Why would a recipe call for bone-in, skin-on chicken and then never use the bone/skin?
This America's Test Kitchen recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken with "Roasted" Garlic Sauce has the ingredient:
bone-in split chicken breasts, skin and ribs removed, trimmed of all visible fat
The skin and ribs are never used in the recipe.
ATK generally does a great job of simplifying recipes but needing to de-bone the chicken rather than simply buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts seems silly. Plus, I generally find bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts to be harder to find than boneless, skinless chicken.
I asked my butcher if there's a difference between them doing it and doing it myself and he said that there wasn't (assuming they're never used).
Is there something my butcher didn't think of?
Yes, I know that there's a cost difference but let's ignore that, as that's not generally a consideration in ATK recipes.
Best Answer
Bone in = the breast plate is still there. The ribs would typically be removed because in slow cooking the rib bones often have a habit of coming loose and being an annoyance or even a choking hazard while adding little or nothing to the taste. Leaving the breast plate however is referred to by many as cooking on the crown. Cooking on the crown is considered by many to give a better flavor, be it poultry, beef, pork, or whatever. Additional, with slow cooking, the cartilage and bone may add some thickening effect to your broth.
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Is bone in chicken juicier than boneless?
Split Chicken Breast Unlike boneless, skinless breasts, however, these keep the skin and still have the rib bone attached. The bone helps keep these breasts moist and tender because they help distribute heat evenly through the meat. The skin also seals in moisture and juiciness.Can you get boneless skin-on chicken?
At the supermarket, you can usually find them one of two ways: bone-in and skin-on, or boneless and skinless. But both of these presentations pale in comparison to the ideal cut. The one cut you almost never see at the supermarket. Boneless, skin-on chicken thighs.Does bone make chicken taste better?
When you cook chicken thighs with the bone in, the flavor that's housed inside the bone spreads out into the meat, leaving you with chicken with a deeper, meatier, more chicken-y flavor. Basically (heh), bone-in chicken thighs taste better. You better be getting the skin-on thighs too. They crisp up perfectly.Best Baked Bone In Skin On Chicken Breast
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Answer 2
The recipe writer probably only had bone in chicken, and wrote up exactly what he did, avoiding having to buy a boneless chicken and retest the recipe.
While this sounds facetious, it probably is often the reason for "awkward" ingredients in recipes - and preferrable to writing a substitute into a recipe and still calling it a tested recipe.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Andrea Piacquadio, Sarah Chai, Karolina Grabowska, Andrea Piacquadio