Don't buy your poultry from Costco. This common staple is absolutely not worth the price,
as the mega-grocer’s chicken breast sold for $1.99 a pound in 2019, while many local grocers
had $1.29 per pound sales. However, when people think of Costco poultry, they are more likely
to imagine Costco's rotisserie chickens. At least 625 million rotisserie chickens
were sold across the United States in 2017 alone. That’s almost two chickens per person. Costco’s
chicken is so popular that over 18,000 people follow the product on Facebook. Priced at $4.99,
these poultry delights serve Costco as a loss leader. In other words, it loses money on their
chicken, but recoups those losses with the money spent on other products in the store.
Despite competitors raising the price of their prepared chickens to $5.99,
Costco doggedly kept to their original price point. They did this despite the fact that
the number of whole chickens sold has decreased from 50 percent to 15 percent of their chicken
sales as more people eat smaller, specific cuts. The bodies of the chickens remaining are also
growing heavier, increasing from the six pounds Costco technically needs for their rotisserie line
to seven or eight pounds. To maintain their dominant grasp on loss leader chicken,
Costco decided to invest in a $450 million facility in Nebraska to
streamline production. Anything to keep them at $4.99. But are those chickens worth buying?
As you might imagine, the answer is largely in the "it depends" category. Different people have
differing views about the value of the Costco rotisserie chicken. In a piece for My Money Blog,
Jonathan Ping answers with a shrug and admits that he won’t declare a winner. He acknowledges that
while buying your own chicken and throwing it into the oven may be slightly cheaper
and have fewer substances added to it, it still takes an hour to cook.
Even though he accepts the convenience argument, he ends by saying that everyone should roast their
own chicken at least once, and if they do, they may never want Costco rotisserie chicken again.
Darcy Lenz of My Recipes refuses this compromise. Lenz acknowledges that Costco is cheap and
convenient, but points out that roasting a chicken is neither expensive nor difficult,
yields crispier skin, and results in moister meat because it is not being dried out under
a heat lamp for hours. And it's deliciously easy to do. Just dry down your chicken before roasting
to lessen the amount of steam stopping the skin from crisping. As Lenz puts it,
"Compared to a chicken you effortlessly roasted at home, the Costco chicken is
going to seem sorta shriveled and lifeless." There's nothing wrong with Costco's chickens,
but you could cook a better one with ease, and that sounds like it’s worth the wait.
Despite the crispier skin and juicier meat, you’ve decided that you don’t have the time to
shove a chicken in the oven, opting instead to shove Costco's rotisserie deliciousness
into your mouth. Before you take your first bite, perhaps you should know whether the chicken's
nutritional contents will make you regret your decision. The good news is that for the most part,
the chicken is fine. According to My Food Diary, 3 ounces of Costco's chicken will
give you 19 grams of protein for only 140 calories and 2.5 grams of saturated fat.
Those numbers look pretty good, but we caution against eating too much chicken. Strange things
have been known to happen. "HAHAHAHA!"
"Baby Brent?" "I'm not Baby Brent anymore! I'm Chicken Brent!"
Another note of concern is the saline solution in which Costco douses the chicken,
a single serving also includes 460 milligrams of sodium. This is almost a third of the 1,500
milligrams recommended by the American Heart Association as a daily maximum. MedlinePlus,
an information service provided by the United States National Library of Medicine, however,
recommends a more lenient 2,300 milligrams a day. Still, even with the 800 additional milligrams,
a single, unadorned Costco rotisserie chicken would take up 20 percent of your sodium intake.
This is worrisome because society is so addicted to salt, that it has crept into almost everything.
When you consume too much sodium, the potassium in your body seizes as much water as it can,
increasing the amount of blood running through your veins. This is another
way of saying it induces high blood pressure while also raising the risk of a heart attack,
stroke, and heart disease. All for $4.99. Check out one of our newest videos right
here! Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite store chains are coming soon.
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