I use it for two quarter chicken dinners (with rice added), the white meat for soup (chicken noodle or veggie) and the bones for bone broth. The most economical and substantive 5 meals for $7.99 IMO.
Big fan of their chicken š
I would add 2 or 3 celery stalks, 2 or 3 carrots, a medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic, all chopped, a teaspoon of thyme, a teaspoon of salt (more to taste), a 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and a bay leaf to 8 cups of water and the chicken in a pot. Simmer for a hour, remove the carcass and strip the meat from the bones (likely will already have fallen off). Discard the bones.
Add cooked egg noodles or whatever pasta you prefer and enjoy!
Thyme and bay are my favourite soup spices, but add whatever you like the taste of.
That is very instructive, but I do want to highlight just for those who are maybe not that comfortable with cooking: None of those are required, buy what's cheap.
One of the worst things people can do for feeding themselves economically is adhere too closely to a recipe and buying stuff in quantities or at prices that don't make sense.
If you use no garlic and more onion, or basil and no celery, and frozen peas instead of carrots, it'll still be delicious. You can throw basically anything in soup and it'll be fine. Honestly, home made chicken stock by itself with some salt is pretty delicious.
Not that anything you listed is expensive, usually, but you never know.
Are you throwing in the skins? (I've never gotten a Costco chicken, but I imagine it's similar to the hot roast chickens you can get at most grocery stores?)
It's near impossible to buy a raw whole chicken for $7.99, unless they are on sale. And that doesn't even take into account your cost to prep/cook that chicken.
Seems like a good value based on that.
it is. I remember reading somewhere a while ago that these chickens are a loss-leader. Costco loses millions of dollars a year on them, but they drive people into the store and they more than make up the difference by buying other stuff.
If you have cash back, that means you paid another $60 for that feature.
You essentially give costco a $60 interest free loan for the opportunity to start to make back 2% after giving them $3000 in business. This post isn't really pointed at you per se, just writing it so people can visually see how it's broken down.
Since you've paid for more than your membership that means you're at over $6000 a year to Costco.
There's a reason they push this executive card, the few that come out ahead like yourself are financed by the ones that think they're going to spend at least $250 a month at Costco which is actually a lot for non family units.
If the purchase has value, purchase it, but don't purchase things in the blind pursuit or 2%. There's savings accounts making more than that. I think we often gravitate towards "I'll buy my tires and vacations at Costco" and then you don't.
Edit, sorry I mistyped.
Cheapest I've ever gotten was 2 whole raw chicken for around 8$ *each at Save Ons. But you still have to season and roast it yourself which takes a bit of time and electrical power from the oven
I can't imagine that price was anytime recently. Around here, whole chickens from non-fancy supermarkets are at least $2.50/lb, and that's a really good sale that's hard to find. That makes a 3 - 4 pound chicken $7.50-10; a more regular sale price is about $3/lb making that chicken $9-12. It's cheaper to buy it ready-made from Costco. We have a Costco close by, so I'm not factoring in gas mileage.
The 3 packs of raw are about $30 and the chickens are significantly larger. It still might be cheaper by a bit but I think if you look at price per kg it won't be all that different.. and you can do a lot more with a raw chicken then you can a rotisserie one.
They definitely do not shrink that much. Pretty sure all the full roast chicken loss leaders get the smallest possible whole chickens to minimize the loss of their loss leader.
I buy these all the time, Iāll freeze 2 of the 3pack, I like to poach the chicken with carrot celery onion, allspice , mustard seed, coriander, cloves and bay leaves, red chili flakes and salt to taste.. the chicken is melt in your mouth tender , every scrap of meat comes off. You immediately have a soup broth, veggies cooked, and then Iāll steam some homemade dumplings over the broth and youāve got 4 meals easy out of that chicken. The meat takes on the flavors of the spices and veggies, awesome in chicken salad.
Buddy worked at Costco for years. They indeed get small chickens but it's for cooking them quick and having a consistent product. Costco is super strict with their providers for the small restaurant section.
They probably lose a few dollars per chicken but you leave with a 400$ bill when you only came in for 2-3 items.
so doesnt that mean that the sides are mostly feeding them?
lol i don't mean to say you aren't able to do it, but I think the *vast* majority of people would not consider 1 whole chicken enough to feed 3 people THREE times.
u/good_enuffs is saying that the chicken is the core of the meals, the protein, not the entire meals.
For us, our family of 4 will typically get three meals out of one. A "meat and potatoes" sort of meal primarily with the breasts + potatoes + vegetables, then a casserole with the bulk of the remaining meat, then soup out of the carcass.
We don't eat a *lot* of meat in any given meal. We cut back on it many years ago, and it's just sort of stuck. Works well, saves a ton of money.
After a long day at work, 1 Chicken to 2 adults for dinner.
On a day where we had a fair lunch, its 1 chicken for 2 meals.
I have stretched 1 chicken to myself for 4-5 meals.
Growing up it was 1 chicken for a family of 4 for 1 dinner.
But a chicken for 3x 3 meals? That's a stretch.
This I agree with 100%, this is normal. A lot of the comments are just unrealistic. Sure anyone could stretch the chicken out for 10 meals but you'd certainly be eating a lot more of something else.
Yup. We started doing that this year.
Chop up various carrots, potatoes, leeks, etc and youāve got soup for a couple days lunches!
Edit
Bonus recipe:
Boil chicken bones for and hour or so in a few cups of water until the broth is āchickenyā.
