Stop wasting money by buying whole chicken and learning to break it down and use it all

I stumbled on this Zen koan the other day...

One day Banzan was walking through a market. He overheard a customer say to the butcher, “Give me the best piece of meat you have.”

“Everything in my shop is the best,” replied the butcher. “You can not find any piece of meat that is not the best.”

At these words, Banzan was enlightened.

And it's true - pretty much any piece of meat can be turned into something wonderful to eat if you know how and I'm having a wonderful time at the moment turning free butcher scraps into the best meals possible.

But for those of you less adventurous than me, this is a really good introductory video to breaking down a whole chicken and getting the best use out of it.

For the same price as two boneless, skinless breasts, you can buy two breasts, two thighs, two drums, two tenders, four wings, and about four quarts of chicken stock. Plus, after buying all of this, you'll still have $2.58 to spare.

OK so I had to watch it all through to figure out what on earth he meant by four wings but even so I think it's a pretty enlightening video...



0:00 Intro
0:42 Money Saving Stats
3:06 Breakdown
4:01 Legs
5:45 Boneless Thighs
7:00 Breast and Wings
9:11 Tenders
11:26 Stock
14:22 Secret Recipe
15:12 Nine Recipes

I occasionally have to home-process young roosters (sorry guys, but they fight and make a *lot* of noise, and I don't want to annoy the neighbors.)

The work that goes into doing that is not going to be wasted by failing to use the whole bird.  OK, I let the compost worms and microbes handle the guts.

However, the list doesn't include heart and liver, which make a great pate when cooked and whizzed with an egg, onion, red wine vinegar and some extra spices.

And the list also doesn't include the feet! Bird feet (duck, chicken or goose are my options) usually put in the pot with the neck, make the most wonderful bone broth. There's lots of collagen in feet because they're made up of lots of small joints. Because we scald our birds to get the feathers off easily, the outer layer on the feet also peals off easily, taking any bits of poop with it, so it's safe.

One of my money saving tips is to buy the $5.00 Rotisserie chicken at Sams Club as this is already cooked and beats a $5.00 or more whole raw chicken.

Anne Miller wrote:One of my money saving tips is to buy the $5.00 Rotisserie chicken at Sams Club as this is already cooked and beats a $5.00 or more whole raw chicken.

It mentioned that in the video, which surprised me greatly as here in Portugal the cooked ones are significantly more expensive. Though when I hunted around on the interwebs about it I heard it suggested that the reason they are the same price in the US is that they cook the ones that aren't sold to stop them going to waste. Not sure if that's true but it would explain a lot.

Jay Angler wrote:the list doesn't include heart and liver, which make a great pate when cooked and whizzed with an egg, onion, red wine vinegar and some extra spices.

Oh I absolutely use the liver to make pate! For the freebie scraps I get, they usually come via my son who gets me a bag when he buys his meat for the week. But if ever he's in the shop and doesn't need to buy anything, he has instructions to buy me a kilo of chicken liver to make pate with as the scraps are supposed to only be for customers. If I'm really lucky the liver will be from a 'new' batch that the butcher hasn't picked all the hearts out of, because chicken hearts go for twice the price of liver here so when they have some free time they pick them out to sell separately. If I get a good batch with both hearts and liver, I pick them out myself as we both love the texture and flavour of them.  My other half is quite partial to a bit of chicken liver to make dirty rice too.

Burra Maluca wrote:It mentioned that in the video, which surprised me greatly as here in Portugal the cooked ones are significantly more expensive. Though when I hunted around on the interwebs about it I heard it suggested that the reason they are the same price in the US is that they cook the ones that aren't sold to stop them going to waste. Not sure if that's true but it would explain a lot.

Jay Angler wrote:the list doesn't include heart and liver, which make a great pate when cooked and whizzed with an egg, onion, red wine vinegar and some extra spices.

Oh I absolutely use the liver to make pate! For the freebie scraps I get, they usually come via my son who gets me a bag when he buys his meat for the week. But if ever he's in the shop and doesn't need to buy anything, he has instructions to buy me a kilo of chicken liver to make pate with as the scraps are supposed to only be for customers. If I'm really lucky the liver will be from a 'new' batch that the butcher hasn't picked all the hearts out of, because chicken hearts go for twice the price of liver here so when they have some free time they pick them out to sell separately. If I get a good batch with both hearts and liver, I pick them out myself as we both love the texture and flavour of them.  My other half is quite partial to a bit of chicken liver to make dirty rice too.

