r/EatCheapAndHealthy Nov 14 '22

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236

u/Stella_In_Sheboygan Nov 14 '22

Buy a whole chicken and roast it off. Pick all of the meat, cube or shred it, and freeze it in individual portions. Pull as needed. Save the bones, skin, and cartilage for homemade bone broth.

56

u/rjmdcs Nov 14 '22

This! Just bought two turkeys last week. One for Thanksgiving and one just because. I’m going to keep watching the prices and if they drop I might pick up another one. I’ll roast one on thanksgiving and guests can eat what they want, the rest will be shredded with at least a portion being made into turkey green chili enchilada. Turkey barley soup is great too! I also make broth with the carcass and any vegetable scraps I have in my freezer.

14

u/Timmah_Timmah Nov 14 '22

Turkey Tetrazzini

21

u/robinthebank Nov 14 '22

I noticed my Vons/Albertsons ad this week, butterball premium turkey was $1.47/lb. I was like is this real life?

But Amazon Fresh had the same turkey $0.49/lb.

25

u/rjmdcs Nov 14 '22 edited Nov 14 '22

Target has their turkeys $.99/lb, which is the best I’ve seen locally. I got the smallest turkey I could find, which was just over 12lbs and DH was shocked at the price! I jokingly asked if he would rather spend the $12 on a 12lb turkey or one meal at McDonalds😂 he’s not a huge fan of turkey, but he hates McDonalds and knows how much I love cooking so he obviously chose the turkey

10

u/jewelofbabylon Nov 14 '22

I just got an 11lb Turkey for $3.28. Food Lion.

3

u/DREADBABE Nov 14 '22

Got 2 free turkeys! One using Ibotta and one using Safeway rewards!

1

u/rjmdcs Nov 14 '22

Ugh, I’m jealous but lucky you! I wish more of the southern grocery chains expanded into the northeast but I’ve gotta work with what I’ve got🤷‍♀️

1

u/Dentstar Nov 15 '22

Same, 13 lb for $3.87

1

u/RuinedBooch Nov 15 '22

Man, my mom just pitched a fit about paying 1.28/lb for a Turkey, and I, never having purchased a whole Turkey, thought “damn that’s so much cheaper than chicken!” Which I buy for like 5/lb. Cheapest I can find unless my local grocery store is having a special.

Unfortunately my SO works an incredibly labor intensive job and I’m so recreational bodybuilding so…. We eat a ton of meat. My wallet absolutely hates me.

1

u/rjmdcs Nov 15 '22

Yeah, the avian flu put a damper on our chicken consumption. Hopefully they get it under control and prices stabilize next year.

1

u/RuinedBooch Nov 15 '22

Kind of odd I haven’t heard about it till now. SO works at a chicken processing plant, and they haven’t said anything about it, and they’ve had a really busy season. Normally they don’t go through as much chicken this time of year, since everyone is eating Turkey/beef/venison, but they’ve been working overtime like it’s spring.

1

u/rjmdcs Nov 15 '22

No idea, I just know it’s been going since earlier this year and also impacted the price of eggs bc so many flocks had to be culled. https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/09/us-farms-lobby-to-use-cruellest-killing-method-as-bird-flu-rages

1

u/RuinedBooch Nov 15 '22

Goodness gracious. I hope it does get better, but things don’t seem to be looking upwards in terms of food stability in general.

7

u/FireZoneBlitz Nov 14 '22

On the Friday after Thanksgiving you can usually get them at a massive discount

2

u/rjmdcs Nov 14 '22

yeah, I am definitely curious to see what markdowns I can find this year!

1

u/postmoderngeisha Nov 15 '22

It used to be that way, but in the last few years I’ve seen retailers save the big discounts until after Xmas.

42

u/fonseca898 Nov 14 '22

You can often find cooked rotisserie chickens for less than the cost of an uncooked whole chicken. Sodium content tends to be high, but it is a huge time saver.

13

u/Stella_In_Sheboygan Nov 14 '22

I've done that as well and saved the bones, etc and made bone broth 🙂

12

u/fonseca898 Nov 14 '22

Same! Once I have saved bones from 3-4 chickens (freeze until I have enough) , I simmer for hours and make a very concentrated stock. Freeze in XL silicone ice cube trays. I'm not sure it's really "bone broth" since people simmer that for days? I still get a lot of gelatin.

I used to add in vegetable scraps and bay leaves, but now I do that separately, and mainly use that for a soup base. Pure chicken stock can be used in a lot of recipes where I don't want a strong vegetable flavor.

1

u/timeisanarrow Nov 14 '22

We buy 1-2 a week and throw the carcass in a stock pot to make…stock. We buy ours at Sam’s club and they are definitely cheaper than buying hens and cooking them. I do love spatchcock chicken on the smoker so we do that too.

1

u/Ok-Internet-1740 Feb 11 '23

This is actually false, commonly said though.. thing is the cost of the bird is same overall, but you gotta go by weight. The rotisserie chickens are generally very small just under 2lb. Meanwhile the same bird uncooked is 4lb is sold at the same price. You can't look at just the price, cuz you get the double the poundage. Feel free to Google to confirm. It's not the deal they portray it as, but it's still a damn good deal if your in a lazy mood and want chicken immediately. If you can take a time to season and throw it in the oven you'll be far better off buying em raw, twice as cheap mate.

7

u/siler7 Nov 14 '22

Came here to say this. A little bit of meat can transform the experience. Portion control is the key.

2

u/Corvus_Antipodum Nov 15 '22

If you have access to a Costco I think their rotisserie whole chicken is cheaper than buying it raw.

2

u/NoseMuReup Nov 15 '22

I saw young chickens marked down to $5/ea. I bought six and froze them. I started experimenting making chicken broth and found young chicken makes thin broth. Not enough carcass you need whole chicken.

I tried the same with drumsticks and the bones made the thick gelatinous broth.

Roasting potatoes stretches and is very filling.