Unpopular Opinion
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Vote the opposite of the norm.
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1. NO POLITICS
Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.
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Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.
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4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...
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This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
6. Defend your opinion
This is a bit of a mix of rules 4 and 5 to help foster higher quality posts. You are expected to defend your unpopular opinion in the post body. We don't expect a whole manifesto (please, no manifestos), but you should at least provide some details as to why you hold the position you do.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
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Great post :)
I can't say I agree in detail, but I don't disagree completely either.
I'd say that it depends on brand, preparation, and then personal taste (as in the variability of human taste as a sense, not preferences) as to whether a given substitute is going to be better, acceptable, or worse.
Texture wise, I'd agree that the usual options are on par. Slightly different, but not in a bad way. Juiciness, in my experience, is iffy. Definitely not as greasy; but for some dishes, that missing fat is a significant detriment. Flavor is more like texture; any given person is going to interpret the chemicals on their tongue slightly differently.
I think where the substitutes often fail for the most part is the smell, not the actual on-tongue taste. Even though most chicken meat isn't going to smell a lot, it is there, and the nose is very important to perceived flavor. I've yet to smell any chicken substitutes that smell right at all, though none have smelled bad. Soups and stews that aren't very chicken centric, that won't matter. But other stuff, it can and will.
Something like chicken noodle soup though? That's a hell no lol. You can't currently get anything that will make a stock that actually tastes right. I'm not saying you can't make good soup with chicken substitutes, just that it's a totally different taste. Enough so that calling it by the same name would be a joke.
Where chicken substitutes shine is nugget size dishes that don't rely on the chicken fats and soluble components for the flavor. I've had some sesame substitute that was as good or better than chicken. Stuff like that, with sauces, or even straight up breaded nuggets, that's where even if the substitutes didn't taste of anything at all, they'd be just fine.
Now me? I tend to be of the mind that for most dishes, you're better off just abandoning the original meat based recipe entirely and just cook things that make veggies shine on their own.
Could be right on the smell, but TBH, I've never really associated chicken with a particular smell (except fried chicken) but I always liken that more to the cooking process than the meat itself.
I probably did leave out a fair number of dishes/use-cases since most of my chicken consumption that isn't just snacking is in the form of sandwiches, cutlets, and casseroles: things that don't don't necessarily need the fat to make the dish. Same for things like quesadillas and fajitas. But at the end of the day, this post is my own personal opinion and not a blanket statement of fact lol.
I'm also not a strict vegetarian, so using chicken stock is acceptable when needed though I usually make due with oil/butter and spices.
Back when I smoked, I couldn't pick up the smell of chicken. I always thought it was just bland, but it was that I didn't get enough of the smell. Scent is a big part of perceived taste (as opposed to the actual detection that happens on the tongue only), and food has been so much better overall since I quit.
Since chicken, particularly breast meat, doesn't have a very strong smell, it's easy to not notice it even when one's nose isn't inhibited by something
Before I quit smoking ~11 years ago, I could eat literally anything because it all tasted like cardboard anyway. Don't miss that one bit.
Amen to that!