# What are chicken breast "halves?"



## passioncook

I'm sure this is a seriously stupid question, but I have a recipe that calls for 4 boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves.  Is that just the chicken breasts sold in the pkg at the grocery store?  I've never seen them referred to either "whole" chicken breasts (boneless, skinless) or "half" on the pkgs.

TIA


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## suziquzie

yup the packages are generally all halves.


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## GB

It is not a stupid question at all. How else would you know if you did not ask? Yes Suzi is right. The packaged breasts you get in the store are generally a half a breast.


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## BreezyCooking

Yes - second Suziquzie.  The packages of "boneless skinless chicken breasts" from the store consist of "half" breast pieces.  Each piece comes from either side of the breastbone on a full breast.


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## passioncook

Thank you all very much!


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## jennyema

Not all packages are halved. 

This is what HALF BREASTS look like. Sometimes 2 come connected -- that's a whole breast. You'll just need to cut it in half.


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## Andy M.

Chickens come with two breasts, one on each side of the chest.  One of those two sides is referred to as a chicken breast half.


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## buckytom

bump.

to confuse matters a bit, i recently saw "breasts are halved" in a bullet proof storefront all night fried chicken joint in harlem. 

it referred to the fact that when counting pieces in an 8, or 10, or bigger bucket, individual breasts wete split into two pieces long-wise, each counting for a piece. these were big breasts, so each half was a decent size.


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## Kylie1969

Wow, that is pretty full on having bulletproof glass on a chicken shop 

Banks I can understand, but a chicken shop...is it a bad area?


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## buckytom

lol, the best chicken at 3am in nyc comes from behind bullet proof glass.


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## Kylie1969

Sounds like some "well protected" chicken there


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## Andy M.

buckytom said:


> bump.
> 
> to confuse matters a bit, i recently saw "breasts are halved" in a bullet proof storefront all night fried chicken joint in harlem.
> 
> it referred to the fact that when counting pieces in an 8, or 10, or bigger bucket, individual breasts wete split into two pieces long-wise, each counting for a piece. these were big breasts, so each half was a decent size.



I'm curious, didsee the sign in the chicken store window and immediately remember this four year old thread or were you rambling around DC and find this thread then remember the halfing?

...Or did you see the sign and log on looking for old threads on the subject?


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## taxlady

Andy M. said:


> I'm curious, didsee the sign in the chicken store window and immediately remember this four year old thread or were you rambling around DC and find this thread then remember the halfing?
> 
> ...Or did you see the sign and log on looking for old threads on the subject?


Yes, inquiring minds want to know.


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## buckytom

i was lurker surfing, saw this thread, then remembered the sign in the store window.


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## taxlady

BT, your inbox is full. Can't send you a PM.


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## AliOxynFree

Thanks for asking this. Just moved to my own place and I can't cook for crap so i googled the same thing.


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef

Chickens are not mammals, so they don't have breasts, per se. Chickens don't have nuggets or fingers either, but that's a story for a different day. 

Chickens, as well as other fowl, have a chest area that is referred to as the breast, I guess because chicken breast sounds sexier than chicken chest. Each chest area consists of two pieces of meat, sort of like a human's pectoral muscles, separated by the breast bone. When you cut up a chicken into pieces, each piece of meat on either side of the breast bone is referred to a a breast half. Sometimes you can find the entire breast, with the breast bone and ribs intact, but they don't come skinless, and they are obviously not boneless. 

In order to confuse new cooks even more, some recipes will call for cutting each breast half in half crosswise. This is done to create eight equal sized pieces, which will cook more evenly


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## Andy M.

Using the chicken to human analogy, Two breasts, one on each side of center. There is no need for using the word 'half' as, using the analogy, each side of the keel bone has one breast. I has nothing to do with being "sexy" it is simply relating to human anatomy.

When a recipe calls for a chicken breast, it refers to the piece of meat on one side of the keel bone. Easy peasy.


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## Kayelle

Welcome to DC Ali !! I hope you stick around.


To further confuse you, sometimes boneless skinless half breasts are in the market *weighing over 1 lb. each. *I call them "Dolly Breasts" for obvious reasons. It's hard to imagine a chicken walking around so top heavy but there you have it. Since you are a new cook be aware that all breasts are not considered equal.


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