I normally eat chicken breast but today at the grocery store, they had thighs on sale for insanely cheap so I grabbed up a couple packs. My bf removed the skin and bones and I weighed them before freezing the portions. My question is am I losing any nutritional value by eating thighs over breasts? :/
Nutritional Comparison
Dark meats tend to contain more zinc, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, vitamins B6 and B12, amino acids, iron than white meat. Dark beef meat contains about 11 times more zinc than tuna, and about 3 times as much iron than raw spinach. Chicken dark meat contain vitamins A, K, B6, B12, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, minerals as selenium, phosphorus and zinc.
Even the fats in most of the dark meats have healthy parts. They contain Omega-3, and Omega-6 fatty acids, and other ‘healthy’ fats.
It is the saturated fat content which lowers the true quality of dark meat.
Hubby and I almost always choose thighs and leg quarters over breast. Dark meat is much cheaper (and on sales can be almost ridiculously low priced - every once in a while there'll be sales around here on leg quarters for 59$ or 69$ a pound).
Breast meat is lower in fat and calories per ounce, but the calorie/nutrient difference is pretty small. You don't save many calories by choosing white meat over dark. Also dark meat has the advantage (for anyone who isn't very talented in the kitchen) of being more fool-proof than white meat. Dark meat stays moister, and doesn't become as "rubbery" as white meat when overcooked, and it absorbes flavors from seasoning and cooking liquid better than white meat.
hmm, I didn't realize the calories were so similar. I think I'll buy chicken thighs the next time I run low so I can play with them. Thanks!
Sorry to threadjack, Onderchic!
I agree. When I make BBQ chicken on the grill, I always choose thighs if I can. For sandwiches and stuff, I like the white but the dark is so yummy for BBQ and for sweet n' sour chicken.
I definitely prefer thigh meat for a lot of things. Especially BBQ. BBQ chicken breast= not bad. BBQ chicken thigh= magically delicious. I almost always use thigh meat unless I'm stuffing the chicken with something.
Isn't the reason that it does taste so much more flavorful is because of the fat infused in the meat?
I guess I need to changed my prespective...I always buy chicken breast, but if thighs aren't as bad as I think, I will have to start buying those too!!
Chicken breast vs Chicken thigh
