Store-bought rotisserie chicken.... what a deal!

[rdharma]

How is it that I can buy a rotisserie chicken (pre-cooked) for less than an uncooked chicken (of the same size) at the same store?

[BainsBane]

1. It's a loss leader

I think. A store in our area has Friday $5 buck clucks. They lose money on the chicken but make up for it on everything else you buy. I only buy them on Fridays. I don't believe they are cheaper than a chicken at other times, but I'm not sure. If I buy fresh chicken, I buy free range at a local coop, so I haven't actually done the cost comparison for ordinary chicken vs. full price rotisserie.

[rdharma]

7. I thought it a smoking deal!

Made a couple meals of it and chicken salad then turned the carcass into chicken broth with onions per Lynne Rosetta Kasper's instructions.

I was comparing young packaged chickens of approximately the same size in the same store. They were about a dollar more than the rotisserie chicken.

Thanks for the info.

[FarPoint]

13. Maybe the rotissarie chicken were once unpurchase store birds.

Maybe they were near sale expiration time and they use these ones to make the rotisserie items..... Thus cheaper?

[Suich]

2. Best deal in town!

$5 on sale, $7-8 regular price.

[Jenoch]

3. Whole chickens can be purchased for .99 cents a pound at Costco.

Are you sure the rotisserie chicken is cheaper? By the way, they are full of salt.

[rdharma]

8. .99 cents a pound?

That's a screaming deal. Unfortunately no Costcos around here.

[Major Nikon]

9. Costco also sells rotisserie chicken for $5

I would guess they are somewhere around 3lb chickens uncooked, so they cost a couple of bucks more but you also have to cook them which takes time and energy so if you place any value on that you aren't losing much if anything.

The sodium content is not that bad if you look at the big picture. One breast contains 141 calories which is 7% of a 2,000 calorie per day diet while containing 23% of the max sodium RDA for the same 2,000 calorie diet. So at first glance that chicken breast seems like it has 3 times more sodium than it should have, but this assumes you are salting all of the calories you are consuming at the max sodium RDA rate. Most people prefer higher salt contents in high protein foods compared to foods with low protein. The other side to this is you are getting 40-50% of your daily protein requirement with that same chicken breast. So if you are salting all the rest of your meal, yes this can be a bad thing, but if I'm rationing out my salt, I'd much rather put my salt on my protein and cut back everywhere else.

[Jenoch]

15. I am one of those cooks who rarely buys rotisserie chicken.

I am the primary cook in my household. I get annoyed when someone suggests a rotisserie chicken for dinner. I get a little annoyed because that chicken does not solve the 'what should we have for dinner problem' because a single (or two) chicken(s) is not a well-rounded meal. The person making the suggestion thinks they are being helpful, but they are not. They are not lifting a finger to help with dinner. If they want rotisserie chicken, tell me a couple days in advance and I'll roast a chicken, or two. I'm working on my issues, really, I am.

[Major Nikon]

20. My wife gets them every now and then

I do all the cooking, so if she has to come up with dinner sometimes she gets one. I have a smoker so that's generally how I do whole chickens.

I gave up asking for help cooking over a decade ago. Now I manage the entire kitchen including cooking, cleaning, and supplying. My wife takes care of all the laundry. She no longer asks for help with the laundry and I no longer ask for help in the kitchen. It's all good.

[Jenoch]

26. It appears we have similar households.

I do the cooking because I actually enjoy it. I'm quite sure my wife doesn't enjoy washing clothes. (I don't mind washing the clothes, that's the easy part. I hate the drying, hanging, folding, putting away part.)

Now, if I could only get her to shovel the driveway.....

[Major Nikon]

27. I think she figured out early on I had no business washing clothes

For some strange reason she thinks you can't put everything in the same load and wash everything at the same temperature.

[Jenoch]

28. That's what my widowed father does.

Even though I wrote up some easy-to-follow washing instructions. As long as he doesn't care, I guess I don't either. I did get him to promise me he would never leave his house wearing sweat pants.

[Major Nikon]

29. I just tell everyone pink is my favorite color

[FarPoint]

14. Costco is coming to Dayton, Ohio.

I am trilled!

[Major Nikon]

4. It gets you in the store where you are likely to buy other items

The store knows if you buy a prepared chicken you are also likely to buy other things for dinner. So people who might otherwise go through the fast food drive through come into the store to buy a ready made entree will probably also buy other side dishes, drinks, and will probably also do some other grocery shopping while they are there.

So they are basically selling you the chicken at cost in hopes that you buy other items. If you just buy the chicken and leave, the store loses, but more often than not they wind up winning.

