Tastes like chicken

Many meats appear to taste like chicken

When trying to describe the flavor of a food the listener has never eaten, a common declaration is that it tastes like chicken. The expression has been used so often that it has become somewhat of a cliché. As a result, the phrase also sometimes gets used for incongruous humor, by being deployed for foods or situations to which it has no real relevance.

History

As an explanation of why unusual meats would taste more like chicken than common alternatives such as beef or pork, different possibilities have been offered. One suggestion is that chicken has a bland taste because fat contributes more flavor than muscle (especially in the case of a lean cut such as a skinless chicken breast), making it a generic choice for comparison. Also, chicken reportedly has lower levels of glutamates that contribute to the "savory" aspect of taste sometimes known as umami; processing or tenderizing other meats would also lower glutamate levels and make them taste more like chicken.

Another suggestion, made by Joe Staton of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, is that meat flavors are fixed based on the evolutionary origin of the animal. Accordingly, birds (the most numerous form of meat by type) would naturally taste more like chicken than mammals. Furthermore, based on evidence for dinosaurs as the ancestors of birds, reptile meat might also taste somewhat like chicken. Seafood, however, would logically have a more distinctive flavor. Staton's study of the question was published in the Annals of Improbable Research.

Animals that are said to taste like chicken

• Alligator/Crocodile
• Fried spider
• Frog legs
• Giant Ditch Frog
• Iguana
• Opossum
• Rabbit (especially domestic rabbit)
• Rat
• Rattlesnake
• Squirrel
• Turkey

Media References

• Babylon 5 (spoo is said to taste nothing like chicken)
• Crocodile Dundee (used by the title character to describe rattlesnake, perhaps its most famous usage)
• Lion King
• The Night Santa Went Crazy, a 1996 song by Weird Al Yankovic (used to describe Blitzen, one of Santa Claus's reindeer)

References

• Spice, Byron. "Mmm, tastes like chicken: Common ancestors could account for phenomenon". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 17, 2000.
• Staton, Joe. "Tastes Like Chicken?" Annals of Improbable Research 4:4, 1998.