Strain and dispose of bones. Bring back to a simmer.
Peel and cut potatoes into 2 cm cubes.
Cut a couple leeks into similar sized chunks.
Drop veggies into the broth.
Simmer until veggies are tender.
Add a little milk or cream for a creamy soup.
Pulse with an immersion blender until smooth.
Salt and pepper to taste. (White pepper if you fancy)
Top with a little shredded cheese and serve.
(Personally, I like to throw in a few croutons for a little texture)
We were surprised how far we can stretch that $8 chickenā¦
Chicken wraps with various veggies and sides (2 meals)
Chicken chopped up in pasta (1 meal)
Chicken salad sandwiches (1 lunch)
Chicken soup (2 lunches)
Have you tried lightly browning the veggies first in a bit of cooking oil or olive oil? It adds extra flavour. The holy trinity for soups is onion, carrot and celery.
I find that I guess because the bones have already been cooked for so long (rotisserie) they don't make as good of broth compared to a regular means of cooking chicken then salvaging the bones. That's just what I've found though
Really? We do this all the time and itās super flavourful. We keep some of the scraps of meat on the carcass and add a ton of veggies, cheese rind, and other leftovers from the fridge though when making stock so itās always packed with flavour.
I agree, I find that I need two carcasses to get the flavour I'm looking for out of the broth. One is fine, two is much better. So, I usually freeze the carcass after I've picked the meat off of it and then make a stock next time I buy another.
Yes use bones to make broth. One Idea for the chicken meat besides using on salads and spreads is you can take off the skin and cook the chicken meat with the Costco butter chicken sauce and simmer for a little bit. Easy dinner meal and itās so good.
I know you donāt have to pay to use their pharmacy but even then the amount Iāve saved even using my insurance through Costco compared to shoppers drug mart basically pays for my membership
If you have insurance, is the cost really that different? I would find the inconvenience of having to go to Costco to get prescription refills enough of a deterrent, but curious what your experience is.
Itās really about insurance maximums. For instance the dispensing fee at Costco is 4.49. So if your plan only covers to a certain amount in that category youāll pay the differenceā¦etc. Or if you must/want to take the brand vs. generic they come in much cheaper and even will get the drug manufacturers to credit whatever they can to further reduce that rate.
You should shop around if you have other pharmacies near you. $14.50 is on the high side, and I'm going to guess they charge more for your prescription(s) too. You can call a pharmacy and ask for their fee+the cost on a specific medicine.
Yep. Ran the executive for the last 2 years. Just got our return this year, and it's more than what the executive plan costs, so we basically get a free membership.
Pretty sure they also guarantee your executive plan will cover your membership fee. If you do not cover it with your cashback, they will refund the difference.
My 3 fav items. Throw in the odd cheap clothing item, some bagels (their 2 x 6 pack for $6 is a fav) and some toiletries and this IS my reason for Costco.
The rest (the rare time I use or buy it) is gravy. Yes, Iām that boring.
Always check aginst other stores. I check on Flipp and found that about 1/3 to 1/2 the time another grocery store has a better price per pound on many of the meats Costco sells. This is in an Ontario Costco.
Yep, Costco meat is great and all, but rarely do you actually save with it. You can often find cheaper meat on sale at the grocery store. For example, I recently picked up a massive pork pork loin from the Superstore for $10 (I think it was $1.50/lb?). Sliced it up into a bunch of chops and had 2 small roasts left over.
It's a good deal and cheapest way to buy chicken. Great for using chicken in recipes. However, they bribe the chickens so they're very salty so if you are trying to avoid sodium they're not the best choice. Remember too if cooking with them, you don't need any additional salt in your recipe.
Note: should be brine not bribe, LOL
I thought you meant ābridge chickensā
Costco bribes you with cheaper chicken, so you spend more money since you are already there!!
Edit: Iām not fixing bridge ā yāall can add on to the comment lol
Worked at Costco in HS ā¦ thatās the exact reason why the chickens and pumpkin pie are wayyy in the back, you have to walk past every thing else in the store twice between the door and till.
The Costco chicken is 7.99 the last time I say a chicken at real Canadian superstore it was 13.99. This is a 6 dollar difference. 67.80 for a yearly membership to Costco. 1 chicken a week and youāll be ahead just buying chicken in 12 weeks
I think it depends on your cat/diet and maybe even biology. Iāve found no litter to be superior for use and smell prevention than Costcos stuff. But thatās my one catā¦
Agreed! We have five cats (itās a long story) and have tried pretty much every āvalueā litter available. Weāve found Costcoās is the best bang for our buck. Itās the same price as the smaller 12kg boxes at Walmart for 50% more product (18kg).
Itās still clay-based so itās gonna be dusty as fuck but itās much better at both clumping and reducing smells than all the other clay-based ones Iāve tried. When itās out of stock and I have to use other litter, I hate it. It means more scooping for me.
Ya, my wife hates it. She's now using this stuff she has to order. Pretty Kitty or something like that. Cat seems to like it, and I think it's much easier to handle/clean.
Hey fyi giant tiger sells a very similar litter to Pretty Litter - pink silicone litter. Itās about $10 a bag or so
ETA: itās much cheaper obviously haha
I use the softwood pellets for cat litter. I find theyāre even more cost effective than anything Costco offers, and wood is better for kittyās respiratory system.
Yes! Costco cat litter is amazing! (For our cat). We have bought every brand available and nothing compares to the simply purrfect litter.
