We Tried Rotisserie Chickens From 6 Grocery Stores—Here's Our Favorite

[DP]

BTW-this site has a lot of good recipes...

https://www.myrecipes.com/convenience/gr...7-20200107&utm_campaign=well-done_newsletter&utm_source=myrecipes.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=010720&cid=477357&mid=28383896576

[N-OS X-tasy!]

No surprise that Costco's chicken tops the list. I brought one home earlier this week -- the damn thing was so heavy I almost needed help carrying it out to the car! But it was oh so delicious.

CNN ran a great piece recently on the rotisserie chicken business:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/business/...index.html

[Ombligo]

Save the reading - the rankings from worse to first

6 - Whole Foods (DQ'ed as not cooked through)
5 - Fresh Market (dry)
4 - Walmart (also dry)
3 - Publix (too moist, but good for salads and sandwiches)
2 - Costco (almost #1)
1 - Sam's Club (almost #2)

[GGD]

N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
No surprise that Costco's chicken tops the list. I brought one home earlier this week -- the damn thing was so heavy I almost needed help carrying it out to the car! But it was oh so delicious.

CNN ran a great piece recently on the rotisserie chicken business:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/business/...index.html

One Costco I visit has a scale out for customer use not too far from the chickens. I usually pick a few of the plumpest ones and take them over to the scale to pick a final winner. They're often over 4lbs, even 4.75lbs at times. But sometimes it's the bottom tray being very full of juices that's the cause of the weight rather than meat.

And Costco does weight every one of them too, if it's under 3lbs they slap a label on it with a price lower than $4.99 based on $1.66/lb.

[Racer X]

My partner got one from our local Fred Meyer (Kroger big box store in the west) Thing looked emaciated and very sad looking.

I will only spend my money on a Costco one.

[Michael]

We go to Costco every Monday after we ride our bikes and get a rotisserie chicken each time. We eat part of it for lunch and then I strip it and we use it for other things. This week we had chicken salad, some chicken on a salad and chicken enchiladas. We'll also make chicken soup if the weather's cold. Once in a while it gets to be too much for my dear wife and we'll skip a week.

[mrbigstuff]

Hard to judge when most of those places are not around me. But, the Whole Foods does have decent rotisserie chickens, at twice the price and smaller birds than Costco. However, I am not all that fond of the brine that Costco uses to douse their birds. For a while, it was very "bleachy" and although it not so now, it still tastes too much of chemicals for me. Yes, I do still buy them because at $4.99, it's just too easy. ( I did read that Costco has not changed the price of these in 30 years, and that they lose money on these.)

[RAMd®d]

Hard to judge when most of those places are not around me.


Agreed.

Of Om's list, only Costco is somewhat convenient.

It's been a while since I've had their rotisserie chicken, and as I recall, I like it well enough.

I've had a few of Safeway's rotisserie chicken, and like it, too,

Whether one is better than the other- it's been too long to remember.

I can eat a half of either for lunch, and the other half for dinner.

My usual preference is to eat a half or less for lunch, maybe a quarter for dinner with some other side, and the rest in a sammich the next day, one of my favorites.

On occasion I'll have most of the second half as sandwiches the next day, and finish off the carcass for dinner.

[Ombligo]

I used to buy them to use the meat for dinner and the bones for stock.

[rz]

We get the one from Publix a few times a year. Can't compare to the others, as I've only had the Publix one. We like it.