Help, what on earth is wrong with this chicken?!

ragz_2

HI all, I bought tesco free range thighs and drummers, go out of date saturday but smelled fine, cooked in oven for ages, they are cooked properly. Cut one open to check and near the bone, where you usually get darker pink meat, it is dark brown. Seriously, really dark almost black and streaky and looks revolting, I have never seen chicken like that in my life.
What's wrong with it? What should I do, the other bits seem ok? OH will just say eat it, he'd eat out of bins if I let him!

thriftlady_2

I'd say there is nothing wrong with it at all. Chicken meat often has dark streaks near the bone.

Are you unused to free range chicken? It may be that a free range bird has naturally darker meat due to the way it has been reared. Or maybe it is a different breed from the standard intensively reared bird.

If it smells OK-raw and cooked and you're sure it is cooked through then I really wouldn't worry;)

Jo13_2

It's dead?

redwineguzzler

That's really made me chuckle!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

floyd

We get free range chicken from the farmers marke and quite often the meat is chocolate brown near the bone. It just means there was a good blood supply there, nothing more sinister than that.
I know it looks odd, the first time I saw it I didn't want to eat it but there is absolutely nothing wrong with it

Butterfly_Brain

It is because it has been handled roughly and is bruised

ragz_2

Thanks guys, I always buy free range but either in breasts or a whole chicken, which the man of the house is in charge of! He always tears the meat off the bone for me so I don't really see those bits.
I showed him the chicken and he said "that's fine" and picked a bit up and ate it, even he hadn't seen it that brown before though. Whoever mentioned blood supply, that does make sense, though maybe this chicken wasn't bled properly? It's back to the butchers for me next time!