My wife and I love shopping at Costco. The quality and selection of bulk foods is a great way to save money by buying large quantities at a time. Additionally, the Kirkland brand at Costco has proven to us to be an excellent, high-quality generic brand.
One item we always buy is whole chickens. Reasonably priced at $ 0.99 per pound, we typically buy 4 at a time and freeze them.
Freezing chickens for a family of two is always more convenient if the chicken is separated into pieces and isolated in zip-lock freezer bags. If you don’t know how to cut a whole chicken into pieces, Google “how to cut a whole chicken.” A two-thigh, two-leg, two-wing bag can be thawed with cold water in less than two hours, the day of use, straight from the freezer.
Save money Step $ – Cut the whole chicken into pieces.
Separate the legs, thighs, wings, and breasts from the corpse. Separate the thigh from the leg. Separate the wingtip from the wing, which is just skin and cartilage, and reserve for our soup broth pile. Also don’t throw away that collar, which will also be used later.
Cut and peel the part of the breast by making an incision with your knife in the upper part of the breast, parallel to the breastbone and cutting directly towards the carcass. Carefully place your fingers in the indentation and push the breast meat away from the carcass while running the sharp edge of the knife down the side of the carcass to free the breast fibers from the bones.
Save money Step $$ – Separate portions into bags and freeze.
At this point you should have two thighs, two legs, two breasts, and two wings without their tips. Note that the wings can also be separated into two individual pieces by cutting along the joint, making buffalo style wings.
There are several combinations to consider as you prepare to bag and freeze your chicken. If your family likes fried chicken wings, buffalo wings, or sandwich-size chicken, you can place all the separate wings in a bag and freeze them. From each additional chicken you cut, you can add four pieces (two wingettes and two drumettes) to this bag and save for later use.
My favorite pieces to use on fried chicken are the dark meat pieces. Thighs, drumsticks, and wings taste so good when fried and you don’t have to worry about it getting as dry as a brisket, which is hard to cook evenly without slicing thinner, even sliced. We usually make zip lock bags with a pair of thighs, a pair of legs, and a pair of wings with the intention of frying. This storage scheme is also suitable for barbecue.
When it comes to the breasts, we usually put them in zip lock bags in pairs – two breasts per bag. We’ve had great results taking a bag of frozen chicken breasts straight out of the freezer and then adding brine or marinade directly to the bag to speed up thawing. After defrosting, we will grill the breast in a 350F oven carefully with a probe thermometer until all parts of the breast reach 160 degrees, usually about 35 minutes. This produces a juicy, flavorful, evenly cooked breast that would be difficult to obtain if cooked while attached to other parts of the chicken.
When separating and bagging chicken for the freezer, the possibilities are endless. Just think about how much you will use at one time and separate them accordingly.
Save money Step $$$ – What to do with those extra pieces?
After removing the breast from the chicken, you are left with the carcass. Don’t discount this I repeat not to discard the casing. This is the most important part of the article.
You can still create two more meals from the chicken carcass. Remember that pile of soup broth I mentioned earlier that will be used for the wing tips. That’s your bag to collect parts and freeze for chicken broth. Add the shell to that bag, but before you do, remove any excess skin from the shell. It’s not important to get all the pieces of skin, but my wife and I love to fry the skin along with the chicken and make a crispy pork rind. Normally we will add the chicken skin to the same bag of pieces intended for frying.
Once you have at least two channels, you can place them in a large pot, cover with water, add onions, celery, or whatever seasoning you like, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, bring to a simmer, cover, and simmer for 7 hours or until bones break with little resistance.
At this point you can strain all the chicken bones and pieces. Refrigerate the liquid until all the remaining fat solidifies and rises to the top. At that point, the fat can be easily removed, leaving a rich, flavorful broth that can be used as a base for many soups or as an ingredient in other recipes.
Whole chickens are better than buying individual pieces
Chickens that come whole tend to stay fresher longer than those that are separated and packaged, so you can count on your whole chicken to keep longer in grocery store refrigerators. Plus, you can do a lot more by following the instructions listed here and the separate parts. You have much more flexibility when buying whole and the ability to prepare several different meals with just one chicken. And using the chicken to the carcass can add at least two more meals to a chicken, which can save you more money.
