The Whole Chicken

A few months ago there was a good sale on small whole chickens at Kroger. I got several 3-4 lb (ish) chickens for 59 - 99 cents a pound. I had never cooked a whole chicken before, but I figured it would be hard to mess it up, and I was trying to find more frugal ways to eat. I bought 3 (one of many times I wished for a bigger freezer).

I got home and did some google searching on how best to cook a whole chicken. I wanted to cook it in the oven, with a minimum of fuss.

I opened the chicken, and rinsed it in cool water. I searched fruitlessly for the giblets (they aren’t always packaged with the smaller birds, I found out later). After rinsing I placed it in the pan I was going to cook it in, and rubbed it with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. [Make sure to coat the under-side as well, so it doesn't stick to the pan and it gets seasoned all over. If you don't like to touch meat, cooking a whole chicken may not be for you.] I didn’t bother with getting under the skin, even though some sites suggested this. I also put some of the spices inside, but I didn’t stress over it too much–we were going to be eating from the outside anyway.

The two chickens I’ve done this to were in the 3-4 lb range, so it only took about 1 hour 15 minutes or so to bake them up at 400 degrees. I cut into the thick meaty parts to see that the chicken was white and the juices were clear to be sure it was done. Both wound up a lovely golden color on the outside.

The cooked chicken was moist and very tasty, and I was pleased with the result (it smelled marvelous). With my first chicken I was really testing how far I could stretch things, though. After we ate, I stripped the chicken for large pieces first (breast meat, leg meat), to eat as leftovers whole. Then I stripped as much of the little meat pieces as I could and put them into another separate container.

Then I made what a friend of mine refers to as “carcass soup.” I covered the bones and bits of meat that were left with water, brought it to a boil, then simmered it for a little over 2 hours (it worked fine, though some of what I’ve read suggests I should have simmered longer). I then strained the result and kept the liquid as stock to make into soup.

I was reminded of all this today when I saw this post at The Simple Dollar, about how great it can be to use the whole chicken, and answering questions of whether or not a whole chicken is worth the cost over purchasing particular chicken cuts. I think it ultimately depends on what you intend to do with the chicken and the value of your time, but for us I think the buying of the whole chicken was definitely worth it — there were enough leftovers to eat as another meal, and more as some snacks/chicken sandwiches, and I used the little pieces, with some of the cut up bigger pieces, to make enough chicken salad for several sandwiches, as well as a couple nice bowls of soup. I didn’t keep exact track of all the meals we got out of the deal, but it was many.

The second time I cooked up a whole chicken, however, I didn’t bother with the carcass soup. With such a small bird, it only made enough stock for a couple bowls of soup. They were tasty, and I’m glad I know how to do it now, but the work involved wasn’t worth the payoff when the rest of the leftovers made for so much food.

I would still say that the whole bird is a worthwhile purchase, even a small one (depending on its price), since for the two of us it made for plenty of leftovers we would not have had if I had just bought breasts or other pieces. And even for 3-4 people I think it would have been good for a nice meal, a meal of leftovers, plus a round or two of chicken salad sandwiches, depending on the side-dishes available.

The last chicken is still in my freezer, and is about 4.5 lbs (the biggest one I bought). I may try the stock experiment again with this bird, to see if I can get enough stock out of it to make it feel worth doing.

Published: 08.19.08 / 5pm | Filed Under: budget, food and drink

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