To all you chicken fanatics

donna_do_good

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to have a lot more protein in my diet. I love chicken but its so expensive. How do you afford it and any other good cheap protein sources.

Thanks

bathsheba_c

Buy it on sale and freeze it (chicken lasts several months in the freezer). Also, beans are the cheapest protein source. Eggs are also good, but high in fat.

bragaswag

Buy boneless skinless breasts. You have to look for what store has them on sale and when you do, buy alot. I bought about 6 lbs worth of breasts at 1.79$ lb. sometimes it goes down to 1.29$ lb. just gotta look in your ads.

taunto

chicken isn't expensive, its what you buy that makes it expensive. If you buy bonesless/skinless chicken on full price it'll probably cost you like $2.5/lb but you can buy whoe chicken and learn to carve out the breast yourself and make it cheaper.

Also, don't forget that the drumsticks are high protein, low cal options also and costs only like 79 cents/lb

bluechip777

buy in bulk --- we buy it in 40lb boxes

feistymoon

Turkey Mince is about £3 for a 500g pack. It would make at least 3 full servings of whatever you are cooking, possibly four, Is yummy as a chilli, with pasta sauce, etc

ladyark

I will usually only eat boneless skinless chicken breasts if i am eating chicken. I also will only eat 3-4 oz at a meal so one breast is usually 2 meals so that helps it go a longer way.

Dovekat

I get mine at Iceland £5 for 1kg and that's pre-diced (Just makes it easier to toss a handful into what I am cooking) full breasts are the same price. You can also get good deals for fresh cuts from farmers markets. Whole chicken can sometimes be cheaper but takes more time to prepare of course. I don't tend to simply because I have very little experience cooking whole birds and our oven heats unevenly lol.

orangesmartie

I don't eat any other meat except chicken. Buy a whole chicken and bung it in the slow cooker for a few hours. It'll just fall apart and its much easier to pick all the meat off the bones. You'll have a huge pile of meat to use in soups, curries, stews, sandwiches.

Depending on where you buy it, the price of a whole chicken can vary due to the conditions in which it was kept, but if you have a farm shop or farmers' market near by you should be able to pick up a 'happy chicken' for a reasonable price.

I paid £4.20 (approx $6.70) for a free range corn fed chicken yesterday which is currently cooking in my slow cooker and will be ready when i get home from work tonight. I pick all the skin off too, it comes off fairly easily. I could use the bones/skin for stock, but i don't, because I'm lazy. Out of my one chicken I will make:

curry - 4 portions
chicken and mushroom casserole - 4 portions
Chicken noodle soup - 4 portions
stirfry - 4 portions
Chicken salad sandwiches
chicken fajitas

That gives me approx 20 meals to freeze and eat. Yes i add veggies/side dishes but it makes each individual meal fairly cheap - and the chicken part is only pennies per meal.

I don't put loads of chicken in each dish - just enough so that i have the flavour. That way the chicken will stretch to lots more meals, meaning my money goes further.

Hope that helps.

IronSmasher

Over here chicken is one of the cheapest meats available. However, some shops sell packets of diced/pieces of breast that are cheaper than aesthetically pleasing whole breasts (that I then dice anyway).
Thigh fillets have also appeared on the shelves recently, cheaper than breast but a higher fat/cal percentage.

donna_do_good

Thanks everyone, that's been helpful

chrishgt4

try farm shops.

I get mine from a farm shop and not only is it much better quality meat, it is a hell of a lot cheaper.

Hellbent_Heidi

Buy it on sale and freeze it (chicken lasts several months in the freezer).

This is what we do as well. Every now and then, its like $1.77 a pound and we buy loads of it and fill the freezer.