[Phentex]

5. Crazy good deal at Costco!

It's cheaper than the grocery store and much larger too.

I still roast a chicken at home sometimes but the store bought is a real time saver.

[elleng]

6. One of the best,

and made curry with left-over last night.

[rdharma]

21. Chicken salad curry?

Or some other curry recipe?

Curry + chicken = YUM!

[elleng]

23. Not salad,

warmed, with rice. From memory, James Beard's curry sauce, so onion, garlic, canned tomatoes (or just the juice,) celery, apple, green or red pepper, bay leaf, and curry powder + salt to taste. A family favorite!

[rdharma]

24. James Beard's curry sauce

Sounds good!

[elleng]

25. Its great,

partly because its simple. My copy of cookbook is hidden away somewhere, so this is my recollection, pretty close, I think.

AND serve with yogurt, raisins, chutney, etc etc etc!

[pinto]

10. No clue, yet I love them. My local does two rotisseries, ~ 11 AM and ~ 4 PM. That's when I buy.

[rdharma]

19. That's a good idea to find out when they were put in the "warm" bin.

[msanthrope]

11. Q Costco sells the best...I get at least 3 meals from each one.

Take the chicken, skin off the breasts and make curried chicken salad. Thighs, legs and wing meat with a veg and potato. Carcass makes soup.

[rdharma]

16. 3 meals here too.

I used throw away the carcass. What a waste! It cooks down to about 42 oz. of really good broth.

The curried chicken salad is one of my favorites too.

[msanthrope]

30. A little Patak's curry paste a little fresh mayo a few dried cranberries

Juicy celery and I'm in heaven.

[rdharma]

31. Dried cranberries!

YES! Brilliant idea! Why didn't I think of that?

I'm also going to check into this "Patak's" curry paste. I have been using just regular curry powder.

[pengillian101]

12. I love the cooked chickens.

Somewhere I read the reason they can go on sale is when the store's fresh sell-by date is coming up soon, they cook those in-house.

Anyway, they are delicious and I recall getting them decades ago, and they haven't changed.

[rdharma]

17. On sale when "sell-by" date approaching and cooked in house........

That's what I suspected too. And I also suspect the unsold rotisserie chickens end up in the store's salad bar selections.

[Galileo126]

18. Sell-by date is true

My brother is a deli manager for a grocery store chain in New England. When the chickens in the meat department get close to the sell-by date, they are taken by the deli dept and put into the rotisserie. It's a very common practice, and well, quite sensible.

How many time have we all said "I better cook that chicken before it goes bad."?

However, leftover rotisserie chicken is thrown away if unused. Grocery management does not want to flirt with cross contamination using "leftovers". It would be a PR nightmare. (I asked my bro on this last night, otherwise I would have piped up on the original question of this thread.)

Just some FYI,
-g

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the delis do indeed make rotisserie chicken specifically for their other deli case products, like chicken salad, etc, and used immediately. But no, not old rotisserie chickens.

[rdharma]

22. Thanks. I was wondering where the chicken meat on the store's salad bar came from.

[SiobhanClancy]

32. I run a supermarket deli...

I work for a New England supermarket chain,and in our stores,we use chickens specifically ordered for the rotisserie chicken program. They come twelve to a box,and these are the only chickens we use. We never use chickens from the meat department. If we have any unsold,they are pulled after 4 hours and chilled to be sold the next day in the cold case...usually not too many! They are quite popular.

[TreasonousBastard]

33. Around here the stores that have them get them...

pre-cooked from a supplier. Probably frozen.

Considering all the things they have to deal with with fresh chickens, the precooked ones could cost them less in the long run.

FWIW, I was in BJ's last week and saw a huge box in the freezer-- complete turkey dinner for 8 with sides. 40 bucks. Just heat and eat.

[Tab]

34. It's only less if your dog doesn't grab it off the counter.

Got one yesterday, dog stole it the moment we turned our backs. Had to go out and buy a bunch of subs (more pricey than the chicken). (sigh)

[rdharma]

35. Keep an eye on the pooch.

Jagged chicken bones can kill a dog.

[Tab]

36. I'm not sure that's a compelling argument for this dog....

I love dogs, but this one... well..

[NJCher]

37. I'd get a lecture if I bought one

from Resident Gourmand.

So chickens are an excellent deal because of all the meals you can get out of them. I only buy free range organic, though, and they are a little pricier.

I don't think stores would put close to the sell-by date chickens out because they sit there on the heating unit, sometimes for hours. Too risky.


Cher