Monday 4 November 2013

Buying chicken (and wrapping it)



A couple of times recently I've come across the idea that buying whole chickens is the most cost effective way of eating chicken. That sounded appealing to me, so I thought I would look in to it.

For me it wasn't quite as easy as just buying a whole chicken. The point is that I want to be able to eat my chicken in different ways, not just whole roasted. This means chopping it up in to pieces, which is a bit off-putting. I'm not really a wuss when it comes to raw meat, but I don't love handling raw chicken, and the truth is that slicing up a whole chook would require some serious knife work, a serious knife and a bit of time and energy.



But there are other people to do that. I rang my local butcher and sounded him out on the idea. If I bought a couple of whole chickens, would he cut them up for me? Yep - he would. No problem. It seemed to be an unusual request, but once he could see my thinking, he was happy to help. Hooray!

I went in today and got a different guy so had to start from the beginning. "I want to buy whole chickens because it's more cost effective but I'd need them to be cut up and that's a bit difficult and could you possibly do it for me please like the other guy said he would?" Yep - he would. I could see him working it through in his head, "This is not what we normally do but ok, it's not a bad idea, I can do that. And gosh that wee girl is so cute." He turned those two chickens in to pieces in a flash while chatting to Esther, chucked it all in a bag and we were done.

I got two chickens for $20 and now have a whole lot of bags in my freezer with a range of pieces. Some have smaller portions, some larger. Some for when another family member joins us for dinner and some for days when we just need a little (like on a pizza or in a toasted sandwich perhaps). Seriously cost effective! Hooray again!

So - track down your local butcher, I suggest a phone call, and see if you can do the same, if you're keen. It was pretty easy and feels remarkably good (read: domestic goddessy).


We had chicken wraps for dinner tonight. I haven't had tortilla and chicken since the days when I was pregnant and crawling back to real food after morning sickness. The kids haven't had them before and I was unsure what they would think. Reuben was very excited by the idea and they scoffed them! Can I say hooray again?

I stir fried the chicken with some grated veg + corn, and added a little garlicky white sauce to help it all stick together. I had lettuce and tomato with mine but the kids were happier without. We might try mince with our next round of tortillas, as long as I make sure there's not too much dripping out the bottom. But anyway, this is a post about chicken (trust me, there is chicken somewhere in these photos).




Get on the phone to your butcher.







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