Chicken Packaging

[SheilaAnn]

I buy whole birds from a farm I trust. I break them down myself if I am not roasting or spinning a whole bird. We get leftovers for lunches. I get chicken backs for broth/stock that I supplement with chicken paws from the Korean market.

[SheilaAnn]

Finster at Whole Foods they are labeled that way. I saw it once and busted out laughing. Now it’s what I call them. 🤪🤪🤪 🐓 🐓🐓

[Jerod Broussard]

Finster It's called the Paw Room, Paw Inspection System, for a reason. I told them to only hire guys over 60 so they could call it the Paw Paw Room.

[Andrrr]

I'd say about 1/2 the chicken I buy is a whole bird that I break down and keep the scraps for stock. Really the only time I don’t is if I need a lot of a specific part or if I can find parts for less per pound than the whole bird.

[N227GB]

Are you talking about saddle packs? I thought they were okay when I still had my place up north with a second fridge to load up.

chicken paws from the Korean market.

Those go great with this; I saw them at my local Asian market.

[jfmorris]

Maybe. It is a plastic pack with two vacuum sealed pouches each with a bunch of jumbled up chicken parts, all vacuum sealed in their own juices. Pretty wet in there, which is my main complaint. Plus you really don't get a good luck at the chicken that way.

I first saw this style packaging at Costco 5-6 years ago, and it led me to stop buying their "party wings" as I didn't care for the packaging. Now Sam's has jumped on the bandwagon.

[jfmorris]

As a follow up, I started a customer service chat session yesterday with Sam's Club, which was followed up with an email exchange today, on this topic.

I don't think I have gotten anyone yet to understand that I am not asking for a refund on the last pack of chicken thighs I bought, but instead complaining about the change in packaging. I'll keep pushing. I've told them an informal survey of BBQ pit masters via the highly renowned AmazingRibs.com website shows that pit masters prefer chicken packed in flats 28 to 1!

Edit the vote stands at 35 to 2 now.

[Hulagn1971]

36 to 2 now.

[SheilaAnn]

The other reason I prefer whole birds is consistency in the size of the parts. Even from my farm when I used to get a pack of thighs or whatever, the weights sometimes swung several ounces.

[synodog]

The local Walmart still has the flats. I sure hope they don’t move to what you describe here.
I usually get the party wings in a big bag if I’m doing a lot and they seem to be flash frozen so they don’t get jumbled in a nasty conglomerate. I’ve had someone bring me a bag of those to cook and they were thawed and it was just like you described. Nastiness.

[jfmorris]

I've bought those 10 pound frozen bags, and because they are flash frozen, those are ok. I've actually cooked them on the grill from frozen before, or thawed in a bowl in the fridge, AFTER rinsing the ice off the wings first, and then seasoning with the ice layer gone.

I may go back to those, just for convenience.

[cruiseplanner1]

I only purchase my whole chickens or pieces from a couple local meat stores. Two reasons, first is they are nice young fryers and not those gargantuan chickens or pieces that come in the plastic wrap. Secondly I do not want them brined in a 15 percent solution. Why pay for water on giant chickens? One time I was at the market as they had fresh fryers on sale for $.89 lb. Didn't see them and asked the lady putting out meats where they were. She proceeded to show me the plastic wrapped chickens that were also on sale. Later I found mine as there were only two packs left. I brought her down to show her where they were and explained to her why I don't purchase them. Chicken in the plastic bag of brine was the same size as the two on the flat. But it weighed only a pound less than my two fryers. Told her don't pay for salt water.

[FireMan]

I am with SheilaAnn , I try rill hard not to git chickies in plastic anything, whole bird preferably. Now the wife, well that is another story. She still “washes” chickies and parts and who knows what.

[jtw]

It depends if you're planning to freeze it. The styrofoam trays freeze terribly unless you repackage all of it yourself, while the pre-vac-packed ones freeze great. If you're going to use it fresh, then it's much less messy to open up a tray with a "loose" plastic cover.

[Skinsfan1311]

I really don't care how it's packaged, but will opt for chicken that's not swimming in liquid if given the choice.
Te only chicken I ever bought at Costco were the cryovac'd fresh wings, but those things are so damn small that they should be labeled "Pigeon" wings. I quit buying them there for that reason.

[Mosca]

Lol, I’m the 1 (now 2). Frankly I’ve never thought about the purge in the bag. I just buy the cheapest-per-pound bone-in skin-on thighs and breasts, then portion, seal, and freeze. Some pieces are bigger, some are smaller; if I think about it, I’ll weigh them and mark the packets, but that’s a pain in the ass considering that when I’m actually using them I just think, “That looks about right.” Or, “Huh. Those are pretty big [or small],” and then I use them anyhow because, who cares really? In a couple hours they’ll be gone either way.

My 2¢. Next time I buy a vac pack, I’ll weigh the meat and the purge.

[klflowers]

I almost checked Jim is crazy, but i didn't want to offend Yvonne. Then I saw that she agrees.

I stopped buying the Costco packaged chicken parts awhile ago for that reason. I am sure it is fine, but it just grossed me out. Since I don't cook for very many people anymore, I get by with buying flats of thighs and wings from Walmart or Publix, or wings from the Fresh Market when they are on sale. Occasionally I will buy the Bell and Evans air chilled flats from Whole Foods, but they are pretty expensive.

Call them back and tell that the esteemed, respected AR poll is up to 40 to 2.

[Uncle Bob]

There's somewhat of a human factors element to this.

Not frozen chicken thighs are a regular purchase for us from our local HEB when they're on sale, which seems to be at least once per month. They come ten thighs (ranging from small to dayam!) to a package on those styrofoam trays with the absorbent pad. We repack in threes and vacuum pack for freezing. Whatever those absorbent pads are made of does an amazing job of holding a lot of that purge because the empty tray weighs quite a bit more than a bare styrofoam tray should (even with my OCD I've never weighed the soaked pad). So, it's an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of thing compared to the plastic bag sans absorbent.

[klflowers]

Every time I visit Texas I think about moving there because of HEB. Then when I get home I realize that I like the mountains too much to leave - the hill country is pretty flat compared to the smokys. My attraction to HEB is unhealthy.

[HawkerXP]

Mrs. H tells me Giant, our preferred store, has better price on chicken then Costco. The fresh "parts" come in the flat pack.