When we use our own birds, we usually pay a local Mennonite family to process them for us. At $5@, it's worth it to us, because our labor, time, & spoons are worth more to us, than the $5. That said, we do get the innards we want, the necks, and feet, if we tell them we want them, then if we want them cut, we do that ourselves, which allows us to pick & choose which ones we want to use in which way. Definitely boosts the value!

That said, after our trip to Costco, yesterday, cut up was almost half again the cost of the whole bird, in the same brand (we eat more chicken than we process, as our birds are primarily for eggs). We bought both. We often just don't have the time/spoons to process them, so we buy both - and get more meals out of the whole one, making them even more cost effective.

For us, it comes down to spoons, and whether we have company coming, how many people, and how we want to cook for them.  If we have a couple days notice, but will be pressed for time, when they come, we will thaw a whole bird & roast it - 2 or 3 more people fed, only a few minutes of actual work to be done. More than 4? Soup or chicken&dumplins it is - whole chicken, not much more work than the roast, fed an army. Only 1 or 2 people coming? A little more time available? Fried, baked, bbq, or something-a-little-fancier-chicken, probably a pack of pieces.

We almost exclusively purchase beef & pork by the whole muscle, too - and when we buy a 'side of', we order it cut to the whole muscle. The savings there are even higher than for chicken, plus we can have it the way we want it. John cures & smokes all of our own bacon, grinds and blends our own sausages (a few types of breakfast sausage, plus a couple styles each of Italian & brats), and grinds & blends our hamburger, jerky-style meat sticks, cures our own corned beef & cures & smokes our pastrami. He also cuts all our steaks, chops, roasts, etc. Since he's willing and able to do the labor, we often save 75% or more on all these items, over the market prices. $3.50/lb, for ribeye steaks & filet mignon? YES PLEASE!

Burra said, Though when I hunted around on the interwebs about it I heard it suggested that the reason they are the same price in the US is that they cook the ones that aren't sold to stop them going to waste. Not sure if that's true but it would explain a lot.

I don't know either though that sounds like a great strategy.

Our grocery chain has started offering a lot of chicken meals and salad so working folks can just grab some for lunch.  They may use that same strategy.

The grocery chain also has the Rotisserie chicken for $6.00 or Shredded Dark & White Meat Rotisserie Chicken one pound for $10.00.

They have cooked seasoned legs or thighs for $5.00 about 1.25 pounds so I might start buying that as that is a better deal for me.

Growing up, there were six people in my family.
My mom only bought whole chickens, cutting them up herself.
She ate the wings and back, so we could have the legs, thighs and breasts, because my mommy always put us first!
The rest of the world eventually figured out how good chicken wings are, but if you can buy backs at low price, do, it, they are delicious, especially the tail.
I recommend poultry shears, they make dismantling a chicken much easier.
Because of momma I  can cut up a chicken, no problem, but where I live a 10 pound bag of leg quarters costs less than 9 dollars.
This is basically the least commercially desirable cut of chicken.
Since the thigh is to me the very best cut, land legs are close behind, buying leg quarters is like buying porterhouse steak at a cost less than filet mignon.
Its crazy to me, but there it is.

Our basic go to is leg quarters baked over onions and potatoes.
Potatoes/onions  cooked in schmaltz is chefs kiss delicious.
Leg quarters on the grill or smoked are as good as anything I've ever tasted.
Peel back the skins and season underneath, its worth the extra effort.
But I even  like them boiled, with some salt.
Fry the skins with some water, they will cook in their own fat, for pork free chicharrons.
Basically, leg quarters are fatty goodness that is hard mess up.



After your family gnaws the bones, collect them in the freezer.
When you have enough, pressure cook them until they are soft to the touch.
I throw this to my chickens, who incorporate it into the compost.
I like to use the broth to make rice, in vegetable soup, or for chicken 'n dumplings(which I just cant eat very much of).

When we were dead ass  broke, we ate well by focusing on these low cost bulk ingredients.
I'm embarrassed to say, we don't cook like this much anymore, since I've found better work.
That bothers me, but its just another thing on a long list.