Wendy's: "Center cut" chicken breast
May 01, 2009
Americans, by and large, small and large, enjoy bland meat and are turned off by any flesh, muscle or organ that resembles something that might have actually come from an animal. So it's no surprise to see "all white meat chicken" promoted in everything from soup to fajitas, and found on every "Italian" (actually, "Italian-American"...there's very little that is "Italian" about these places) menu in New Jersey, which generally offer 10 different flavors of chicken breast, none of which seem very Italian.
But Wendy's is taking this one step further.
"Center cut" chicken breast. "Only the best part of the chicken breast." Yeah, they're not using that nasty side part of the chicken breast.
I have so many questions:
- How big is this chicken that they're butchering? It's one thing to take the center cut of a 10 pound beef tenderloin, but the "center cut" of a chicken breast???
- Which way do they slice it to even come up with what could be considered a "center"?
- What are they doing with the rest of the breast?
- Chicken breast is "juicy"?
- Fo' real?
But, alas, this is what people want to hear ("white", "juicy", "tender"). I guess the poor taste of the masses is to blame, rather than Wendy's. They're just giving people what they want, and doing a fine job at it I might add.
<mini-rant>I'm compelled to add that the so-called "mystery meat" is probably responsible for some of the better tasting treats on this planet (while chicken breast is most definitely not). An American, no doubt, coined that particular pejorative. I can't help but think it's disrespectful to the animal, which lived and died for our enjoyment and so you didn't have to eat a salad, to label any part of it as "mystery meat." And it does nothing but demonstrate ignorance.<mini-rant>
A "thanks" to the missus for immediately jumping on the "center cut" thing the other night when the commercial ran. I've got her trained well, although, she had no part of the mini-rant, and likely thinks I'm being a bit ridiculous.