Grocery Shrink

…a  whole chicken.

When working with mom’s one of the first easy changes to make is to buy a whole chicken for things like chicken soup, casseroles, and salads instead of boneless skinless chicken breasts.  Chicken breasts average $5.99 a lb but can be found at Costco in 10 lb bags for $2 each.  And occasionally go on sale for less than that at the regular store.  I buy chicken breasts at these low prices, but cook them like a steak since they are one of our more expensive meats.

Whole chickens on the other hand can be found at Aldi every day for $.79 a lb and go on sale for $.59 a lb!  When I’m going to cut up a chicken for enchiladas, casseroles, or cold chicken salad anyway, I use the most affordable meat on the market.  A whole chicken is easy to deal with, and there are 3 different ways to cook it.  The first, boiling it, is one of my favorites because it also yields 4 quarts of yummy chicken broth to use in recipes.  If you prefer you can roast it in the oven or the slow cooker, and when adding root vegetables to the pot, you end up with a one dish meal.  In the picture above, I roasted 3 chickens at once so I could freeze the meat for fast meal solutions later.

Whole chicken with Broth

16 cups of water

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons garlic salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 onion, chopped fine (Or 1 Tablespoon onion powder)

2 ribs of celery, chopped fine (Or one teaspon celery seed)

1 whole chicken (Thawed and the gible bag removed from the inside.)

Combine all in a large stock pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 3 hours.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken to a platter to cool.  Strain the broth and set in the fridge when cool.  Usually by this point quite a bit of water has cooked out of the broth, so I add more to get back to 16 cups.  Once the broth has chilled, the fat will harden on the top and you can remove it easil if you prefer to cook with fat free broth.  Then ladle the broth into freezer jars and freeze in recipe size portions for future use.

When the chicken has cooled, gather two large bowls.  Use your fingers to separate the meat from the bones.  I put the bones, skin, and other unwanted parts in one bowl, and the meat in the other.  Then coarsely chop the meat and place 2 cup portions into freezer bags and freeze.

Roast Chicken

There are lots of different herb variations for roasting a chicken. I previously shared one of my favorites here.  (There’s also a lovely lemon rub recipe in the Slow and Savory cookbook.)  In the link above, I showed how to cook 3 chickens at once, but if you prefer to do one and make it a meal.  Also add 2 peeled whole carrots, 1.5 peeled potatoes, 2 ribs of celery cut into 1 inch pieces, and a sliced onion to the roasting pan.  Follow the same cooking instructions as in the link.

Slow Cooker Chicken

Follow the preparation instructions above, then cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours. 

Update:  I boiled a chicken today that was 5.06 lbs.  I got a gallon of broth and 6 cups of cubed meat.  The meat weighed 1 lb 15 oz and the bones and skin weighed 1 lb 5 oz  which means 1 lb 12 oz of the chicken was moisture that went into the broth.  I haven’t cooked and weighed chicken breasts yet, but let’s pretend they would have the same amount of moisture loss:

5 lbs of chicken breasts at $2 a lb would cost $10 with a net result of 3 lbs 4 oz of meat and a final price of $3.08 a lb

5lb of whole chicken at $.79 a lb cost $3.95 with a net result of 1 lb 15 oz of meat and a final price of $2.03 a lb.  At $.59 a lb for the whole chicken it’s $1.52 a lb

It’s worth it to pay for the extra bones and skin (it makes a healthier broth) because the net result is still less expensive meat.  The least expensive I have seen boneless skinless chicken breasts was $1 a lb.  The price of the actual meat becomes $1.65 a lb.  It is still less expensive to buy a whole chicken at $.59 a lb, but barely so at that point.