Do you cut chicken with the grain or against the grain?
Also question is, how do you cut chicken against the grain?
Slice the chicken against thegrain. If the grain runs up and down, cut leftto right. Make a long stroke with your knife, dragging it throughthe breast in one clean slice. Cutting against thegrain makes your chicken more tender once it'scooked.
Likewise, why do you cut chicken against the grain?
Your chicken is comprised of muscle tissue, andslicing it “against the grain” means thatyou are slicing perpendicular to the alignment ofmuscle fibers in the tissue. Doing this makes meat more tender andeasier to chew and digest. Winner, winner, chickendinner!
To identify which direction the grain of themeat is running, look for the parallel lines of muscle fiberrunning down the meat, and slice perpendicular to them. Forthose cuts that have fibers running in different directions, it'svital to “read the meat” and adjust thedirection in which you're slicing.