On day one, I gave some of the reasons why roasting a whole chicken is worth it. You get delicious chicken for a lower cost and can make really good chicken stock. Other than my inability to properly carve my chicken (this is definitely my husband’s job!), I really enjoy the whole process of making everything myself, and knowing that I’m feeding my family fresh foods that haven’t been processed. It also saves money.
If the chicken is not on sale (and you can usually find them on sale pretty regularly), it’s about 99 cents per pound in my supermarket. Here’s my cost break down for a 5 pound bird. These are estimates; I really haven’t weighted the pieces of my chicken.
2 chicken breasts (about 1 – 1 ½ pounds depending on the size) would be $1.99 per pound store bought (on sale at my local supermarket this week)
2-3 pounds of various chicken parts (legs, wings, thighs) would be $1.19 per pound store bought (same sale)
2 quarts of chicken stock (approximately) would be $2.69 for 26 ounces store bought
So roughly, the cost would be ($1.99 x 1.5) + ($1.19 x 3) + ($2.69 x 2) = $11.94 for the chicken breasts and other pieces and the chicken stock
If it’s not on sale the chicken would be $.99 x 5lb bird (but seriously, they’re always on sale!) + about $2 worth of vegetables = $6.95 (the chickens I got on sale for $.39 a pound would be a total cost of $3.95 with the vegetables)
So, buying a whole chicken and taking advantage of all of it allows you to get about $12 worth of product for about $7 or less. Besides being almost half the cost, the flavor of the chicken and the broth is so much better!
Maybe one weekend, you can roast a chicken and make some stock. You’ll have a delicious weekend meal of roasted chicken and be able to put together a casserole so you don’t have to worry about what’s for dinner for the first couple of week days.
Happy roasting!
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