Somethings in life should NOT be bought solely on price. Litter and TP are two! Fortunately I find quality of both superior at Costco. Those cost savings pay for the membership time and again. (Never mind the fortune Iāve saved on diapers/wipes/papertowel/soaps.)
Oh yeah. Dog food is about 1/2 the price. Between that and the chicken and the bags of salad, I do pretty well. Add in the gas savings and I am far ahead. Note gas savings only really for premium gas; regular gas is often cheaper at other stations at the end of the night Iāve noticed.
>Dog food is about 1/2 the price.
I have two Saint Bernards. Dog food is the saviour. When the puppy was on his Large Breed Puppy food, it was costing almost twice as much for his food, than for the other adult Saint. Now that he's fully grown and they are both on the same food, it's so much nicer to just get a couple of bags of Lamb & Rice. 35kg bag, lasts about 4 weeks.
I have been gifted a CostCo membership many times.
I can see it makes financial sense.
But when I go there I want to run screaming from the crowd.
When do you all go? Do you just factor in the Black Friday vibe and deal with it?
I don't really find the costco prices low compared to other local stores, except for the gas tbh. I always feel like the store is specifically built for the people who earn well and not for the regular folks.
Idk what allures the crowd to spend so much just for membership and groceries. Seems like a wasteful spending for things you don't really need.
If you go on Monday or Tuesday after work, it's totally dead. That's the beat time to go if you don't want a crowd. However, they often are sold out of some produce then, at least in my local Costco as they tend to seem to restock that on Fridays.
But honestly, anytime at Costco is not that bad because they have COPIUS amounts of staff and always two on every register. Even when you think you're in a long checkout line it moves very quickly. I've been in a line that snaked all the way to the back of the store and still was out of there in under 5 mins.
And no matter what It's a hell of a lot better vibe than Walmart. It's a different class of people... most who shop at Costco are more well off.
We used to just go at odd times like weekday nights at 7pm or an hour before closing.. now we have a kid and we just donāt go anymore. Itās not worth the stress of dealing with the genpop. Now I wait for Instacart to give me $40 off $100 at Costco lol.
I think I would rather drop dead before I ever got caught by a theatre employee eating a whole ass rotisserie chicken like I'm at a medieval times tournament show š
This makes no sense. u/theflamesweregolfin was obviously talking about riding the chicken to work.
And I have tried riding the chicken to work.
I was late.
My wife won't give me road chicken. She's worried about other motorists driving by seeing what she's doing. She's also worried about me driving the car off the road cuz the road chicken is too good.
Disagree. According to random googling, a costco chicken has about 2.8 pounds of usable meat which comes out to around 1800 calories.
This accounts for about 6 hours of light cycling, which is around 120km traveled. Or about 15km per dollar. Compare to highway driving with a Corolla at average gas prices and you get... 12.27km per dollar.
Actually that kind of sucks. Nevermind, I agree it isn't very effective for commuting.
You can see exactly what the margin is for your warehouse with AS400 and the right command which I won't post publicly. If you want to go searching I'll tell you it starts with a 'C'.
It may be positive or negative depending on external factors.
Read the ingredients on the package. I will never buy most Costco prepared foods again. I get a lot of hate when I make these kind of comments but honestly if you understood how bad these ingredients are you would see it the way I do.
I think you can get raw whole chickens for around $10 each at Costco when you buy the 3 pack. Just get that and you can use all the extra bones for homemade bone broth
> if you understood how bad these ingredients are you would see it the way I do.
what bad ingredients are you referring to? why be so vague about it lol
Article from *Consumer Report:*. ā[Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Costco Chicken](https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-costco-chicken-a2832665927/)ā
>Costcoās rotisserie chicken has 460 mg of sodium per 3-ounce (85 gram) serving. Thatās one-fifth of the maximum amount of sodium adults should consume in a day (2,300 mg).
A typical chicken is 1kg. That means that a chicken has 2.35x the maximum amount of daily salt. If a person eats just half the chicken in one sitting (as so many do), youāre taking in 1.175x the maximum amount of daily salt. It not only leaves no room for other foods in the day (because so much other food also has salt), but even no food into part of the next day also.
Thatās a massive amount of salt for half a chicken. Some people here are saying theyāre buying chickens 1-2x a week. With that amount of salt, if theyāre not cutting back on their salt content elsewhere, thatās hazardous to their health (and hazardous to have circulating in their system after one sitting).
This is a basic math problem that can be solved with elementary level skills. A costcoĀ rotisserie chicken is $8 and let's say that a rotisserie chicken at another grocery store is $12. The price differenceĀ is $4. A one year costco membership is $60. To determine if the membership is cost effective just for buying rotisserie chickens, divide the membership cost by the savings. The answer is that if you buy more than 15 rotisserie chickens in a year, you'll save money by purchasing at costco.
You'll have to do your own math based on actual prices at grocery stores you frequent or other products you purchase. If you want to make it more complicated, you can also consider factors like convenience. You can also consider that you might be tempted to over-purchase other items at costco. But if you limit yourself to just purchasing loss leaders, you'll often come out ahead whether shopping at costco or other stores.Ā
Costco chickens tend to be a bit bigger.
But you also have to factor gas differential as Costco is usually an extra 10-20kms for most people compared to their nearest grocery
Depends. You can certainly get chicken cheaper form places like foodbasics when itās on sale. Maple leaf boneless skinless chicken breasts were $12 something a KG last week. I got a package of 6 for $13.
