{"id":224277,"date":"2017-09-22T02:06:50","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T02:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/origin-www.tasteofhome.com\/?p=224277"},"modified":"2025-04-08T13:57:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T18:57:23","slug":"dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Secret Behind Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"<script async type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/tracking.skyword.com\/tracker.js?contentId=281474979789441\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/script>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_224279\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]<img class=\"size-large wp-image-224279\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FB_shutterstock_536386990.jpg?fit=1024,577\" alt=\"Chicken is what's for dinner\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" \/> Shutterstock \/ Matt Gardner[\/caption]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIt's one of the oldest bits of kitchen advice in the books: If you want to save money, skip convenience foods and cook from scratch. This is true for a <a class=\"SWhtmlLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/recipes\/best-fudgy-brownies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">batch of brownies<\/a> (39 cents for homemade but more than $2 for a boxed mix) and cut fruit (a pineapple is only $2.75 per pound vs. $4.28 if it's precut), and <em>especially<\/em> for ready-to-eat meals, which tend to cost nearly twice as much as the ingredients you need to make them. But there's one food where this rule doesn't apply: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/recipes\/slow-cooker-rotisserie-style-chicken\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rotisserie chicken<\/a>.\r\n<p class=\"\">(Psst...want to incorporate one into dinner tonight? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/collection\/ways-to-turn-rotisserie-chicken-into-dinner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We know 33 ways!<\/a>)<\/p>\r\nThat's right: In most grocery stores, the average whole, raw chicken is actually <em>more <\/em>expensive than its spit-roasted equivalent. Savings aside, it seems to be a much better deal for any busy shopper to invest in a finished dinner\u2014one that doesn't need to be cleaned, stuffed, seasoned and roasted at home. So why are rotisserie chickens so inexpensive?\r\n\r\nWell, it turns out there's a secret behind your preroasted poultry. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcet.org\/food\/grocery-store-economics-why-are-rotisserie-chickens-so-cheap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">an article<\/a> published by the California educational television channel KCET, the golden, juicy rotisserie chickens in grocery stores are often the unsold raw chickens that are about to expire. By selling them at a lower price, grocery stores make less money than they would on raw birds, but way more money than they would if they tossed the chickens out. We've rounded up the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/best-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/\">best rotisserie chicken<\/a> available at the grocery store.\r\n\r\nRepurposing unsold products is pretty common in grocery stores. Supermarket consultants have admitted that vegetables and meat are often thrown into premade salads or deli items to minimize waste. Even rotisserie chickens that don't sell are chopped up and thrown into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/recipes\/cashew-chicken-rotini-salad\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">creamy chicken salad<\/a>!\r\n\r\nSo, that's the secret. Does this cost-effective move brighten your day or ruffle your feathers?","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can rotisserie chicken be so cheap? If you&#8217;ve been suspecting fowl play, you might be right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7174,"featured_media":224279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[303797],"categories-v2":[308432],"coauthors":[145903],"acf":{"long_pin":"","long_pin_file":false,"ncv_override_generic_settings_option":false,"ncv_autoplay_option":"","ncv_stickyplay_option":"","ncv_ads_option":"","ncv_mute_option":"","ncv_comscore_option":"","ncv_moat_option":"","ncv_autoplay_mobile_option":"","ncv_viewable_threshold_option":"","ncv_sticky_offset_option":"","ncv_autopause_option":"","ncv_sticky_offset_mobile_option":"","ncv_autopause_mobile_option":"","ncv_sticky_mobile_option":"","ncv_remove_player_option":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.3 (Yoast SEO v23.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Truth Behind Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken<\/title>\n\n\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/\" \/>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Truth Behind Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken","description":"Why is rotisserie chicken so cheap compared to its uncooked counterpart? We discover the juicy secret.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Real Reason Rotisserie Chicken Is So Cheap","og_description":"You won't believe the dark secrets behind one of your supermarket's best deals.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/","og_site_name":"Taste Recipes","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tasteofhome","article_published_time":"2017-09-22T02:06:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-08T18:57:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":676,"url":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FB_shutterstock_536386990.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Emma B. Kumer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"The Dark Secret Behind Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FB_shutterstock_536386990.jpg","twitter_creator":"@tasteofhome","twitter_site":"@tasteofhome","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Emma B. Kumer","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/"},"author":{"name":"Emma Kumer","@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/#\/schema\/person\/81b2a465c21ffc5ddbe434358fc6638b"},"headline":"The Dark Secret Behind Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken","datePublished":"2017-09-22T02:06:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-08T18:57:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/"},"wordCount":321,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FB_shutterstock_536386990.jpg","keywords":["Home &amp; Living"],"articleSection":["Home &amp; Living"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/","url":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/","name":"The Truth Behind Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/dark-secret-behind-grocery-store-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FB_shutterstock_536386990.jpg","datePublished":"2017-09-22T02:06:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-08T18:57:23+00:00","description":"Why is rotisserie chicken so cheap compared to its uncooked counterpart? 