What comes in the package?
The thigh is the upper leg attached to the body. The drumstick is the lower leg. University of Maine's guide to cutting a whole chicken shows how the breast, wings, thighs, and drumsticks separate, including the small tenderloin on the inner side of the breast.
On a small screen, scroll the table sideways to read each cooking note.
| Part and location | A useful cooking direction | Check before buying |
|---|---|---|
| Breast Front of the body | Boneless portions suit a skillet, grill, or sliced chicken meal. A breast with bone and skin can be roasted or barbecued. | Is it a whole breast, split breast, or boneless half? Check thickness as well as weight. |
| Tenderloin Inner breast muscle | A smaller portion for a skillet or strip style meal. A true tenderloin is a specific muscle, not just any piece cut into a strip. | Is it the intact tenderloin or sliced breast strips? Has the protruding tendon been clipped? |
| Wing Attached near the breast | Roast, grill, barbecue, or fry using a recipe for the form you bought. | Whole wings or separated flats and drumettes? A wing drumette is not a leg drumstick. |
| Thigh Upper leg | Use pieces with skin and bone for smoked chicken thighs. Choose boneless thighs for lemon oregano chicken or ginger lime skewers. | Bone in or boneless, skin on or skinless? Does a quarter include part of the back? |
| Drumstick Lower leg | A familiar piece for a tray of roasted, barbecued, or fried chicken. | Choose similar sized pieces when possible. Confirm the recipe is for leg drumsticks rather than wing drumettes. |
| Back Along the spine | The remaining carcass is useful for making stock or broth after the main cuts are removed. | Is it a separate back, or is part of it attached to a leg quarter? |
| Whole chicken All the main parts together | Roast it whole or ask for it to be divided into cooking portions. | Whole, halved, or cut into pieces? Check the bird's weight against the recipe and ask whether giblets are included. |
USDA's chicken trade descriptions distinguish these package forms, including the tenderloin and wing segments. University of Maine's meat preparation series connects common chicken portions with skillet cooking, frying, barbecue, and braising.
A leg is more than a drumstick
A whole leg combines the thigh and drumstick. A leg quarter also includes a portion of the back. The USDA part descriptions make that distinction, which matters when comparing package weights or deciding how many pieces to serve.
Breast meat is white meat. Thigh and drumstick meat are dark meat. That describes the muscles, rather than a ranking of which dinner is better. The Cooperative Extension muscular system guide explains the difference.
For a whole roast chicken, use a recipe written for a bird of similar weight. University of Minnesota Extension's roast chicken is one reference for that approach. If you change to separate pieces, use directions suited to those pieces.
A thigh can take several routes
Match the bone and skin to the recipe before choosing the flavor. These meals each state the thigh form they use.
- Keep the skin and bone
- Smoked chicken thighs with a hot finish and mustard chicken and vegetables both start with thighs that have skin and bone.
- Use boneless thighs
- Try lemon oregano thighs, ginger lime skewers, Buffalo chicken sliders, or grilled chicken and corn salad.
- Plan a cooked portion
- Chicken and white bean soup and chicken fried rice begin with cooked chicken. Use their food handling directions when saving a portion for another meal.
Build the rest of the plate
Choose Grilled Corn with Lime Butter or Tangy Southern Slaw for the side. Use the meal planner to estimate quantities, checking that its chicken cut matches the bone and skin you are buying.
See beef cuts, pork cuts, and lamb cuts, or return to Meet the butcher.