When I cook chicken breasts in a pan, a lot of water comes out of them.
I've seen this answer: My chicken breasts release a lot of fluid when cooked. How do I prevent this?
where some people suggest that this has to do with the quality of the chicken and that certain producers/supermarkets will actually "pump" their chickens full of water.
However, what i don't understand is that I'm buying those from Whole Foods and that they are supposedly air chilled (which someone in the above-quoted answer suggests getting), so shouldn't they be high quality?
Is the reality that even WF is scamming its customers by pumping chickens full of water? Is their chicken just not that high quality?
If that's the case, where can you possibly get good chicken? (Serious question if you know a place, I live in Cambridge MA, US)
Best Answer
Liquid naturally comes out of all meats as they cook. If you're using high heat and a frying pan, you don't really notice it because it evaporates quickly. That brown stuff you see in a frying pan after cooking meat on high heat are the evaporated juices.
If you're baking them at around 350 F, you'll also notice water being released. This is amplified if you overcrowd the cooking vessel. You don't see it in a whole roasted chicken or roast beef for example because the liquid coming out caramelizes and creates those lovely browned bits to make a sauce or gravy.
I doubt that WF is selling water and phosphate tumbled chicken breasts.