In recipes calling for boneless chicken breasts, can I use other chicken parts instead?

Question

Chicken breast meat is more expensive where I live; can I use thighs or drumsticks instead in my recipes? If I can substitute other parts, how does that affect the cooking time?

Answer 1

The bone-in pieces will add at least 40 minutes to the cook time.
Cover the dish to prevent it from drying out.

Answer 2

Absolutly!! Alot of recipes that call for boneless chicken breast, I use boneless skinless chicken thighs. I think the thigh meat is better than the breast for some things. Also, good boneless pork chops would be really good substitute., but if you use a meat with the bone still in it allow longer cooking time, because meat with bone takes a little longer than boneless meat.

Answer 3

You can buy chicken breasts on the bone and remove them your self. If you use chicken with bones your cooking time could double. Without knowing what and how you are cooking it's hard to make a blind guess. My best guess would be increase the cooking time by half....if it said 20 minutes , cut 20 in half = 10, 20 + 10 = 30 min. cooking time.
Check for doneness and add or subtract the next time you cook that dish again.
Good luck.
It's not that hard to de-bone the chicken breast.
You may end up with smaller pieces that normal but with practice you will get better. Just follow the bone with your knife.
Save the bones and scrapes to make a delicious chicken stock.

Answer 4

You may use different parts. I have used thighs in a White Chili recipe and the flavor using thigh meat instead of breast was wonderful. As always, dark meat has more fat and flavor not only impacting taste, it changes the nutritional numbers too. No major change in cooking time - may be somewhat shorter.

Answer 5

As long as you're stilling using boneless chicken, or have removed all the bone, it shouldn't change the outcome of the recipe too much. It will certainly look and taste different with dark meat, but it should cook much the same.

Answer 6

Use boneless thighs. Increase cooking time by one or two minutes. Breast meat cooks faster than thigh meat.

Answer 7

I wouldn't be sure of the term fillet as being anything different than just a name, but it could be if the tenderloin is missing. That would be a good one to ask your butcher. I would use two chicken thighs as the substitute for one breast half, depending on size. If you wished to cut down on the amounts use just one. They taste far better if you ask me and are cheaper per kg. The dip is up to you, but I don't think I would need one with the Honey-Mustard

Answer 8

The taste will be slightly different, but just use whatever chicken parts you have...except for innards, beaks and feet.

Sometimes you can find whole chickens on sale cheap, then you can have white and dark meat to use.

Answer 9

You can use any portion of the chicken. It shouldn't make a difference on the cooking time.

Answer 10

Sure you can use either, but I would recommend deboning the meat. If you leave the bone in allow at least 10 minutes of extra cooking time.