Why do hospitals serve people chicken or turkey after surgery?

Nicely cooked chicken or turkey isn’t dry, but nicely cooked isn’t always an option, especially in an institutional setting.

This question came to mind again because we had a Thanksgiving feast at the little school I subbed at yesterday. One of the teacher’s husbands smoked 10 turkeys. It was delicious, but in the absence of gravy it was SO dry. I always thought that taking a drink while food was in your mouth is really gross, but I had no choice!

The first meal they gave me after my surgery in 2012 was chicken. My mouth was already dry and that first bite of chicken almost killed me. I couldn’t swallow and I couldn’t spit it out because I had no spit.

So why do they do that?