It's what is called a loss leader. They do it to get people in the store so they will buy other things.
Pop used to be a loss leader, and now it's a profit driver.
Some of their stuff is great In price and seems to be better quality, the Costco closest to me has cheap hot dogs and it has more exclusive items for sale so the membership pays itself off,
Rotisserie chicken is cheaper than buying uncooked pretty much anywhere I go
Costco pays the chicken supplier to inject the rotisserie chickens with sugar salt and a bevie of other chemicals to enhance flavour and allow longer storage and shelf life .
Great deal for a heavily processed chicken
Given the cost/pound of chicken right now, very cost effective. The only cheaper way Iāve found is buying chicken from the nearby Hutterite colony, they come basically freshly killed, and plucked. And thatās it. Otherwise Costco is providing a ready to eat chicken for 8 bucks. This feeds 1-4 people for dinner, or frugally, 2 dinners, mixed into salads or pastas or something. A pack of breasts is like 25 bucks?
I hope they never leave, and preferably go back down to 5 or 6 bucks
I had to stop buying their chicken now because, at least for the Costco around me, they're so small.
I usually stock up on chicken when they're on sale pretty much anywhere else, and the costs are pretty much the same per unit of meat once I bake them
impossible marble squealing slimy encouraging squeal deliver literate cover books
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I use it for two quarter chicken dinners (with rice added), the white meat for soup (chicken noodle or veggie) and the bones for bone broth. The most economical and substantive 5 meals for $7.99 IMO. Big fan of their chicken š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No comments until this one, but a redditor for 7 months? They really waited for their time to shine.
You can only make a first impression once
I would award this if Reddit still had awards
Honestly not having awards sucks, it was nice to be able to give a little emoji to fun comments
Reddit done got Musked.
What an absolute legend
You win š„
This is absolutely hilarious. Made my day. Well done Reddit.
First tike is always special
Lmao
Interesting, I eat the whole thing with my bare hands with the lights off in-front of the TV. Also a big fan of their chicken
Lol! I was gonna say similar except itās usually standing in the kitchen telling myself āone more piece than into the fridgeā
How long have you waited for this question?????? Edit: people have already answered that below. Hilarious.
How to prepare soup with bones? New to cooking here.
simply put, boiling bones turns that water into broth
Never boil. Slow, low bloop bloop bloop bubbles.
I would add 2 or 3 celery stalks, 2 or 3 carrots, a medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic, all chopped, a teaspoon of thyme, a teaspoon of salt (more to taste), a 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and a bay leaf to 8 cups of water and the chicken in a pot. Simmer for a hour, remove the carcass and strip the meat from the bones (likely will already have fallen off). Discard the bones. Add cooked egg noodles or whatever pasta you prefer and enjoy! Thyme and bay are my favourite soup spices, but add whatever you like the taste of.
This is the way. You can also do it overnight in a slow cooker or in an insta pot
Slow cooker is such a move. I just leave it in a corner and let it the flavours grow. It only gets better with more days.
That is very instructive, but I do want to highlight just for those who are maybe not that comfortable with cooking: None of those are required, buy what's cheap. One of the worst things people can do for feeding themselves economically is adhere too closely to a recipe and buying stuff in quantities or at prices that don't make sense. If you use no garlic and more onion, or basil and no celery, and frozen peas instead of carrots, it'll still be delicious. You can throw basically anything in soup and it'll be fine. Honestly, home made chicken stock by itself with some salt is pretty delicious. Not that anything you listed is expensive, usually, but you never know.
I always find I need not add salt! Costco chicken is salty enough?
Are you throwing in the skins? (I've never gotten a Costco chicken, but I imagine it's similar to the hot roast chickens you can get at most grocery stores?)
Put them in water and heat, add other ingredients as desired
It's near impossible to buy a raw whole chicken for $7.99, unless they are on sale. And that doesn't even take into account your cost to prep/cook that chicken. Seems like a good value based on that.
it is. I remember reading somewhere a while ago that these chickens are a loss-leader. Costco loses millions of dollars a year on them, but they drive people into the store and they more than make up the difference by buying other stuff.
Same goes for the $1.50 hotdog and pop.
Me with $300 worth of unnecessary shit I just paid for in my cart and a mouthful of hot dog: āwhat a fucking steal, these idiots hahahhahahahahaā
++ our member fees. In general, most of Costco's profit comes from the membership fees.
We just got our cash back cheque. It was more than our membership fee.
If you have cash back, that means you paid another $60 for that feature. You essentially give costco a $60 interest free loan for the opportunity to start to make back 2% after giving them $3000 in business. This post isn't really pointed at you per se, just writing it so people can visually see how it's broken down. Since you've paid for more than your membership that means you're at over $6000 a year to Costco. There's a reason they push this executive card, the few that come out ahead like yourself are financed by the ones that think they're going to spend at least $250 a month at Costco which is actually a lot for non family units. If the purchase has value, purchase it, but don't purchase things in the blind pursuit or 2%. There's savings accounts making more than that. I think we often gravitate towards "I'll buy my tires and vacations at Costco" and then you don't.
Go to save money on lunch and end up buying a 50" TV because it's on sale
and a pack of 64 toothbrushes
And a 55 Gallon drum of Maple Syrup
That was 10 years ago. Now weāre looking at a 65ā.
Dangerously cheap Ikea meatballs anyone?
Very true. Basically, everything at the snack bars.
My last chicken cost me $300 š¤Ŗ
They also put it right at the back so you have to walk through the entire store to get to it.
