white meat....best chicken deals

Ah, the glorious chicken. Produces eggs and meat for us, and even feathers for our pillows. I LOVE chicken, and could eat it five times a week, but we probably average only once or twice. So what's the beat deal for the money??

Let me just start by saying that I rarely purchase meat unless it's on sale. I've often wondered what gives the most bang for the buck with chicken. Obviously, boneless, skinless breast is the easiest to prepare and usually the tastiest, but it is also considerably more expensive, upwards from $2.50 per pound. So, I did some experiments.

First, I purchased ten pounds of legs and thighs for a sale price of 59 cents a pound. I cooked, boned and skinned them and ended up with 3.5 pounds of edible chicken, which is about $1.70 per pound. Then I compared bone in, skin on breast to boneless, skinless. My conclusion was that, overall, pound-for-edible-pound, bone in, skin on breast is the beast deal. I often find this on sale for as low as 79 cents a pound, and when I do, I fill my freezer. Boneless, skinless is rarely less than $2.00 a pound, even on sale, and it is very easy to remove the skin and bones from the other, either before or after it is cooked. Little effort for a decent cost savings. You only lose about one pound in ten after removing the unedible parts. Of course, you have to consider what you are going to be using the chicken for in the first place.

So there's my very unscientific analysis...anybody have some good recipes to share??