I can't decide whether or not I should be purchasing them... Also though greasy - they seem like a cheap way to have cooked chicken...
Our supermarket often puts them on special for 2 for $20... We can get a dinner and two lunches out of the first chicken; and two dinners out of the second chicken...
I can't decided if I want to purchase them...
Your comments are invited.
bumblebee13,
Jul 9, 8:28am
we quite often buy them for tea, then lunches, chicken wraps or pies or with pasta
pickles7,
Jul 9, 8:29am
do you cook up the bones for soup? if not, why not.
duckmoon,
Jul 9, 8:32am
cos I am a lazy sod... ? ? ?
jag5,
Jul 9, 8:48am
2 for $20... . . how about stocking up when uncooked are on special at $4. 99 and stuff and cook them yourself. So much nicer, and way cheaper. No contest in my book.
Already cooked I will buy if in a hurry, and perhaps got guests for lunch. Hot chook and bread buns... yumLOL
fisher,
Jul 9, 9:56am
I buy them occasionally. . if I'm in the supermarket and cant be bothered coming home and cooking and if they are on special... Most of them are rotisseried so no reason really not to buy them but I make a rule as to break them up when still hot and not leave them in the pack. . Quick heat up in the "oven" once I have the rest of the meal ready...
stormbaby,
Jul 9, 10:14am
I am a huge fan. I worked out that by the time you buy that sized chook, cook it in the oven, you're better off buying the already cooked. I buy the two for $18, turn my crockpot on high before I leave home and when I get home, put them in and switch it to low. They keep hot all afternoon and we have roast chook with veges and roast potatoes (done in the electric frypan) for dinner that night. After dinner I take all the meat off the bones. The carcasses and bones go back in the crockpot with celery, parsley, onion, carrots and seasoning and hot water overnight for stock. Next day I strain and refrigerate overnight. When cold and when the fat is white and setting on top, I skim this and give it to the dogs with the carrots/celery from the original stock. The stock I either freeze or make into soup. The cooked chicken I make either into pies or turnovers and do a whole batch of chicken/cream/bacon/mushroom casserole and a spare to freeze. There is usually left over chicken for sandwiches too! 2 cooked chooks go a long way in this house! !
alebix,
Jul 9, 10:17am
Im a huge fan of supermarket chickens.
Saves me power and dirty roasting dishes. Plus they taste really nice.
We use them for anything, dinner, lunches, rolls, sammies, wraps, lunch for DH the next day... .
fisher,
Jul 9, 10:28am
stormbaby... simply genius... :} Talk about using all of the chooks. . :}
stormbaby,
Jul 9, 11:04am
That is the nicest compliment I have ever had fisher, and coming from a cooking guru like you is just the best thing that has happened all day! ! I think it was my Mum that suggested the crockpot. She was an absolutely fantabulous budgeter and could scrap leftovers from a pot to make another meal, anytime. I think more and more about her now that she has passed away and I swear she is looking over my shoulder to make sure I am not wasting anything.
My 18 year old says watching me txt is "excrutiating" but its fab to be able to txt from the supermarket eh! ! !
fisher,
Jul 9, 11:18am
Well it is simply a magic Idea... smart lady your ma... as are you for following in her footsteps. . We never stop learning and I'm sure she is looking over your shoulder watching over you... precious times eh. . :} Can hear her saying... "now dont throw that away, you can use that"
martine5,
Jul 9, 11:23am
I am so impressed that you are this organised and well prepared. Good on you. My mum also can do amazing things with very little, I'm not as good as her or as organised as you but I wish... .
stormbaby,
Jul 9, 11:55am
Hehehe, I am not usually that organised, but I love cooking and we are on a limited budget. My Mum spent her last 6 weeks of life living here with us in our house. She drove me nuts, BUT a couple of nights before she died she was eating her tea and said "this is restaurant quality food", which made up for every moment she had ever annoyed me! I love reading the recipe's thread and am always trying out new ways to do stuff. There are some awesome, budget conscious women on here who give really good advice about cooking, budgeting and running the family home.
toadfish,
Jul 9, 6:10pm
I think if your sole aim is budgeting then you can certainly get better value for money by buying the frozens when on special and roasting it your self. I think the cooked ones are about a size 14... I think I brought size 16's when they were $6. 99 on special. So could of got 3 bigger ones for the nearly the same price as 2 cooked ones.
