Food Health Vs. Flavour

So, up till my cousin moved to Alberta from Ontario, I would always use plain, skinless, boneless chicken breasts. What changed was the flavour change when she cooked food with the bone and skin on.... I take the skin off because it doesn't appeal to me, but thats another issue. I was wondering if the Healthiness of no skin is worth the flavour goodness that is the bone and skin? Are there other food that I have been screwing myself over on flavour? Such as mashed potatoes with the skin on?

 

How about if you take the skin off the chicken and then substitute bacon to make up for it? ...I'm sort of kidding so that's a fat-lover's joke.

To my taste, even if you combine the boneless/skinless chicken with other ingredients ala Martian, there is still an important role for fat in many recipes and foods. If I can't have a nice, juicy steak with adequate fat content, I don't bother eating it just because it looks similar.

 

I certainly wish 'they' would invent something which is like fat, but not.

For example, I was thinking about how an ex girlfriend used to berate me for the amount of butter I would have on bread. My usual problem was that I wanted the bread to be not too dry. It was last week I was doing myself some breat and butter and I realised .... it is the taste of the butter which 'is' my reason for having the bread in the first place.

When I was a child, on of the treats, after I had had the sunday roast, was the beef dripping. My goodness, those were the days. I would not touch that these days, but I will still happily put a bacon sandwich.

I had an angiogram last July. They said my arteries were in good condition, but decided to put me on statins as a preventative. That has got me thinking, and the issue in this thread title is a hot one for me.

 

Skinless, boneless chicken breasts are great for marinating. I prefer that over a dry seasoning when grilling. Usually use an italian marinade.

However, grilling with the skin on is preferable. Much more tender, less chance of over cooking the meat.

 

There is a reason that chicken bones are used to make stock, there's one hell of a lot of flavor there. I prefer to cook chicken with skin and bones present, then remove both. For me, the increase in fat content is trivial, while the increase in flavor is not.

 

I love to cook any meat with the bone in... it has a heck of a lot more flavor. There is connective tissue to connect the bone to the meat which is lost when the bone is removed, plus all of the marrow in the bone it self. Yummy yummy goodness. With chicken, the fat between the skin and the meat is just fantastic. Dusted in some flour and fried.... ohhhhh tasty.