Does anyone else do this?

I love cooking but can be a bit lazy and cut corners. I used to have an old mincer but hated cleaning it and doing it bit by bit so now use my food processor - especially for chicken (thighs) and add other bits and pieces too.

Is this the done thing? Or am I ruining the meat?

BTW I tried it with breasts and it wasnt great.

Vanessa

I use a food processor to mince chicken thighs and it works really well. It cuts the flesh rather than crushing it and I think it gives a juicier product. Chicken breasts have no fat and little connective tissue and that's why they are no good minced.

I agree with TPANDAV but would also like to add, trying to do too much at once will make heavy work for your food processor, so doing smaller amounts may give you a better result
Kind regards,

Raewyn G

hi Vanessa - is it possible to part freeze the meat too, not fully, but just enough that the chicken meat doesnt turn to mush while being worked up in the processor.
Of course this will only work if you are working with fresh chicken meat, ie not thawed from your own freezer

I don't have a mincer and my butcher won't mince chicken breasts as he says you need a lot at a time to do it, so I always use the food processor. Of course it's nowhere near as good as using a mincer, but I find that while it comes out of the processor claggy it seems to be fine when cooked. (Perhaps I just have low standards.) Partly frozen is good, and it also works better if you put anything else you're planning to use with it, like parsley or breadcrumbs, in the food processor with it.

I bought a new food processor about a year ago,and have been using it to mince venison, pork and chicken with great success. I do it before it is fully thawed - sometimes hardly thawed at all, just enough that I can cut it into chunks. I think the secret is to watch it carefully so you don't over process and end up with "sausage meat". It's been making wonderful burgers. Janet

I think the chicken breast just had too little fat and when i used the mince to make dumplings - it was too dense and a bit dryish.
I possibly blitzed it too much...