Americans eat more chicken than anyone else in the world – about 90 pounds a person a year. And if you’re like most Americans, a disproportionate share of your personal 90 pounds is white meat.

“The consumer prefers white meat by about two to one,” the National Chicken Council’s spokesman, Richard Lobb, said. “We don’t keep precise figures on consumption, but those preference numbers give you an idea.”

But the fact of the matter, dear reader, is that dark meat tastes better – a lot better. Among serious foodies the general thinking is that white meat is for suckers. As September is National Chicken Month, it’s a fair time to ask: Why are so many of us eating the less tasty parts of the bird?

First, a little scientific background: Dark meat looks dark because it has higher levels of myoglobin, a muscle tissue protein. “Myoglobin is found in muscles that work more,” said Mr. Lobb. “You might ask why chicken wings are white meat, and the answer is that chickens don’t actually use their wings for much. But they do run around a lot, so the legs and thighs – the back half of the bird, as we call it – are dark meat.”

Myoglobin has no direct bearing on flavor, but it’s essentially a flavor clue, because muscle activity is one of the things that lead to tastier meat. Just as a filet mignon is a mild-flavored cut of beef, because the steer barely uses the muscle that forms the tenderloin, a chicken’s breast is bland compared to its thigh, in part because the thigh gets more of a workout during the chicken’s life.

The other big flavor determinant is intramuscular fat. Here again, a comparison with beef is instructive: You always hear people talking about a how a prime-grade steak has “great marbling,” right? That’s just another way of saying it’s loaded with tiny pockets of fat that melt during cooking and provide juiciness and flavor. According to the Chicken Council, a 3-ounce serving skinless chicken breast has 1.5 grams of fat, while a comparable chicken thigh serving has 4 grams. “That’s why it tastes better,” Mr. Lobb said. The drumstick and thigh are essentially the poultry equivalent of a well-marbled steak, while the breast is analogous to a dry cut from a lower grade steer.

Despite all of this, America’s runaway paranoia about fat content has helped skew the national palate toward breast meat. Our cultural predisposition toward lighter colors has no doubt been a contributing factor, too – can you imagine the outcry if people bit into fried chicken nuggets and found a cross-section of dark meat? And you don’t see any industry rushing in to call its product “The Other Dark Meat.”

Toss in the laws of supply and demand and it’s no surprise that white meat costs more. KFC charges an extra 89 cents if you want a thigh replaced with a breast, even though the thighs taste much better. Granted, a breast is larger than a thigh, which might account for a portion of the higher price. But if you go to the supermarket, where chicken is priced by weight, you’ll find that breasts cost as much as a dollar more per pound than thighs or drumsticks. Of course, for those of us who understand that dark meat is actually the superior product, this amounts to a free windfall.

It’s worth noting, incidentally, that a typical commercial chicken is almost evenly divided between white meat (52%) and dark (48%). So if most Americans are buying breasts and wings, what’s happening to all the thighs and legs?

“A lot of the dark meat we produce in this country – about a third of it – is exported,” said Mr. Lobb. Why? “Because most people in the rest of the world prefer dark meat.” So there’s the shameful truth: We eat more chicken than anyone else, but it’s based on a misguided set of poultry proclivities. We’re all about quantity, not quality.

According to Mr. Lobb, it didn’t used to be this way. “Oldtimers have told me that back in the 1960s, the big demand was for drumsticks and thighs for frying, back when more people made fried chicken,” he said.

“In those days, it was the breast meat that piled up and had to be sold off at whatever price they could get, often to companies that would turn it into deli meat or other processed products.” But you don’t need to deep-fry in order to appreciate dark meat – thighs, in particular, lend themselves to a wide variety of culinary approaches.

After chatting with Mr. Lobb about all this for the better part of an hour, one final question seemed obvious: Does he prefer white or dark meat?

“I like them both – I’m a switch-hitter,” he said, trying to be diplomatic. But he eventually ‘fessed up: “When we buy a rotisserie chicken at home, I go for the drumsticks and thighs.” Because they taste better? “Yeah, but also because nobody else is gonna eat them.”

Hey, why fight it? If the rest of the world insists on leaving the best part of the bird for the rest of us, just quietly take a drumstick and pass the serving platter on.

Garlicky Chicken Thighs

This treatment involves a sauce that can either be used to marinate the chicken shortly before cooking or can simply be applied when the meat hits the heat.

4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 small onion, quartered
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 pounds bone-in chicken thighs

1. Light a gas or charcoal grill, or preheat your oven’s broiler. Combine all ingredients except the juices and chicken in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the juices, stir to blend, taste, and adjust seasonings to taste.

2. Coat chicken with sauce and let stand for up to an hour, if you like. Grill or broil until nicely browned, about 10 minutes per side.

YIELD: Four servings