Knowledge is $2.00/lb

[Fish]

2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast = $7.00
4 lb whole chicken = $6.00
knowledge = $2.00/lb

I roasted up a whole chicken last night, for the first time. I butterflied open the chicken so it could lie flat in the roasting pan. Then I stuffed a mixture of ginger, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper under the skin. Roasted it up under the broiler, carved off the meaty bits.

The skin and carcass went into a soup pot. The meat off of the wings, thighs, and drumsticks went in too, after I'd taken out the carcass and skin and strained the water. Onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, and egg noodles, and a few herbs later, soup.

The breasts, you say? I put 'em on a bed of Romaine with diced tomato, yellow bell pepper, and tangerine, with a ginger vinaigrette.

That is how far $6.00 of chicken will go. Amazing, innit?

[GreyCloud9]

Yup.. and I can sometimes pick up whole chickens up for about $3. My favorite find is that the local discount grocer has restaurant case packs of salad chicken (already grilled and chunked chicken that is then flash frozen) $10 for 10lbs. All the work has been done for me I bought three cases, and have already had it in chicken helper and chicken curry.

[Panacea]

Whole chickens here are often less than a dollar per pound. You are paying for some bones though.

[Fish]

Of course, but the bones are great for soups and stocks. Why pay $4.00/lb for chicken and then pay separately $1.00/pint for chicken broth?

[Panacea]

I'm just sayin', I kind of factor that into it. Like, if boneless/skinless is on sale for $1.97/lb I will buy some.

[Fish]

Ever tried preserving or canning chicken broth? Does it freeze? Can it be put into jars for later?

[Zombies!]

Chicken stock will freeze quite nicely. Just make sure it's dated properly and sealed to avoid freezer burn.

[Panacea]

I freeze it too. I use small bags so that I can have just a cup at a time, for recipes.

[Bodhiman]

I'm no math wiz, but if the total difference in price is $1.00 and the total difference in weight is 2#, wouldn't that make it 1# of knowledge $.50?
What did I miss?

FTR, the entire thing sounds de-lish and quite practical!

[Fish]

In the first case, I pay $7.00 but I only get 2 pounds of chicken. In the second case, I pay $6.00 but I get twice as much chicken.

2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast = $7.00 = 7/2 = $3.50 per pound
4 lb whole chicken = $6.00 = 6/4 = $1.50 per pound

Of course, as Islander pointed out, when I buy a whole chicken I don't get 4 pounds of chicken meat, I get ... I dunno, 3 pounds of meat plus 1 pound of chicken skin and bone. (3 pounds for $6.00 = $2.00/lb.) Or maybe I only get 2.5 pounds of meat plus 1.5 pound of skin and bone. (2.5 pounds for $6.00 = $2.40/lb.)

The meat's delicious, but the rest of the chicken isn't exactly useless.

[Jules]

Originally Posted by Fish

Ever tried preserving or canning chicken broth? Does it freeze? Can it be put into jars for later?

It freezes fine, just leave some headspace in the container. I freeze it in those plastic glad-loc containers so I'm not missing any good containers.

I can it too, but you need a pressure canner for that. 25 minutes at 10 pounds for quart jars, and then you're saving a bunch of space in your freezer.

[Panacea]

Originally Posted by Fish

Of course, as Islander pointed out,

[Fish]

Eep. I meant to go verify that, and didn't.

[Panacea]

Hah!

[Dragonlady]

Originally Posted by Jules

It freezes fine, just leave some headspace in the container. I freeze it in those plastic glad-loc containers so I'm not missing any good containers.

I can it too, but you need a pressure canner for that. 25 minutes at 10 pounds for quart jars, and then you're saving a bunch of space in your freezer.

Another option is to freeze it in the container, then pop it out into a bag, so you can reuse the container!