Wanted to give a heads up on chicken breasts and sodium.

I was reading a back issue of Cooking Light and there was an article on brining. The article gave the warning that a LOT of chicken is now pre-brined and already contains quite a bit of sodium and shouldn't be used in the recipe. I’ve been noticing that all of my chicken breasts seem to taste “pre-salted”. And I'm talking just chicken breasts from the meat case... not frozen dinners or "processed" food.

If the label says something like “flavor enhanced with a % solution” it has way more sodium than “plain old chicken”. I can’t remember all the other code words for “We have added salt to your food, already” but “Flavor enhanced” is one. I think that it is actually getting harder to find just plain old chicken that hasn’t been pre-brined.

From the Foster Farms Website (Which basically says the same thing as the Cooking Light magazine):

Sodium Inquiries

With all the news on too much salt in my diet, I'm looking for ways to cut back the sodium I eat. I'm confused about labels I see on chicken. Does all chicken have sodium in it? And do you have any tips on how to reduce the salt in my diet?


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Few people realize that many foods assumed to be healthy may actually contain added salt. Fresh chicken is a great example. Many health-conscious consumers choose fresh chicken breasts over other meat because poultry is naturally low in saturated fat. But even boneless, skinless fresh chicken breasts can be misleading - unlike frozen chicken, prepared poultry products or pre-marinated poultry products which are expected to have added sodium for taste and preservative benefits, fresh chicken found in the fresh meat case is assumed to be preservative-free with no added sodium. But in many cases, some labels reveal that added sodium is lurking in the form of a preservative, enhancement or flavored broth. You may not taste the added sodium, but it's there and is contributing to your overall health.

The American Medical Association recently called for a 50 percent reduction of sodium in processed foods and restaurant meals, citing reducing increased national rates of hypertension and, ultimately, cardiovascular disease, which is the No. 1 killer of men and women.

The good news is that there are options out there for consumers looking to reduce their sodium intake at home, they just need to know what to choose: Truly fresh, natural chicken contributes just 73 mg per 4 ounces equaling roughly 115 mg of sodium for a 6-8 ounce portion size - which is about 7 times less sodium than sodium-enhanced fresh chicken.

Nancy Bennett's guidelines on cooking chicken for a reduced-sodium lifestyle:

At the grocery store:
1) Read the label. Even with traditionally healthier foods, like chicken, sodium-based ingredients may have been added. Always read the label to assure that the brand you choose is natural and fresh, with no added sodium or preservatives.

2) Fresh is best. Foods that are frozen at any point in their packaging or delivery will most likely contain added sodium as a preservative. When you are purchasing fresh chicken products in the fresh meat case, make sure that the chicken is always delivered fresh and stored fresh (never frozen) to assure its integrity.

At home:
3) Rely on herbs and spices, not salt, for flavor. I encourage everyone to use homemade spice rubs instead of prepared sauces for added flavor, especially when grilling. Your chicken will be flavorful without the added salt, and your friends and family will appreciate the variety in flavors.

4) When in doubt, do not "take out". For the healthiest family meals, the safest bet is to prepare them yourself at home, and there are many convenient ways to do so. You will have better control of the ingredients in your own home, and can monitor each step of the process. One way that I make this more convenient is to prepare more than one night's worth of food at a time, so that I have quick access to healthy ingredients throughout the week. When I prepare grilled chicken, I make extra and store it so I can quickly toss it into a salad or pasta for my lunch or dinner the next day.

Foster Farms-branded fresh chicken (sold in the fresh meat case) is always fresh, never frozen, and is all natural, with no preservatives or added sodium.

I finally did it - baked some (plain) fresh boneless-skinless chicken breasts, and put them in the freezer for future usage.

Their first usage is going to be an enchilada recipe from the Rick Bayless book "Everyday Mexican". I have made it before, and really like it.

quote:

Originally posted by GoingSkiing:

quote:

Originally posted by Lori4squaremom:
Well, i just pulled a package of bone-in skin on chicken breasts from the freezer. They are Foster Farms brand. It says "May contain up to 4% retained water" Does that mean that it is injected or brined?