But in this family cooked supermarket chickens are a real treat and cheaper than takeaways. I remember when the children were little and I had had a hell of a day, so I picked up a cooked chicken, pot of deli coleslaw and a bag of fresh rolls on the way home. The girls loved it, and asked why we never usually had it... so I explained the day i had had... . and the youngest said "Can you be run off your feet more often please"
ruby19,
Jul 9, 8:31pm
Our quick supermarket tea too is the coleslaw fresh rolls, & cooked chicken, I have even bought the frozen mash ( I swore i never would), but kids love it
lilyfield,
Jul 9, 8:55pm
you are paying someone to cook it for you- no question.
I never ever buy anything that someone else has prepared. My food bill is therefore around the 30 $ mark.
pickles7,
Jul 9, 9:11pm
lol. better you be lazy, than sick. you probably buy" stuffed chickens".
pogram0,
Jul 9, 9:21pm
I'm really put off supermarket rotisseried chickens as they wrap them in plastic wrap whilst they are still hot. In Australian supermarket deli counters you ask for one and they pop it into one of those bags with foil interiors. This is much better packaging. I think I have only ever bought two in my entire life and I'm not young. Prefer to cook my own.
stormbaby,
Jul 10, 2:21am
Well, I justify it in that the electricity saved from storing and cooking the two frozen chooks makes up for the extra $6-$8 they cost! Plus the fact that I save so much on other things its nice on a busy day to actually not have to cook them. Nice in the Summer too, when you don't have to have the oven on and extra heat in the house on a hot day. Like everyone else, a treat is to buy a nice loaf of bread and some coleslaw and tuck into chicken sammies when we get home.
I do cook the occasional chook, we like the corn fed free range ones from our vege shop (kinder on the chooks I guess, after watching the Jamie Oliver programme on chickens/eggs) and cook them up in the clay pot, which is yummy. Everyone is so busy nowadays, a cooked couple of chooks doesn't break the budget as we are so good at budgeting anyway.
fisher,
Jul 10, 4:17am
good thoughts stormy. . good sentiments... That's why as I said previously, I make a rule of removing from the packaging and breaking up the chook as soon as I get home. . Chicken is a very dangerous animal... I will be doing your crockpot trick to keep warm but still into stinkin hot oven to reheat and kill bacteria just before serving. . I like roasting my own as well. . always have one in the freezer. . the rosemary butter under the skin is my favourite and the oil and salt over the skin to crisp up... tarragon is another herb I use when its growing for me. .
duckmoon,
Jul 10, 4:29am
what an awesome gift she left you wil...
alebix,
Jul 10, 5:08am
the plastic that is used is a high quality food grade plastic. .
But as said before, remove it from the plastic once you get home if its of a real concern.
nfh1,
Jul 10, 5:23am
Yes mine is around $30 a day too!
stormbaby,
Jul 10, 5:26am
Fisher, have you ever used a Romertopf? Its a clay pot. I found one at a garage sale years ago and promptly broke it, found another and it cracked too. By the time I found my third, I googled the instructions, and hello, you have to soak them in cold water and put in a cold oven. No wonder I went through 2 first. But, this one is square and is glazed inside. I roast with butter (always cook with butter eh! ), tarragon, parsley and garlic and it is totally devine. Tastes like heaven. I save it for special occasions.
Yup, the chook in the crockpot is great. Mine is the old Sunbeam one, with the Temuka pottery inner and glass lid (30 odd years old! ) and I think they get a bit hotter as I have Mum's newer one here, and its awefully "lightweight". I find if the chook is still hot or kept in the hot crockpot, and its still too hot too handle (have to use tongs) its plenty safe. I am the same as you, very careful with chicken. I too whip off the plastic on those containers as soon as I get home and dump them.
babe3babes,
Jul 10, 5:59am
Yum I feel like chicken! If you take it home and reheat it in the crockpot, and cook it into a casserole and freeze it and then reheat it... thats 4x heating/cooking it. I would not feel comfortable that it is safe to eat after that.
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