I guess it's a no-brainer - where the bottom line is concerned, the only limit is what one can get away with, ie, if they MIGHT be using rancid oil, then they probably are. Makes a nice juicy non-fried burger sound almost appetizing. Yet in my experience, even the chicken burgers from fast-food chicken franchises were quite horrid. Maybe chicken just wasn't meant to be the basis of a fast-food franchise (?). There's no doubt in my mind that pizza and burger joints CAN do good chicken - but (strangely) not the chicken joints. (Or maybe I was born under the rancid chicken sign or something).