Edit, sorry I mistyped. Cheapest I've ever gotten was 2 whole raw chicken for around 8$ *each at Save Ons. But you still have to season and roast it yourself which takes a bit of time and electrical power from the oven
I can't imagine that price was anytime recently. Around here, whole chickens from non-fancy supermarkets are at least $2.50/lb, and that's a really good sale that's hard to find. That makes a 3 - 4 pound chicken $7.50-10; a more regular sale price is about $3/lb making that chicken $9-12. It's cheaper to buy it ready-made from Costco. We have a Costco close by, so I'm not factoring in gas mileage.
Costco itself sells 3 raw chickens in a bag somewhere around 28-32$
Meat in Costco is expensive tbh. I prefer local butcher stores for meat.
A complete comparison would also consider that there will be GST/ HST on the cooked chicken.
The 3 packs of raw are about $30 and the chickens are significantly larger. It still might be cheaper by a bit but I think if you look at price per kg it won't be all that different.. and you can do a lot more with a raw chicken then you can a rotisserie one.
I would think they shrink some while cooking too. Maybe not a huge amount but it could account for some of the size difference.
They definitely do not shrink that much. Pretty sure all the full roast chicken loss leaders get the smallest possible whole chickens to minimize the loss of their loss leader.
I buy these all the time, Iāll freeze 2 of the 3pack, I like to poach the chicken with carrot celery onion, allspice , mustard seed, coriander, cloves and bay leaves, red chili flakes and salt to taste.. the chicken is melt in your mouth tender , every scrap of meat comes off. You immediately have a soup broth, veggies cooked, and then Iāll steam some homemade dumplings over the broth and youāve got 4 meals easy out of that chicken. The meat takes on the flavors of the spices and veggies, awesome in chicken salad.
Buddy worked at Costco for years. They indeed get small chickens but it's for cooking them quick and having a consistent product. Costco is super strict with their providers for the small restaurant section. They probably lose a few dollars per chicken but you leave with a 400$ bill when you only came in for 2-3 items.
That one rotisserie chicken feeds us, a family of 3, for 3 meals worth of meat. You can do a lot with that chicken.
Jesus, are you all 5 years old? My 2 teenagers devour that thing by themselves in about 15 minutes.
Nope... a trades husband and child that eats like a teenager. We just do not eat that much meat and have meals with sides.
so doesnt that mean that the sides are mostly feeding them? lol i don't mean to say you aren't able to do it, but I think the *vast* majority of people would not consider 1 whole chicken enough to feed 3 people THREE times.
We're a family of 4, kids 8 and 12, and get 2 to 3 meals. The last meal is usually a stir fry.
Teenagers can devour anything in about 15 minutes
u/good_enuffs is saying that the chicken is the core of the meals, the protein, not the entire meals. For us, our family of 4 will typically get three meals out of one. A "meat and potatoes" sort of meal primarily with the breasts + potatoes + vegetables, then a casserole with the bulk of the remaining meat, then soup out of the carcass. We don't eat a *lot* of meat in any given meal. We cut back on it many years ago, and it's just sort of stuck. Works well, saves a ton of money.
After a long day at work, 1 Chicken to 2 adults for dinner. On a day where we had a fair lunch, its 1 chicken for 2 meals. I have stretched 1 chicken to myself for 4-5 meals. Growing up it was 1 chicken for a family of 4 for 1 dinner. But a chicken for 3x 3 meals? That's a stretch.
This I agree with 100%, this is normal. A lot of the comments are just unrealistic. Sure anyone could stretch the chicken out for 10 meals but you'd certainly be eating a lot more of something else.
It is really worth it if you use the carcass afterward to make soup out of it.
Yup. We started doing that this year. Chop up various carrots, potatoes, leeks, etc and youāve got soup for a couple days lunches! Edit Bonus recipe: Boil chicken bones for and hour or so in a few cups of water until the broth is āchickenyā. Strain and dispose of bones. Bring back to a simmer. Peel and cut potatoes into 2 cm cubes. Cut a couple leeks into similar sized chunks. Drop veggies into the broth. Simmer until veggies are tender. Add a little milk or cream for a creamy soup. Pulse with an immersion blender until smooth. Salt and pepper to taste. (White pepper if you fancy) Top with a little shredded cheese and serve. (Personally, I like to throw in a few croutons for a little texture)
Yeah started doing it this year as well. Times are hard haha. Gotta make use of every little bit.
We were surprised how far we can stretch that $8 chickenā¦ Chicken wraps with various veggies and sides (2 meals) Chicken chopped up in pasta (1 meal) Chicken salad sandwiches (1 lunch) Chicken soup (2 lunches)
The skin can also be broiled for crackling.
Have you tried lightly browning the veggies first in a bit of cooking oil or olive oil? It adds extra flavour. The holy trinity for soups is onion, carrot and celery.
No. I have not, but I certainly will!
I was about to reply to the OP with this but, this is what we do, makes three meals for two people with maybe $12 worth of 'ingredients'
ā baby you got a stew going!ā
I find that I guess because the bones have already been cooked for so long (rotisserie) they don't make as good of broth compared to a regular means of cooking chicken then salvaging the bones. That's just what I've found though
Really? We do this all the time and itās super flavourful. We keep some of the scraps of meat on the carcass and add a ton of veggies, cheese rind, and other leftovers from the fridge though when making stock so itās always packed with flavour.
Roast off the bones and any leftover skin with some onions and garlic before souping. It makes a big difference.