From Foster Farms website: "Foster Farms-branded fresh chicken (sold in the fresh meat case) is always fresh, never frozen, and is all natural, with no preservatives or added sodium."

If you bought it frozen... maybe they do add salt? I don't know.

No, I bought these fresh, and thenput them into the freezer. The sodium content was 85 mg per servings. I'll have to check on mastercook and on fitday to see what the sodium content of a chicken breast is naturally and then make my determination that way. Otherwise I'll call a friend that works for FF and find out the scoop from him.

quote:

Originally posted by Lori4squaremom:
Well, i just pulled a package of bone-in skin on chicken breasts from the freezer. They are Foster Farms brand. It says "May contain up to 4% retained water" Does that mean that it is injected or brined?

From Foster Farms website: "Foster Farms-branded fresh chicken (sold in the fresh meat case) is always fresh, never frozen, and is all natural, with no preservatives or added sodium."

If you bought it frozen... maybe they do add salt? I don't know.

Well, i just pulled a package of bone-in skin on chicken breasts from the freezer. They are Foster Farms brand. It says "May contain up to 4% retained water" Does that mean that it is injected or brined?

quote:

Originally posted by GoingSkiing:

quote:

Originally posted by Lori4squaremom:
Denise, since you and I mostly have the same brands available to us, what brands are you buying?

I don't know.

I buy the boneless, skinless breasts and thighs in the "Value Pak". I think it might be a different brand every time. They are in the "fresh" cooler case... but have usually been pre-frozen and they are often half frozen when I go them home. I shop at Safeway.

I'll have to look next time... but I think that the brand might change.

All the chicken currently in the house has been cooked and then I freeze it after it is cooked.

Ok, well, I buy those too when they go on sale (I THINK they might be on sale this week) but I didn't know that they are injected with broth/salt water/whatever. I'll have to ask or see if I see anything on the label. Or maybe I just need to go back to buying the boned, skin on type breasts when they are .99 a pound and just taking the couple of minutes that it takes to bone them and pull the skin off.

quote:

Originally posted by Lori4squaremom:
Denise, since you and I mostly have the same brands available to us, what brands are you buying?

I don't know.

I buy the boneless, skinless breasts and thighs in the "Value Pak". I think it might be a different brand every time. They are in the "fresh" cooler case... but have usually been pre-frozen and they are often half frozen when I go them home. I shop at Safeway.

I'll have to look next time... but I think that the brand might change.

All the chicken currently in the house has been cooked and then I freeze it after it is cooked.

Publix had an ad campaign in our area several years ago talking about the same thing, and telling people to look at the labels. That's when I started, and when I realized the "savings" at some mega-marts resulted in MORE expensive chicken, when you figured cost per pound WITHOUT the weight added by "broth."

We buy all our chicken now at a local meat market. The chicken they sell has never been frozen, and he'll go to the back, find the list, and tell you which producers and which farms the shipments for that day came from.

Sometimes we get pieces that still have the quill end of feathers in them.

quote:

Originally posted by GoingSkiing:

quote:

Originally posted by Lori4squaremom:
Yes, and sadly, you don't get the same yummy benefits of brining it yourself! Even the pre-brined breasts dry out and get nasty.

This isn't my experience. They are actually very tender and "juicy" almost to the point of being weirdly so.

Denise, since you and I mostly have the same brands available to us, what brands are you buying? I almost always buy Foster Farms. From what I can tell (but I don't actually have a package in the house to double check) their IQF breasts are "brined". But they dry out VERY quickly. We have to cook them "just so" to keep them from drying out. Maybe I need to switch to another brand....

quote:

Originally posted by Lori4squaremom:
Yes, and sadly, you don't get the same yummy benefits of brining it yourself! Even the pre-brined breasts dry out and get nasty.

This isn't my experience. They are actually very tender and "juicy" almost to the point of being weirdly so.

It appears that package words like "always tender" and "extra tender" are also red flags for additives, in meat and poultry.

