Although Costco prices the ready-to-eat item at $5.66, shoppers are still determined to get the best value for their money.
Taking to a popular Reddit thread, one Costco fan asked other customers how they make the most of their rotisserie chicken.
“So I’ll buy the $5 pre-cooked chicken, we eat that for dinner, and then the leftover meat goes in the fridge/freezer pretty standard. I have found that if I am not too gung-ho in digging for the meat (in the articular spaces, along the spine, etc.), then it is the perfect amount of meat for a chicken noodle soup,” the user began.
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“I’ll put the whole carcass/bones we ate off of straight into the crock pot with water on low for like 2 days, then filter out the bones and toss in my veggies, etc. Is this OK/common to do with the Costco chicken? It helps me get like another 2-3 meals out of a $5 hunk. Is there anything wrong with those chickens that would impede their brothing?” they added.
It didn’t take long for shoppers to chime in with their hacks, especially for making chicken broth.
One user replied, “This is exactly what I do, but with some variation. I’ll freeze the carcass until I have two or three, then pop them in my Instant Pot. I’ll roast an onion (including the skins), full celery stalks, carrots, and garlic and add them in. Throw in some bay leaves, fresh thyme or parsley if I have it, and crushed peppercorns. Fill with water to the max and let that sucker go for a couple hours. Strain the solids out, add salt if needed, then ladle as much of the fat off the top as I can. Then pour into ice cube trays and freeze and store in Ziploc bags in the freezer. Anytime I need chicken broth I have delicious homemade that’s easy to measure out!”
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Another user added, “I also pull the skin off and lay down some big chunks on a ventilated cookie sheet in the convection oven to make skin crisps. Great for snacks or dog treats.”
A third user broke down each meal they get out of their chicken. “1st meal is chicken breast for dinner, 2nd meal is chicken salad using every morsel of meat left after the 1st meal, and then we’ll do chicken broth.”
A fourth shopper shared a similar meal plan: “A $5 Costco chicken turns into three meals—1) eat all the dark meat, 2) use the breast and thigh meat in a salad, and 3) turn the rest into broth to drink or use as an ingredient in other recipes.”