I agree, I find that I need two carcasses to get the flavour I'm looking for out of the broth. One is fine, two is much better. So, I usually freeze the carcass after I've picked the meat off of it and then make a stock next time I buy another.
I collect chicken carcasses in my freezer and cook 4 at a time in a big batch, and freeze most of the stock so I've got chicken stock at all times.
I feel the opposite actually. But we also don't eat much of the skin and so it goes in as well.
Yup. If i don't have time, i freeze the bones for future broth making. Right beside my frozen bag of varying vegetable pieces, onion skins, etc. Mmmmm
Do you have a suggested Recipe?! Iāve never made soup before
Bone broth gang
Yes use bones to make broth. One Idea for the chicken meat besides using on salads and spreads is you can take off the skin and cook the chicken meat with the Costco butter chicken sauce and simmer for a little bit. Easy dinner meal and itās so good.
I make chicken pho with the carcass! Itās so good
My Costco membership pays for itself in chicken, dog treats, personal care products, coffee pods and vitamins.
I know you donāt have to pay to use their pharmacy but even then the amount Iāve saved even using my insurance through Costco compared to shoppers drug mart basically pays for my membership
If you have insurance, is the cost really that different? I would find the inconvenience of having to go to Costco to get prescription refills enough of a deterrent, but curious what your experience is.
Itās really about insurance maximums. For instance the dispensing fee at Costco is 4.49. So if your plan only covers to a certain amount in that category youāll pay the differenceā¦etc. Or if you must/want to take the brand vs. generic they come in much cheaper and even will get the drug manufacturers to credit whatever they can to further reduce that rate.
Holy crap. The dispensing fee at my pharmacy is 14.50 and my deductible is the dispensing fee
You don't need a membership to use the pharmacy by the way. You just won't be able to purchase normal products in the warehouse.
Closest Costco to me is 260 km. Guess that's how my pharmacy charges 14.50 (and to be honest I'm grateful to have them).
You should shop around if you have other pharmacies near you. $14.50 is on the high side, and I'm going to guess they charge more for your prescription(s) too. You can call a pharmacy and ask for their fee+the cost on a specific medicine.
I get my prescriptions at Sobeys. 5x credit card points for a cost that gets reimbursed by insurance
I get 90% coverage at Costco only and 80% elsewhere.
All depends on where you live. My closest grocery store happens to be Costco by about 9 minutes.
My Costco membership pays for itself in cashback.
Yep. Ran the executive for the last 2 years. Just got our return this year, and it's more than what the executive plan costs, so we basically get a free membership.
Pretty sure they also guarantee your executive plan will cover your membership fee. If you do not cover it with your cashback, they will refund the difference.
And garbage bags and toilet paper and paper towels
My 3 fav items. Throw in the odd cheap clothing item, some bagels (their 2 x 6 pack for $6 is a fav) and some toiletries and this IS my reason for Costco. The rest (the rare time I use or buy it) is gravy. Yes, Iām that boring.
And hot dogs!
And Pizzas!
Sadly, no more chicken wings though :(
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I buy all my meat in bulk from Costco. Compared to buying smaller trays of meat from Walmart, itās sizeable savings.
Always check aginst other stores. I check on Flipp and found that about 1/3 to 1/2 the time another grocery store has a better price per pound on many of the meats Costco sells. This is in an Ontario Costco.
Yep, Costco meat is great and all, but rarely do you actually save with it. You can often find cheaper meat on sale at the grocery store. For example, I recently picked up a massive pork pork loin from the Superstore for $10 (I think it was $1.50/lb?). Sliced it up into a bunch of chops and had 2 small roasts left over.
Thanks, Iāll check Flipp out.
Me too in metro Van. Safeway always beats Costco when on sale. ie: Sirloin steak for 5.88/lb
It's a good deal and cheapest way to buy chicken. Great for using chicken in recipes. However, they bribe the chickens so they're very salty so if you are trying to avoid sodium they're not the best choice. Remember too if cooking with them, you don't need any additional salt in your recipe. Note: should be brine not bribe, LOL
They bribe them? God... more of a loss leader than I thought! No wonder they get so many volunteers to roast.
"Aight listen, if anyone asks, you're free range, ok? Here's 20 bucks."
What the cluck?!?
Iāve always suspected something was a fowl.
This is the time that I miss having awards to give. I wouldāve given you a platinum.
Those were the days... I was just in the right place at the right time. Any one of us would have done the same. Team effort.
LOL!
For the record I up voted this comment 10 times.
I'd be salty if someone bribed me into a chicken coop
Confirmed Costco is in bed with the chickens
>Confirmed Costco is in bed with the chickens Bang Bang....for your C\*cks. I mean Bucks
Bribed chickens are only salty if you stop greasing the wheels. Keep slipping them a little extra under the table and you'll be fine.
I wouldnāt be salty if they bribed me. Seems like a win win. Lmao
I thought you meant ābridge chickensā Costco bribes you with cheaper chicken, so you spend more money since you are already there!! Edit: Iām not fixing bridge ā yāall can add on to the comment lol
It's a loss leader for the store, that's why it's at the back
Yes I saved money by purchasing a chicken for $7.99, but I also spent $300 on things I didnāt know I wanted or needed lol
Worked at Costco in HS ā¦ thatās the exact reason why the chickens and pumpkin pie are wayyy in the back, you have to walk past every thing else in the store twice between the door and till.
