When you make chicken, why does some of it disintegrate and you can see the bone?

Question

Last night I made some chicken and I have always seen it before but never really paid much attention to it I guess. So I turn to you my fine peoples of Y!A!

Answer 1

Chicken is just like all meat, it all srinks when cooked, it shrinks because the natural juices cook out of the meat, remember we, humans have about 70percent water in our body, that's why we sweat, because in a way we are being cooking under the sun, also if you go to the grocery store you will find ham containing a certain amount of water and when you cook it, it also will cook most of the water out of it. at least one you can be sure of is that when the chicken is cooked away from the bone that its safe to eat.

Answer 2

Some chicken is also injected with broth or water, to make it look plumper, when you cook it all that is released leaving less chicken.  I try to get free range unaltered chicken for that reason, and of course less hormones.

Answer 3

Oh my.  It doesn't disintegrate!  It's cooking.  When chicken gets fully cooked it'll start to pull away from the bone.  All meats have some shrinkage as the fat drips out and the meat gets tender when it's cooked.

Answer 4

What shrinks away (it doesn't disintegrate) is the fats and some of the moisture.  When you see those drippings in your pan, that's the stuff that you thought disappeared from your chicken.

It's not just with chicken, really.  It's with any meat.  Try making a pot roast sometime.  You'll be amazed at the size it comes out of the pot cooked, as compared to the size when you first started it.

Same is true for corned beef or roast beef or a loin of pork.  It's every meat.  In some senses, veggies shrink too as they get cooked and tender.

Answer 5

Okay, disintegrate is a rather strong word.  It doesn't just disappear but the process of cooking changes the configuration of the protein which causes the meat to shrink.