What's this white strip on the top side of my boneless skinless chicken breast?

Question

I am aware that there is a tendon which connects a chicken breast to it's tenderloin...what I"m curious about is the other white strip on the top of my boneless skinless chicken breasts as shown in this picture:

I always cut my chicken up into small pieces so I always cut it out, but I realize that this can't really be done when baking or poaching the entire boneless skinless chicken breast.

Can anyone shed some light on to what it is and whether I am wasting my time removing it? Does it dissolve when the chicken is baked?

Answer 1

Structurally it is similar to silver-skin on tenderloin and other red meat muscles, some connective tissue marking the muscle boundary. I have seen it be a little tough on older, non-broiler birds but even then not normally worth messing with, IMO. If you chunk the meat you might find spots that are thick enough to be worth removing especially near the shoulder joint, but otherwise probably not.