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Kumer","first_name":"Emma","last_name":"Kumer","user_login":"emma-kumer","user_email":"sw-75178@skyword.com","linked_account":"ekumer","website":"https:\/\/emmakumer.com\/","description":"<p>Emma interned for <em>Taste Recipes<\/em> in 2017 and then continued freelancing there during college. Post college, she worked with <em>Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em> as a digital visual assistant full time before becoming a motion designer at <em>The Washington Post<\/em>. There, she continues honing her craft of digital storytelling on social media platforms. She\u2019s also been a tutorial writer for Adobe and a freelance music video animator. Outside of work, Emma loves running marathons, attending concerts and creative writing.<\/p>","twitter":"EmmaKumer","instagram":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/emmakumer\/","facebook":"","public_email":"","linkedin":"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/emma-k-4b5192aa\/","tiktok":"","youtube":"","location":"Washington, DC","school_and_year":"Northwestern University","education":"<p>Northwestern University, bachelor's degrees in journalism and creative writing<\/p>","highlights":"<ul>\r\n<li>Journalism Education Association's Journalist of the Year (Wisconsin) award winner, 2016<\/li>\r\n<li>\u00a0Best Illustrations of 2022 award from <em>The Washington Post<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","expertise":"Food News","short_bio":"<p>Emma has been an intern and freelancer for <em>Taste Recipes<\/em> and a digital visual assistant for <em>Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em>. She\u2019s currently telling stories digitally at <em>The Washington Post<\/em> and filling her free time training for and running marathons, setting creative writing goals, birdwatching and spending time with friends.<\/p>","user_nicename":"emma-kumer","type":"guest-author","nickname":""}},"images":{"224279":{"image_url":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FB_shutterstock_536386990.jpg","post_data":{"ID":224279,"post_author":"7006","post_date":"2017-09-21 20:11:00","post_date_gmt":"2017-09-21 20:11:00","post_content":"","post_title":"FB_shutterstock_536386990","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"inherit","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"fb_shutterstock_536386990","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2018-08-14 02:37:27","post_modified_gmt":"2018-08-14 07:37:27","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":224277,"guid":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/FB_shutterstock_536386990.jpg","menu_order":0,"post_type":"attachment","post_mime_type":"image\/jpeg","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"post_meta":{"_wp_attached_file":["2017\/09\/FB_shutterstock_536386990.jpg"],"_wp_attachment_metadata":["a:5:{s:5:\"width\";i:1200;s:6:\"height\";i:676;s:4:\"file\";s:37:\"2017\/09\/FB_shutterstock_536386990.jpg\";s:5:\"sizes\";a:6:{s:25:\"article-featured-image-lg\";a:4:{s:4:\"file\";s:37:\"FB_shutterstock_536386990-800x450.jpg\";s:5:\"width\";i:800;s:6:\"height\";i:450;s:9:\"mime-type\";s:10:\"image\/jpeg\";}s:22:\"article-featured-image\";a:4:{s:4:\"file\";s:38:\"FB_shutterstock_536386990-1200x675.jpg\";s:5:\"width\";i:1200;s:6:\"height\";i:675;s:9:\"mime-type\";s:10:\"image\/jpeg\";}s:26:\"listicle-featured-image-lg\";a:4:{s:4:\"file\";s:38:\"FB_shutterstock_536386990-1200x676.jpg\";s:5:\"width\";i:1200;s:6:\"height\";i:676;s:9:\"mime-type\";s:10:\"image\/jpeg\";}s:23:\"listicle-featured-image\";a:4:{s:4:\"file\";s:37:\"FB_shutterstock_536386990-696x676.jpg\";s:5:\"width\";i:696;s:6:\"height\";i:676;s:9:\"mime-type\";s:10:\"image\/jpeg\";}s:26:\"listicle-featured-image-sm\";a:4:{s:4:\"file\";s:37:\"FB_shutterstock_536386990-348x348.jpg\";s:5:\"width\";i:348;s:6:\"height\";i:348;s:9:\"mime-type\";s:10:\"image\/jpeg\";}s:17:\"featured-image-lg\";a:4:{s:4:\"file\";s:37:\"FB_shutterstock_536386990-700x676.jpg\";s:5:\"width\";i:700;s:6:\"height\";i:676;s:9:\"mime-type\";s:10:\"image\/jpeg\";}}s:10:\"image_meta\";a:12:{s:8:\"aperture\";s:1:\"0\";s:6:\"credit\";s:27:\"Shutterstock \/ Matt Gardner\";s:6:\"camera\";s:0:\"\";s:7:\"caption\";s:86:\"Chicken is what's for dinner; Shutterstock ID 536386990; use: Web; client: tasteofhome\";s:17:\"created_timestamp\";s:1:\"0\";s:9:\"copyright\";s:0:\"\";s:12:\"focal_length\";s:1:\"0\";s:3:\"iso\";s:1:\"0\";s:13:\"shutter_speed\";s:1:\"0\";s:5:\"title\";s:9:\"536386990\";s:11:\"orientation\";s:1:\"1\";s:8:\"keywords\";a:11:{i:0;s:5:\"brown\";i:1;s:7:\"chicken\";i:2;s:9:\"delicious\";i:3;s:4:\"food\";i:4;s:7:\"healthy\";i:5;s:4:\"meal\";i:6;s:11:\"nutritional\";i:7;s:10:\"rotisserie\";i:8;s:6:\"rustic\";i:9;s:5:\"table\";i:10;s:4:\"wood\";}}}"],"_wp_attachment_image_alt":["Chicken is what's for dinner"],"_syndication_rights":["1"],"_image_licensor_id":[""],"_image_licensor_name":[""],"photographer_credit_name":["Shutterstock \/ Matt Gardner"],"mdd_hash":["674e56efc289bbbfc8f1995095df4af5"],"mdd_size":["168339"]}}},"current_site_slug":"toh-com","_yoast_wpseo_title":"The Truth Behind Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Why is rotisserie chicken so cheap compared to its uncooked counterpart? 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If you've been suspecting fowl play, you might be right."],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224277"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1997218,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224277\/revisions\/1997218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224277"},{"taxonomy":"categories-v2","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories-v2?post=224277"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=224277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}