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SWMBO buys a rotisserie chicken every time she goes to Costco. I use them for stock, salads, midnight nibbles. I think the breast is usually/always overcooked, so it goes into the stockpot with the rest of the carcass, or someone makes a sandwich.

I don’t think it’s the healthiest thing, but think it’s healthier than a lot of other ways to feed a family for $5 . . . figure the alternative for lots of people is frozen pizza and suchlike.

When we lived in Paris, I was a grad student and our budget was very tight. I discovered that rotisserie chicken is both available and fantastic there - no brine injection in France! We in fact did depend on the ready-to-eat chicken for daily meals. It wasn’t $5 though.

I had some friends who lived in Colonial Condesa in Mexico City right across the street from a deli that sold rotisserie chickens through one of their front windows - like the way tortillas are sold at tortillarias. There was a very good and large bakery next door where I would buy bolillos, telera, and pastries. The chickens were very good, and it was a quick and easy way to get food for a cheap meal, but there was often a line to buy the chickens, and they were never overcooked, since they sold so quickly. Here's a photo of me buying quesadillas from a vendor in front of the bakery:

which was another way to get a quick and inexpensive meal.

A few weeks ago, I decided to buy a rotisserie chicken at Stater Brothers because it smelled so good when I walked by it. I had not bought one since I was last in Mexico City, but when I got home, I discovered that it was so salty that it was almost inedible. I will never buy another one here. I used the meat in place of salt in some rice dishes and also used the bones and skin to make stock, but I normally make stock without salt.

I buy them often at Sam’s Club. Convenient, tasty and great price.

They are building a new Costco near me and I have already been gifted a membership by my daughter. We have another one about 15 miles away but never went there nor ever had their chicken. My daughter always got them until she didn't. I asked why and she said the chickens were treated inhumanely and pumped full of chemicals to get them as plump as they are. I'm just saying what she told me. Dont know if it is true.

I sometimes buy one at Whole Foods. Supposedly all they add is salt and pepper. Used to buy one occasionally at Costco but mostly used it for white chicken chili.

Watch the video. Lots of sodium solution. Perhaps potassium as well.

Lily wrote:

”My daughter always got them until she didn't. I asked why and she said the chickens were treated inhumanely and pumped full of chemicals to get them as plump as they are. I'm just saying what she told me. Dont know if it is true.”

Forgive me, but you just set me off into laughter and giggles. It is true that most animal to table industries do not treat the living animals (product) well, and the chickens are injected with salty brine to make them plump, moist, tender and flavorful, your daughter does understand that the brining is done to the dead, plucked chickens BEFORE they are cooked (but after the chicken has been killed, and not while they are alive)?

The industry is not injecting live poultry with brining solutions.

Outside, that white chicken chili sounds interesting. Do you have a link to the recipe?

I've never liked the texture of commercially available rotisserie chicken, like that sold at Costco.

Petal...She didn't say they were injected with brine, she said antibiotics and other chemicals.

Lily, I see. I read this,

”the chickens were treated inhumanely and pumped full of chemicals to get them as plump as they are.”

and misunderstood because of the video and your use of the word ”pumped.”

Yes, I think most animals raised commercially for table are given antibiotics and other medications/drugs.

Chicken on drugs

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We don't like the taste of the store produced rotisserie chicken. Always too salty from the brining, among the reasons.

Roasting chicken in the oven or on a BBQ, whether whole or in parts as we prefer, is as easy and simple as coukd be. Start the heat, add a little salt and pepper, use a timer and check at the end with a thermometer. It takes more work to make a salad to eat with it.

^^^ True!

I will only get rotisserie chickens on my way to work. And I do not roast whole chickens at home either. I suppose the reason is laziness. But I am not too lazy to cook the chicken, I just hate dealing with the leftovers and carcass. We would not roast enough chickens to justify freezing the bones to make stock or anything like that, And if i were to freeze the cooked meat i guarantee it would not get eaten. I will get them on the way to work because they are fast and easy, taste ok, and I do not have to deal with leftovers at all because I have a small colony of feral kitties that eat the whole of what i have left over, which is most of the chicken, bones and all.

I find that most store bought cooked chickens need some sort of doctoring, seasoning wise. I usually get a bagged salad it or some frozen broccoli with cheese sauce to eat with it.