Dark meat chicken

[u/memory_land]

Hello all i’m wondering if there is any texture loss when grinding chicken thighs. I want to make a sandwich and the best way i’ve found to cook chicken is dice up chicken thighs to about 1 inch “cubes” (even though they never come out that shape).

I then pan fry and this has made the best chicken in my opinion save for hard smoked and grilled of course. So I’m wondering, to make chicken patties will coarse grinding chicken thighs end up changing the mouthfeel?

I’m creating a recipe for a chicken bacon ranch and before I try making it into a patty I thought I’d hear from some experts.

[u/Morall_tach]

Yes. Ground meat has a different texture than chopped meat.

[u/96dpi → u/Morall_tach]

big, if true!

[u/TooManyDraculas]

Yes. It's going to be ground meat. It will have the texture of a ground meat patty/burger not of chunks of whole muscle.

If you want to make a sandwich that has a whole piece of chicken thigh on it. You can just pound out a boneless skinless thigh and pan fry or grill.

If you grind it you will get a texture like a burger or a meatball. Because it's ground, and that's the texture ground meat has.

[u/spirit_of_a_goat]

Are you asking us if diced chicken has a different texture than ground chicken?

[u/noetkoett → u/spirit_of_a_goat]

I think if you simplify the idea even more the question is just "does grinding meat change the texture" which is pretty hilarious.

[u/throwdemawaaay]

Oh for sure, and there's a lot of asian recipes that emphasize dicing meat yourself to the exact texture you want vs just a generic sausage grind for exactly this reason.

[u/CanSudden5803 → u/throwdemawaaay]

Hand dicing gives you way more control over the texture. I’d try a coarse grind for the patties, though, since you might get the best of both worlds.

[u/Realistic_Direction7]

yeah it'll change, coarse ground thigh comes out closer to a juicy sausage patty than the diced bites you like. if you want to keep some of that chunky chew, hand chop half of it into small dice and only grind or finely mince the other half so it binds. chilling the meat till it's firm before grinding and not overmixing keeps it tender instead of bouncy.

[u/Doomdoomkittydoom]

Last time I tried to grind chicken thighs (wanted to make coq au vin sausage) the thighs kept gumming up the grinder.

[u/Logical-Cap9617]

chicken is good with lotta stuff honestly

[u/jibaro1953]

Check out the America's Test Kitchen youtube recipe for turkey burgers: and easy to follow recipe with good explanations of why they add the things they do and why you should start with a cold skillet.

[u/rockbolted]

Yes there is definitely texture loss/texture change when grinding chicken thighs. DRAMATIC TEXTURE CHANGE. In case you’re unsure. Applies to grinding any meat.