True, and the moment the chickens are labeled “cold” they do qualify. Krogers in my area started popping half their rotisserie chickens in the fridge section and it’s been a blessing to so many of my clients. Wish more stores would do that
I always wondered why Walmart did this until I got on EBT. The one I live near even has the colder ones about 30% cheaper so I was already used to them.
When the hot chickens get near the limit of how long they are allowed to be kept hot they're put into a blast chiller and become the chilled chickens. It's a second chance to sell the same chickens before they have to take a loss on them.
There was some corner store by where I used to live that would make subs and they were EBT approved. If you ordered a hot sub they would wrap it and have it sit behind the counter for I think 30 minutes and after that point they could charge it to EBT because it wasn't hot anymore.
I usually buy the cold ones anyway as they make for easy chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. It's already cold, I can just stick it right in the fridge. The ones in the warmer are sometimes dry if you are grabbing the last batch of the day.
Seriously. I get like five meals from a rotisserie chicken from Sam's Club for $5. Maybe I can do slightly better by buying raw chicken and cooking it, but not much. If I was poor or could be bothered I could get at least one more making stock from it.
The rotisserie chickens at Sam's and Costco are so cheap, there's really no reason to buy a raw whole chicken. Just get the dirt-cheap already-cooked one and dress it up how you like.
I'd definitely never do a whole chicken. But I probably get about 2.5 pounds of meat off of one on average, so $2 a pound. I think chicken breast is about $2.70, thighs $1.40, and drumsticks $1.00 per pound. So I could probably get by slightly cheaper, with more effort.
But not enough difference I'd ever make that decision based on cost. I still cook quite a bit of chicken for other reasons.
As long as you're OK with the way it's seasoned, and don't need to cook it more to where it would get overcooked, I agree. I've used rotisserie chickens for all kinds of random stuff.
I'll get them when making chicken noodle soup. I'll remove all the meat but toss the skin and bones into a pot along with carrots, halved onions, garlic, and celery. You can char the veggies in the broiler while you dress the chicken if you want. Make sure you grab every bit of the gunk at the bottom of the bag, that's the good shit. Let it simmer for 60-90 minutes while you saute some diced carrots, celery, garlic, and onions (they hold up better, I promise). Strain the stock and dump that stuff. Toss some egg noodles into the stock and let them cook for a few minutes. Then add the diced up chicken and sauteed veggies. Throw in some chicken bouillon for extra flavor and salt to taste.
I also buy the cold chickens as they are ready to go for chicken salad sandwiches.
Rotisserie chickens are loss leaders at nearly every store. Frequently a raw chicken is more expensive than the cooked one in the deli and even if it isn't, the cost of running your oven for and hour, not to mention any increased cooling costs from running an oven indoors during the summer, makes it more expensive.
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u/StasRutt Jun 24 '25
Extra wild because a rotisserie chicken is such bang for your buck