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Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Is it worth the money to cut up raw chicken yourself?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the surest ways to save money on food is to buy a whole chicken and cut it up yourself. There’s just one problem with this strategy for many people: They hate touching raw chicken.
How much do cooks dislike handling poultry? Enough so that a few years ago, one turkey producer introduced a bird that roasts in its original packaging, so that cooks need never touch raw poultry. There are good reasons to be careful when handling uncooked meat, such as spreading bacteria around the kitchen if you’re not careful. But if you wash hands and clean your cutting board and knife with warm, soapy water , there’s little to fear except the ick factor, which I think is probably what bothers most people who avoid cutting their own chicken.
I usually buy a whole chicken and roast it, mostly out of laziness. Just rub it with a little butter or olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, stick in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour or so, and it’s done.
If I’m going to fry the chicken, I’ll cut it up into eight or 10 pieces. And if I happen to buy the chicken at the DeKalb Farmer’s Market, I’ll get one of the butchers to cut it up for free. Buying the whole bird saves anywhere from $3.50 to $9 a pound, depending on where you shop — I saw organic boneless, skinless breasts selling for $11.49 a pound at one major supermarket chain recently. So I’m willing to put in the time and knife work to save the bucks.
A couple of YouTube videos at the bottom of this post will show you how to do it: The first one focuses on the basics, just eight bone-in pieces; the second one details how to carve off boneless breasts and chicken tenders when you’re trimming the whole bird. A tip, though: Chicken cooked with the bone in is more flavorful.
Do you buy whole chickens to save money? Or would you rather pay extra to avoid touching raw poultry?
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