Reply #61: Price of 1 whole chicken = price of chicken breast

[HamdenRice]

This is a pet peeve of mine because both me and my SO are fanatics as cooks, and she grew up in a restaurant.

The prices of chicken parts varies insanely. Often the price of boneless, skinless chicken breast is about the same as the price of an entire chicken. With chicken breast, you are paying for (1) the supermarket's labor costs of deboning the chicken, and (2) the risk that the supermarket cannot sell the rest of the chicken.

How anyone buys chicken breast -- let alone boneless, skinless chicken breast -- is utterly beyond my comprehension. I realize it's healthy, but come on!

The key thing is owning a sharp knife and knowing how to butcher a chicken. Every single part of the chicken can be used, especially if you learn how to make stock, which as an ingredient makes everything taste wonderful. I even buy chicken feet, add a few to stock, which adds a gelatinous texture to your stock.

So, buy whole chicken or even more economical, buy the cheapest, most delicious cut, chicken quarters (leg, thigh, a little back). If you want fillets, learn how to fillet one big leg/thigh (delicious) and save the bones and carcass for stock.

In my neighborhood bagged chicken quarters are $.49 per pound, while breasts are $2 or more. Whole chickens are about $.89, the second cheapest cut.

Learn how to cut up a chicken. Skinless thighs and legs are every bit as healthy as skinless breasts, but better yet, eat the skin and eat less of everything. If you love chicken wings (unreasonably expensive), save them from each whole chicken in the freezer.

I even save the nasty globs of yellow fat in baggies in the freezer. Following the famous Jewish recipe, I render it with onions and garlic to make schmaltz, which while not as healthy an oil as say, olive oil, in small amounts is a miracle ingredient.

Everything in the chicken has a use.