Today, at the grocery store, I saw some "extra tender" fresh chicken pieces, and the fine print showed that it was injected with (no doubt salty) chicken broth.

I think they also have "always tender" pork, that's injected with something.

quote:

Originally posted by GoingSkiing:

quote:

Originally posted by Janesays:
Wow! I'm going to have to look. I didn't even think to look. I thought chicken was just chicken.

That is what I thought, too. I didn't realize that they were pre-brining it for me.

Yes, and sadly, you don't get the same yummy benefits of brining it yourself! Even the pre-brined breasts dry out and get nasty. My homebrined ones don't.

quote:

Originally posted by Janesays:
Wow! I'm going to have to look. I didn't even think to look. I thought chicken was just chicken.

That is what I thought, too. I didn't realize that they were pre-brining it for me.

Thanks, Janesays, for bumping this back up because it reminded me I wanted to come back and post here.

This past Saturday, while grocery shopping, I picked up a package of those Perdue individually packaged boneless/skinless chicken breasts and compared the nutrition information with a pack of regular Perdue bl/sl chicken breasts that come 3 or 4 breast halves to a package (what I usually buy).

The individually packaged breasts most definitely have substantially more sodium than the same serving size of the multi-breast packages. I don't remember the numbers but I seem to recall it was something like 30 mg of sodium for a serving in the multi-breast package and 200-300 mg of sodium for the individually-spackaged breasts.

You can guess which one came home with me!

Wow! I'm going to have to look. I didn't even think to look. I thought chicken was just chicken.

quote:

Originally posted by Sheltieguy:
One fundemental problem that I have with "Cooks Illustrated", is that I regularly disagree with the conclusions of their Tasters. Who are these people, and why should I treat their conclusions as definitive?

LOL! Somebody in dinner co-op made some dinner... can't remember what it was... but it was "Gag me awful!!!" 3 of us HATED it and said, "Never make that again, please" and the 4th person LOVED it. No accounting for taste some times.


But, hey, I think that a perfectly cooked crispy McDonald's hash brown is to die for... but don't like their fries... and most people love their fries.

One fundemental problem that I have with "Cooks Illustrated", is that I regularly disagree with the conclusions of their Tasters. Who are these people, and why should I treat their conclusions as definitive?

I liked that old Food Network show (Taste?) where they showed multiple-good ways of perparing the same dish; if you want large curd scrambled eggs make them this way, if you want creamy scrambled eggs (French style) make them that way. The result you want is a matter of personal preference.

"Cooks Illustrated" falsely assumes that there is One Best way of doing things.

As a practical matter, I found their recipes to be average-to-mediocre.

Rant over. -lol

quote:

Originally posted by Sheltieguy:
Years ago, one of the reasons that I dropped "Cook's Illustrated" magazine was that their recipies called for brining everything - chicken breasts, turkey, pork chops, pork loin, shrimp, beef...(I don't know if they are still that way.)

I only got one Cook's Illustrated and it was sort of hard for me to read. A lot of explaination goes into every recipe.

I do watch America's Test Kitchen, though... And they are very big on brining everything.

But, I still like the show... I like that they show the recipes that flop... and why they flopped... and why some recipes succeed.

I like that they explain some very basic stuff... and what it means to the recipe outcome.

quote:

Originally posted by Lori4squaremom:

quote:

Originally posted by Sandy:
One more plug for Smart Chicken- no brine, no sodium added.
The breasts are fresh.

Sandy, what is Smart Chicken? I've never heard of it before. Probably something I can get here, but I do try to watch our sodium level, and DO NOT want preservatives in hidden places!!!!

I've never seen Smart chicken here, I usually buy Bell & Evans. It has nothing added, no nitrates, preservatives, hormones...

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by Sandy:
One more plug for Smart Chicken- no brine, no sodium added.
The breasts are fresh.

Sandy, what is Smart Chicken? I've never heard of it before. Probably something I can get here, but I do try to watch our sodium level, and DO NOT want preservatives in hidden places!!!!