Rotisserie Chicken Throwdown

Last week I mentioned the rotisserie chicken throwdown that didn’t happen. Good news; in a rescheduled event the chicken fight took place, and the results were not quite what I expected. Initially my intent was to do a blind taste test, but that didn’t happen. Nonetheless, we forged ahead and did our best to do part for part comparisons, and keep our experiment as scientific as my personality allows (so not so much).

In the interest of transparency and candor I have to let you know I fully expected to prefer the Costco chicken. That is the chicken I crave, and I’ve been known to schedule a trip to Costco, and spend way too much money on other things, in the interest of procuring one of their rotisserie chickens. Over the many years I worked for Whole Foods Market I consumed countless rotisserie chickens and had grown tired of them. It’s been quite a while since I got one, partly due to the $8.99 price tag. I generally get one of their air chilled, antibiotic-free chickens for a lot less, and cook it myself.

But, enough about me, let’s get to the meat of the matter. We can start with this chart:

	Costco	Whole Foods Market
COST	$4.99	$8.99
SIZE	Three pounds	Two pounds
JUICINESS	Bird was moist, not juicy	Thigh was moist, breast was dry
FLAVOR	Had an odd shadow taste, not much chicken flavor	Good flavor, chicken-y
Drippings	Had a lot of liquid in the container, it was a pale color	Had less liquid that Costco chicken, but it was a lovely brown color
SALTINESS	Salty, but not overly	Chicken had no added salt
TEMP	Don’t know	170-175

 

Let’s break it down, in the immortal words of my idol Anne Lamott, bird by bird.

Costco: This bird is hormone and steroid free, which is nice, but federal law prohibits those, so why brag? Though they say they will stop using chickens treated with antibiotics, they currently do. You can see on the photo of the label that this chicken also has a lot of ingredients. The birds are injected with brine, which accounts for all those ingredients and which makes them juicier. The chickens even have their own Face Book page!

This chicken tasted bland compared to the WFM chicken. It also had a funny under-taste that was decidedly not chicken flavor. It is a full pound bigger than its counterpart, so a much better value if you don’t care about the use of antibiotics, and a slew of chemical additives like sodium phosphate and “spice extractives” which are synthetic flavorings (notice it doesn’t even say natural spice extractives.) I couldn’t find much information on the treatment of these chickens.

As for my customer experience, I wanted to find out what temperature the birds are cooked to, but there was no one around in the meat department. In fact when I was looking I noticed that someone had left a sink running full-force, in one of the workrooms and it was madly overflowing. When I mentioned this to another Costco employee, thinking they would notify someone she said “That’s not my area.” Oh.

Whole Foods Market: This bird is hormone free, antibiotic-free and is a level two on their animal welfare rating system, which means not only are they cage free, but their environment is described as “enriched”. It isn’t brined (more on this later) and I bought a naked bird, meaning the only ingredient on the label was chicken. We were all surprised to find this naked bird quite flavorful, and didn’t miss the salt at all.

At Whole Foods Market there were team members present to answer my questions. I spoke to a young man who was in the process of putting chicken in containers, so he seemed like a good resource, though he wasn’t able to answer my questions, so he got someone else. I asked the second man if the chickens were brined. “No” he said, “they come in whole.” Hmmm, “Do you know what brining is?” I asked. “No”. “Then you can’t answer my question. Can you find someone who can?” Finally someone was found who seemed to know, though my confidence was fading. He assured me the chickens were not brined, and told me they were pulled from the rotisserie when the internal temperature reached between 170° and 175°F. (Poultry needs to be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165° to destroy any possible salmonella bacteria.) I understand the need for overcooking as customers are rabidly fearful of even a trace of pink in a chicken leg or thigh. This paranoia has forced vendors like Whole Foods Market to overcook poultry, and then those same customers complain that the meat is dry.

Without tasting them side by side I wouldn’t have realized the WFM chicken was so much better. It tasted purely of chicken, and though it had nothing added it was very flavorful and the crowd (three is a crowd, correct?) favorite. Though the white meat was a little dry, it was still better than its rival. The liquid in the bottom of the container was a deep caramel color and would have been nice over potatoes if I’d made any. Despite my prejudice I was completely won over by the superior flavor of the Whole Foods Market chicken.

As I’ve talked about before, better quality often comes with a higher price tag. I understand that some Costco locations offer organic, free-range rotisserie chickens, though I don’t know how much those cost. I do think $8.99 is a lot to pay for a two-pound chicken. I would rather buy a raw, humanely raised (and if possible heirloom variety) chicken and cook it myself. The Costco chicken wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good, and if cost is your primary concern stick with Costco .  If you’re busy and want to grab a better bird, head to Whole Foods Market.