Whole chickens are one of the best ways I know of to save money on meat. A few times a year I can find chickens on sale for around $.67-$.57/lb. I buy as many as I can at this price and cook them. All I do to prepare them is remove the innards, brush melted butter on the top and then sprinkle with salt & pepper. Generally I cook 2 at a time, in a roasting pan, at 350 for 2hours.
After the birds are cool I remove all the meat and cut it up. I place 2-3 cups of diced chicken in a freezer bag and stick it in my freezer to use later. This meat is great for using in soups, salads (including last night's Napa Cabbage Salad), chicken enchilladas, Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole, etc. I made my first ever whole chicken less than 3 years ago and now I almost always have cooked meat on hand.
One of my favorite cookbooks is 150 Things to Make with Roast Chicken and I have made, or adapted, several of the recipes in there.
About two weeks ago one of my grocery stores had chickens for $.47/lb, limit 4. In the 3 years I've been cooking chickens I had NEVER seen them so cheap. I went one day and they only had 3 so I bought all of them. All 3 were still frozen so I stuck them, whole, in my freezer. Later in the week I went and there were none, so I asked for a rain check (that I used on 4 yesterday). All 4 cost me about $8.50! To my amazement ANOTHER grocery store in town has them on sale for $.47/lb this week, too!
When I bought my chickens yesterday they were mostly defrosted so I kept them in the fridge for most of the day and cooked 2 in the evening. I have two in the oven right now.
Honestly, with 3 whole chickens in my freezer, plus the meat from 3 more that will be in the freezer by the time I go to bed tonight I don't know if I'll take advantage of this week's sale, but WOW!
I love cooking whole chickens and wish I could find it for those prices. Best I've done lately was about .62/lb on a surprise sale. They were actually $1.24 but were on managers special BOGO.
ReplyDeleteI toss a chicken in the crockpot with whatever herbs I'm in the mood for and let it cook all day. Dinner time comes and you have fall off the bone goodness.
I just get so grossed out by whole birds. I need to get over it, because that is a great way to save money!
ReplyDeletepicked up a couple for $.47/lb yesterday and had a $1 off coupon if I bought at least $5...psh...two birds was all I needed and that won't last long in this house...so, screamin' deal!
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