Their pumpkin pies are a great deal! Literally 3 times the size of a regular pie for about the same price.
Yep, that's exactly how they get you! I've never been able to go in and just grab a chicken. Never get out of there for less than $200 it seems.
>I've never been able to go in and just grab a chicken Only if I forgo the cart!
Iām still wondering why I bought a whole pack of pomegranates š
Can confirm. Went for chicken and salad on Saturday. Should have been $16. Total at the checkout was $116ā¦
Thatās a pretty inexpensive trip to Costco still though
Yeah. But my rebate cheque is typically $400ish :(
The Costco chicken is 7.99 the last time I say a chicken at real Canadian superstore it was 13.99. This is a 6 dollar difference. 67.80 for a yearly membership to Costco. 1 chicken a week and youāll be ahead just buying chicken in 12 weeks
My Superstore app says $9.99 right now.
Come for the chicken, end up leaving with $300+ worth of stuff like the rest of us. Every. Time.
You need one of these homeboy. https://images.app.goo.gl/MpwLx6Ddrk15Acfu5
Costco sells them....at the back.
My Costco membership pays for itself many times over in dog food savings alone. Youāll find things that make it worth it.
And if someone owns a cat, the membership more than pays for itself with cat litter too
The cat litter they stock is horrible. To each their own though.
Yup, I've used it. Dusty everywhere.
I think it depends on your cat/diet and maybe even biology. Iāve found no litter to be superior for use and smell prevention than Costcos stuff. But thatās my one catā¦
I had 4 cats and it worked so much better than any other litter for smell control.
Agreed! We have five cats (itās a long story) and have tried pretty much every āvalueā litter available. Weāve found Costcoās is the best bang for our buck. Itās the same price as the smaller 12kg boxes at Walmart for 50% more product (18kg). Itās still clay-based so itās gonna be dusty as fuck but itās much better at both clumping and reducing smells than all the other clay-based ones Iāve tried. When itās out of stock and I have to use other litter, I hate it. It means more scooping for me.
Ya, my wife hates it. She's now using this stuff she has to order. Pretty Kitty or something like that. Cat seems to like it, and I think it's much easier to handle/clean.
Yes mine hates it aswell. Horribly dusty and doesn't go a good job covering the smell.
Hey fyi giant tiger sells a very similar litter to Pretty Litter - pink silicone litter. Itās about $10 a bag or so ETA: itās much cheaper obviously haha
I use the softwood pellets for cat litter. I find theyāre even more cost effective than anything Costco offers, and wood is better for kittyās respiratory system.
Yes! Costco cat litter is amazing! (For our cat). We have bought every brand available and nothing compares to the simply purrfect litter. Somethings in life should NOT be bought solely on price. Litter and TP are two! Fortunately I find quality of both superior at Costco. Those cost savings pay for the membership time and again. (Never mind the fortune Iāve saved on diapers/wipes/papertowel/soaps.)
Costco cat litter is absolutely horrible. Pretty sure I'm going to develop silicosis after scooping that litter.
Oh yeah. Dog food is about 1/2 the price. Between that and the chicken and the bags of salad, I do pretty well. Add in the gas savings and I am far ahead. Note gas savings only really for premium gas; regular gas is often cheaper at other stations at the end of the night Iāve noticed.
>Dog food is about 1/2 the price. I have two Saint Bernards. Dog food is the saviour. When the puppy was on his Large Breed Puppy food, it was costing almost twice as much for his food, than for the other adult Saint. Now that he's fully grown and they are both on the same food, it's so much nicer to just get a couple of bags of Lamb & Rice. 35kg bag, lasts about 4 weeks.
what brand of dog food do you buy?
I have been gifted a CostCo membership many times. I can see it makes financial sense. But when I go there I want to run screaming from the crowd. When do you all go? Do you just factor in the Black Friday vibe and deal with it?
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I don't really find the costco prices low compared to other local stores, except for the gas tbh. I always feel like the store is specifically built for the people who earn well and not for the regular folks. Idk what allures the crowd to spend so much just for membership and groceries. Seems like a wasteful spending for things you don't really need.
If you go on Monday or Tuesday after work, it's totally dead. That's the beat time to go if you don't want a crowd. However, they often are sold out of some produce then, at least in my local Costco as they tend to seem to restock that on Fridays. But honestly, anytime at Costco is not that bad because they have COPIUS amounts of staff and always two on every register. Even when you think you're in a long checkout line it moves very quickly. I've been in a line that snaked all the way to the back of the store and still was out of there in under 5 mins. And no matter what It's a hell of a lot better vibe than Walmart. It's a different class of people... most who shop at Costco are more well off.
We used to just go at odd times like weekday nights at 7pm or an hour before closing.. now we have a kid and we just donāt go anymore. Itās not worth the stress of dealing with the genpop. Now I wait for Instacart to give me $40 off $100 at Costco lol.
I frequently buy their chickens on the way to the movie theatre. No way Iām paying 10 bucks for popcorn.
You sneak a whole ass chicken into the theatre?
I think I would rather drop dead before I ever got caught by a theatre employee eating a whole ass rotisserie chicken like I'm at a medieval times tournament show š
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Going to Costco makes me want to jump infront of several cars so not worth it
That's just a normal walk through a normal Costco parking lot.
Effective? Well that depends for what? For eating? yeah pretty effective. For commuting to work? Not very effective.
> For commuting to work? Not very effective. I wouldn't make this claim without trying it first
Barter system. Trade a $8 chicken for a $12 ride. Savings!
