Rotisserie chicken at Costco

[Northofchicago]

Sure, it's mushy and tasteless when you buy it (at Costco?). But, it's only $4.99! I can't help myself. When I go to Costco, I've got to buy one. I've tried quartering it, adding barbeque sauce and throwing it on the grill. Better but not great. Any suggestions. Oh, yes, I've shredded it and also made chicken salad from it. Not bad. Any other recipes that I'm missing?

[McFlyfi]

Chicken soup. Chicken enchiladas. Chicken Quesadilla. Chicken tacos.

[troymeister]

I second that...I also save 3 or 4 carcasses in the freezer. Then throw them in the Instant Pot with some aromatics and make a real good stock pretty quick.

[Pobeque]

buffalo chicken dip!

[TripleB]

I don't drive all the way to Costco. Our local Kroger's has roasted chicken on sale every Thursday for $6. Two choices, Savory and Garlic/Herb flavored.

What I generally do: Cut off the wings and a leg/thigh and have it for lunch with a salad. Use the rest of the meat for such things as Dog food for Toby, cubed for salads (Chinese chicken salad, chicken salad), pulled for Gumbo, pulled for enchiladas, pulled for casseroles, sliced for a toasted BLT sammy, cubed for soups. I generally always keep the bones and make a broth. Cold right now, so always good to have chicken noodle or rice soup in the fridge.

I get my money out of that $6 yard bird

[jfmorris]

In general the chickens at Sam's and Costco seem to be a good bit bigger than the ones I see at Kroger and Walmart around here... I'll buy the ones at the grocery store in a pinch, but the ones from the wholesale club are a bigger bang for the buck, pound wise.

[TripleB]

jfmorris Yes, they are bigger. But logistically, not worth my time or the cost savings for just a bigger bird. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

[Dan Deter]

Chicken pot pie.

[Alan Brice]

Separate the meat then instaPot the carcass for awesome stock. I always add a bit of ACV to allow the minerals from the bones to infuse the stock with nutritional goodness.

[Bkhuna]

The words "mushy" and "tasteless" are two words I've never associated with Costco chickens. We wait until they take a new batch off the rotisserie and pack them to stay hot. We buy several because one almost always get eaten before we leave the parking lot. When we get home I break them down and vacuum pack them for later.

[RonB]

With the chickens now in plastic bags, don't forget to use the drippings in the bottom of the bag. It's great added to soup of gravy.

[TripleB]

+1. I religiously scoop the drippings out of the bag when I make soup.

[Jerod Broussard]

Everyone talks about the importance of crispy skin.....until.

[Steve R.]

Last time I was in Costco I noticed they had vacuum sealed bags of boneless rotisserie chicken meat for sale. It was close to where the rotisserie chickens are.

[SmokingPat]

I always eyeball those packs of pulled chicken meat, but I can't figure out if $5.56/lb. is a good deal or not. The idea of having 3 lbs of cooked meat, ready for recipes, is enticing.

[Carolyn]

Convenience prices. As much as I hate deboning chicken, I have thought about getting a bag of that pulled chicken to have on hand.

[Alan Brice]

$4.99 for a cooked yardbird, such a deal! Costco birds are the biggest I have ever seen.

[Uncle Bob]

The cats consider it a real treat......

[barelfly]

I think it’s really good! Buy a few, one to eat for dinner the rest for lunches and such. But it does make great enchiladas, tacos and such. As well as the other items mentioned above.

But chicken tacos are probably the thing I make the post with it.

[klflowers]

I bought Costco chickens for awhile, but they started tasting a little stale or something to me. Kind of like old grease. It doesn't make sense since they are rotisserie cooked, but something tasted off to me. So I started buying whole chickens, spatchcocking them, and cooking them on the kettle or on the Chimp. A little more expensive but better tasting to me. And while not as easy as just buying one, still pretty easy to do.

[jfmorris]

I will second this.

I found that my own rotisserie chickens on the kettle come out way better than the store bought ones as well. I just can't compete on price, as Sam's sells the whole uncooked chickens for more than the precooked rotisserie birds...

[klflowers]

jfmorris I agree. I buy them at publix and they are a few dollars more than the precooked. Counting charcoal, they are even more expensive. But I like them better so what the heck

[jfmorris]

Something I like to do in the summer rather than spatchcock is just split them. The chicken halves are easy to grill direct or indirect, and I can fit a bunch of them on the kettle or kamado that way. It's easier to Tetris 4 split chickens onto the round grate than 4 spatchcocked chickens!

[JeffJ]

It’s edible and already cooked and it’s cheaper than a comparably sized raw chicken. In a time crunch it gets the job done.

[Livermoron]

Chicken taco soup, chicken stock. Hard to beat the price...