Can anyone tell me

Which of these would be the cheapest per amount of meat on them: whole chicken, breast, thighs or legs? I currently buy boneless chicken breast but was wondering if it cost more than buying any other type and pulling all the meat off

With a whole chicken you can use the carcass to make soup.

I buy a mixture of both, working full time, breasts are easy to slice and make a quick dish. Sundays I make a roast, and use the carcass later for soup. Bones have a lot of goodness in them.

Sometimes easy is good.

lazkaz you forgot yummy as well

For a whole chicken, I get 6-8 meals from the meat, and like lazkaz, use the carcass for stock/soup. Thus a $12 (free-range) chicken works out at about $1.50 a meal (not counting what I use the stock for), which I think is pretty economical!

But yeah, I buy skin-on breast too, as an instant meal option (cut up and throw into a soup, or panfried).

Breast is expensive.
Also dry and flavourless - in comparison to say thighs.

Sweetest pieces of chicken are the wings.

We prefer the thighs - more flavour and much more tender and moist than breasts, we buy skinless, bone-in thigh pieces.

That's really hard to say jaimee3614, there are so many differentials. For example do you want free range or is that not an issue for you? Where do you normally buy from and who has what on special comes into it too. What/how do you want to use the chicken for? Cut up for stir fries, casseroles etc. Roasted with leftovers for other meals or sandwiches? If you simply want to have access to cooked chicken for salads and sandwiches, quick pasta bakes and the likes it's pretty simply to purchase a whole chicken and simmer it till it's done (so long as you have a large enough pot). The advantages being that you end up with lovely moist chicken meat and an 'instant' stock which can be used for soup or as the base for a stew etc. Even better if you add a few vegetables to cook along with it and make an initial meal of cooked chicken and simple veg maybe with a nice rich sauce to accompany it. Best to allow the stock to set for a while in order to remove excess fat if you want to try this though.

Couple of other points - boneless chicken breasts are a good compromise for times when you just need something on the table five minutes ago but meat cooked on the bone is always going to have a superior taste to meat off the bone. Also, don't forget that it's entirely possible to buy whole chickens when on special and fairly easily cut into halves or quarters yourself. Or if you have an approachable butcher ask then to do it for you, most are happy to help to ensure their customers get what they want.

Thanks guys. My partner hates bones, so I have to remove all meat from the bone. I was buying chicken breast, but it can get quite expensive. But yeah, the breast isn't as tasty as other parts. Might just start buying whole chicken, having a roast the first night and make chicken wraps, rolls etc with all the leftovers (he also hates leftovers, so I'll have to pretend it's all different chicken lol)

The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat tell him

I love the thighs as well. There is usually a good deal on big packs of frozen ones, always a cheap tasty meal in the house.p.s. If I cook breasts I usually stuff them with some moist stuffing, or if plain, I usually wrap bacon or similar around them to keep them moist.