Rotisserie Chickens

Let’s talk about rotisserie chickens. Most grocery stores have them, but my favorite place to get them is at Sam’s. Where I live, a whole chicken is $5.00. Five dollars!! You can’t beat that. It costs almost double that to buy a whoIe chicken in the meat section, and it isn’t even cooked!! I actually rarely buy a whole rotisserie chicken, but they do make wonderful meals and you can do so many recipes with the meat.

Which leads me to my great tip. You can do this same thing with the whole chicken as well, but this is even better, I think, if you can find this available. At my local Sam’s (I know not everyone has a Sam’s or a Costco or has a membership – that’s why I said you can do this with a whole rotisserie chicken from the grocery store as well), they take any chickens not sold from that day, which isn’t too often, and they cut them up, package them, and sell them in the cold case. They package four huge breast pieces or five leg quarters together and sell the package for $3.98. 

You have to be in the right place at the right time though. If they have any of these packages, they will be set out first thing in the morning. They are snatched up pretty quickly, probably by people like me that buy several packages of them when I see them!

Anyway, I do get several packages when I happen upon them. Once I get them home, I do a couple of things. I will take some of the pieces and wrap them up into individual servings and freeze them. I usually wrap the breast pieces individually because my husband and I can share one for a meal and have plenty. I wrap the leg quarters in sets of two so that we each have one. All of it freezes well and can be pulled out as part of a quick weeknight meal.

But here is what I really love to do. I take some of the pieces and shred all the meat off of them. I take all the shredded meat and portion it into freezer bags, usually in 8 oz. portions. Then I put all the bags in the freezer. Whenever I need some cut up or shredded chicken for a recipe, if I am short on time or if I plan for it intentionally, all I have to do is pull out a bag and my chicken for my recipe is already taken care of. 

But wait, there’s more! Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century, but then I remember how much I like all my modern conveniences like indoor plumbing, lights, and air conditioning!! Anyway, when I have all the bones, etc. from doing that, I really hate wasting them. SOOOOO, I usually make some homemade stock from the bones. I know, I’m crazy. But it’s so good – and easy. The recipe that is linked is from familystylefood.com. It is basically the format that I follow. 

I usually portion out my stock into 2-cup portions and freeze. I use the stock mainly for soups and stews, but sometimes I thaw out a container just to use in a recipe instead of buying chicken broth. 

See how much you can get for just a few bucks and a little bit of time and effort. And you can impress your family and friends with how prepared and industrious you are! Who says prepping is mundane?