Defrosted chicken, texture, gone off?

The_Arbiter · 26 Mar 2026 at 21:21

Misses sent me these pics. Thought it was probably freezer burn, but looking at the pics it looks very textured and chatgpt reckons tendon or "woody breast". No off smell apparently. It's LIDL bought frozen and now defrosted. I don't really eat chicken so have never come across it before. Thoughts?

radderfire · 26 Mar 2026 at 21:24

If it's been stored at the correct temperatures it will still be edible.

Mark A · 27 Mar 2026 at 07:56

Probably freezer burn as I freeze chicken all the time and it looks similar to that if its been frozen a while.

Speaking of woody breast, I have been getting that a lot recently with the Tesco fresh chicken breasts. It used to be like one pack in 10 would have it in a couple of the breasts, but recently its been every pack and most of the breasts. I have started getting the Tesco slow grown, which is more expensive for less, but so far they have been great.

BUDFORCE · 27 Mar 2026 at 08:13

Just looks like freezer burn.

If it smells ok it's good to go.

arknor · 27 Mar 2026 at 15:10

looks like a mix of woody breast and freezer burn

Jokester · 28 Mar 2026 at 03:16

Mark A said:
Probably freezer burn as I freeze chicken all the time and it looks similar to that if its been frozen a while.

Speaking of woody breast, I have been getting that a lot recently with the Tesco fresh chicken breasts. It used to be like one pack in 10 would have it in a couple of the breasts, but recently its been every pack and most of the breasts. I have started getting the Tesco slow grown, which is more expensive for less, but so far they have been great.

I too have found Tesco fillets have gone down hill massively recently. Every other pack seems to have at least one.

Mark A · 28 Mar 2026 at 08:54

Jokester said:
I too have found Tesco fillets have gone down hill massively recently. Every other pack seems to have at least one.

I thought it was just me either over cooking or under cooking them for a while, but then I noticed a lot of the reviews on the online store all say they are having the same issues, so it does seem to be an issue with the chicken.

sigma · 28 Mar 2026 at 15:32

Mark A said:
I thought it was just me either over cooking or under cooking them for a while, but then I noticed a lot of the reviews on the online store all say they are having the same issues, so it does seem to be an issue with the chicken.

I think chicken quality has gone down across the board, guessing due to impact of bird flu?

Barry Smalley · 4 Apr 2026 at 07:21

Whilst that looks utterly horrific, I’m sure it is still edible. Most supermarket chicken is utter garbage. Get it from your butcher or a decent farm shop.

Semple · 4 Apr 2026 at 09:24

BUDFORCE said:
If it smells ok it's good to go.

Yep, gone off chicken smells absolutely rank.