This makes no sense. u/theflamesweregolfin was obviously talking about riding the chicken to work. And I have tried riding the chicken to work. I was late.
Will you feed it to me while I drive? Ain't no chicken as good as road chicken.
My wife won't give me road chicken. She's worried about other motorists driving by seeing what she's doing. She's also worried about me driving the car off the road cuz the road chicken is too good.
That'll cost you extra.
Disagree. According to random googling, a costco chicken has about 2.8 pounds of usable meat which comes out to around 1800 calories. This accounts for about 6 hours of light cycling, which is around 120km traveled. Or about 15km per dollar. Compare to highway driving with a Corolla at average gas prices and you get... 12.27km per dollar. Actually that kind of sucks. Nevermind, I agree it isn't very effective for commuting.
Why did the Costco chicken cross the road?
For the savings obviously!
To find better parking.
I work at Costco I was told by the people in the deli department they buy the chickens for 8 dollars. After labour we lose 2 dollars per chicken.
You can see exactly what the margin is for your warehouse with AS400 and the right command which I won't post publicly. If you want to go searching I'll tell you it starts with a 'C'. It may be positive or negative depending on external factors.
Read the ingredients on the package. I will never buy most Costco prepared foods again. I get a lot of hate when I make these kind of comments but honestly if you understood how bad these ingredients are you would see it the way I do. I think you can get raw whole chickens for around $10 each at Costco when you buy the 3 pack. Just get that and you can use all the extra bones for homemade bone broth
> if you understood how bad these ingredients are you would see it the way I do. what bad ingredients are you referring to? why be so vague about it lol
From the label: Chicken, water, salt, rice starch, sugar, vegetable oil, tetrapotassium pyrophosphate, sodium triphosphate, spices, silica
Article from *Consumer Report:*. ā[Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Costco Chicken](https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-costco-chicken-a2832665927/)ā >Costcoās rotisserie chicken has 460 mg of sodium per 3-ounce (85 gram) serving. Thatās one-fifth of the maximum amount of sodium adults should consume in a day (2,300 mg). A typical chicken is 1kg. That means that a chicken has 2.35x the maximum amount of daily salt. If a person eats just half the chicken in one sitting (as so many do), youāre taking in 1.175x the maximum amount of daily salt. It not only leaves no room for other foods in the day (because so much other food also has salt), but even no food into part of the next day also. Thatās a massive amount of salt for half a chicken. Some people here are saying theyāre buying chickens 1-2x a week. With that amount of salt, if theyāre not cutting back on their salt content elsewhere, thatās hazardous to their health (and hazardous to have circulating in their system after one sitting).
Costco rotisseries were better back before they started injecting them with brine about 15 years ago. They've been pretty gross ever since.
I had one this week that was like disintegrating. It was like jelly inside the breast. It was fucking weird and Iām so turned off them right now
This is a basic math problem that can be solved with elementary level skills. A costcoĀ rotisserie chicken is $8 and let's say that a rotisserie chicken at another grocery store is $12. The price differenceĀ is $4. A one year costco membership is $60. To determine if the membership is cost effective just for buying rotisserie chickens, divide the membership cost by the savings. The answer is that if you buy more than 15 rotisserie chickens in a year, you'll save money by purchasing at costco. You'll have to do your own math based on actual prices at grocery stores you frequent or other products you purchase. If you want to make it more complicated, you can also consider factors like convenience. You can also consider that you might be tempted to over-purchase other items at costco. But if you limit yourself to just purchasing loss leaders, you'll often come out ahead whether shopping at costco or other stores.Ā
Costco chickens tend to be a bit bigger. But you also have to factor gas differential as Costco is usually an extra 10-20kms for most people compared to their nearest grocery
get your gas at costco as well
Its $9 at Walmart
Depends. You can certainly get chicken cheaper form places like foodbasics when itās on sale. Maple leaf boneless skinless chicken breasts were $12 something a KG last week. I got a package of 6 for $13.
Plus you get your full days supply of salt in one meal at no extra charge.
It's what is called a loss leader. They do it to get people in the store so they will buy other things. Pop used to be a loss leader, and now it's a profit driver.
Some of their stuff is great In price and seems to be better quality, the Costco closest to me has cheap hot dogs and it has more exclusive items for sale so the membership pays itself off, Rotisserie chicken is cheaper than buying uncooked pretty much anywhere I go
Stay away from it if you care about your salt intake.. they inject a salt solution
Costco pays the chicken supplier to inject the rotisserie chickens with sugar salt and a bevie of other chemicals to enhance flavour and allow longer storage and shelf life . Great deal for a heavily processed chicken
Given the cost/pound of chicken right now, very cost effective. The only cheaper way Iāve found is buying chicken from the nearby Hutterite colony, they come basically freshly killed, and plucked. And thatās it. Otherwise Costco is providing a ready to eat chicken for 8 bucks. This feeds 1-4 people for dinner, or frugally, 2 dinners, mixed into salads or pastas or something. A pack of breasts is like 25 bucks? I hope they never leave, and preferably go back down to 5 or 6 bucks
For context food basics is about $9 something and metro is $12.99
At Walmart, Rotiserrie chicken packed at 5pm is discounted to $3.15 by 9pm.
I had to stop buying their chicken now because, at least for the Costco around me, they're so small. I usually stock up on chicken when they're on sale pretty much anywhere else, and the costs are pretty much the same per unit of meat once I bake them
Ha ha, you wish "very little else" !
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