For Restaurant-Quality Chicken, Look For This Packaging At The Grocery Store

Here's an odd question: What's your chicken-buying strategy? For most, the strategy is to make a beeline for the poultry section, find the cut that you have in mind for dinner, maybe check the date, and throw it into the cart. No shaming here — that's how we did our shopping until a couple of experts revealed that for the best "restaurant-quality" chicken, there's another factor to take into consideration: the packaging. 

Experts say vacuum-packed poultry is the best because of its moisture control. The skin of vacuum-sealed chicken tends to be drier than that of its plastic-wrapped counterpart. And sure enough, in our interview with chef Lana Lagomarsini, a private chef in NYC, she mentioned that she always prefers vacuum-packed chicken for precisely this reason — the skin typically doesn't have the "wet" look. The benefits? Chef Tristen Epps-Long, founder of Houston-based consultancy Epps & Flows Culinary, pointed out that less water equates to firmer meat when cooked, and the skin browns more efficiently.

All that is in addition to a plethora of other advantages you'd get with vacuum packaging, like an easier time freezing (if you're planning to stock up on chicken for long-term use) and portioning out the meat, which is excellent for meal-prepping. It's a small detail to pay attention to, but if you do, you'll walk out with genuinely good chicken every time.

Beyond packaging, there are other expert-approved tips to keep in mind. The ingredient list tells you more than the expiration date ever will. Look for chicken broth, retained water, or added moisture — dead giveaways that you're buying a plumped bird, which experts say to avoid. 

Chef Tristen Epps-Long explains why: Processors pump chicken with extra liquid to inflate weight, meaning you're paying for water instead of meat and getting hit with unnecessary sodium. The flavor pays a price too. Seek out a local butcher or farmers market instead. Chef Aaron Cuschieri of Chicago's The Dearborn advocates this approach because it gives you transparency — you'll know exactly where the bird came from and how it was handled.

But if you're stuck at the supermarket, hunt for any package that says "air-chilled" or "organic," as these are rarely plumped. Epps-Long, in particular, spoke very highly of air-chilled chicken (basically, the chicken is cooled with purified, refrigerated air), you get drier chickens than those that have been dunked in a communal ice bath to chill (water-chilled). And since we've already established that drier chickens cook better, that's precisely the sort of chicken you need for your three-ingredient Teriyaki chicken to turn out like a dream.