What the hell is “center-cut chicken breast”? Wendy’s from right here in Columbus, Ohio is advertising its spicy chicken sandwich, a longtime staple of the Wendy’s menu. But what is a center cut chicken breast? Are they referring to the location of the chickens breast? or are they referring to the fact your getting a subset of the chicken breast….
It is possible they are playing on peoples association of ‘center cut’ with things like beef because the center is where the muscle is used less and thus more tender. I haven’t heard of this in chicken and with a very different muscle structure I wouldn’t be surprised if the breast meat doesn’t have any advantage from where it comes from (anyway, chickens live so short in our current system that I don’t think toughness from muscle use is a problem).
I couldn’t find many references to center-cut chicken breasts while doing a quick Google search that didn’t relate to Wendy’s (are they pulling a Howard Stern, call yourself the king of all media, and then suddenly you have people using the term about your chicken?). I did find some recipes that mentioned it and what did it mean in the Center Cut Garlic Chicken with Citrus White Sauce? ”Take chicken breasts and cut the ends off forming a nice square piece of meat” — So maybe all Wendy’s is telling us is that your not getting a whole breast but they are trimming the sides off to make chicken nuggets, makes sense I guess.
