Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Comfort Food & a little rant about Costco chicken

Nothing is as comforting as roast chicken, even in summer. I thawed out some huge chicken breasts (bone in, skin on) from Costco and roasted them the other night after a quick browning of the skin. Served with a little chili vinegar made in the browning pan, quite nice. Salad & green beans (as always) rounded out this meal, along with some embarrassingly cheap Pinot Gris from Fresh & Easy that I kind of liked. Unfortunately the best part was the skin. These breasts were so darn big that once they were done at the bone, they were kind of overcooked. But still tasty and perfect for eating outside.

Which brings me to my short rant -- for some reason Costco carries the hugest chicken breasts & thighs available to man. 3 of them barely fit in the pan, and whenever I get the thighs they are always too big for whatever braise I am doing. Even the boneless/skinless/tasteless breasts are too big & I have to butterfly them. The only thing worth buying is the wings I think. I know, I just need to get over it and spend the extra money on organic no hormones normal sized chicken, but unfortunately in this economy our priorities lie outside of the spectrum of shopping at Whole Paycheck. Luckily I have found excellent whole leg pieces at a great price at Fresh & Easy (Tesco's new US venture), I think less than $1.00/lb. Those will be making a special appearance on Sunday for Alabama white BBQ chicken - stay tuned - I'm even going to bake!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Buy the whole chicken and fabricate it your self. Freeze the parts left over in seperate collections.

Freeze and save backs, necks and wing tips for stock.

The only time I buy chicken parts is thighs for sausage or hind quarters with backs for stock.

Once you know how you can split up a chicken in under two minutes, with out the Saturday Night Live amputation.