Chicken Supreme (Airline Breast)

The airline breast is a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast with the first wing bone (drumette) cleaned of all meat and sinew and left attached. That frenched bone serves two purposes: it acts as a natural handle for easy turning during cooking and plating, and it functions as a heat sink, drawing energy toward the thick center of the breast for more even cooking. The supracoracoideus and latissimus dorsi muscles remain intact, giving you the breast's full, tender potential alongside the wing's connective tissue and collagen that baste the meat from within.

The cut emerged from fine dining kitchens in the 1980s as chefs sought elegant presentations that required minimal plating intervention. The wing bone's silhouette—particularly when frenched to expose clean bone—evokes an airplane, which gave the cut its common American name. In French classical butchery, the equivalent cut is called "suprême de volaille," though modern American usage has somewhat blurred the distinction. The airline breast's thick, uniform profile (when properly butchered) makes it ideal for high-heat searing and oven finishing, yielding that contrast of burnished, crackling skin against juicy, precisely cooked meat that separates restaurant-quality chicken from the everyday version.

When buying, look for breasts with taut, unblemished skin that shows no drying or discoloration. The skin should smell clean and neutral—any sulfurous or off note indicates age. The breast itself should lie relatively flat and even in thickness; if one end is noticeably thicker, you'll need to fold or pound it during preparation to ensure uniform cooking. Most home cooks purchase this cut pre-butchered, as the bone Frenching requires both a sharp boning knife and some practice to execute cleanly.