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For the first 25-ish years of my life I was a “boneless skinless snob.” It was THE only cut of chicken that I bought in college, after college, and for the first 3 years I spent in the Dominican Republic. I would travel over an hour one way to the “American grocery store” for a few packages of B/S chicken!
One HOT afternoon in the Dominican Republic, I thought I’d be brave and try to get past my “squemish-ness” issues and get past my B/S snobbish-ness. I walked straight past my fruit and veggie guy at the local open air market to the chicken counter. I looked nowhere other than the chicken man’s face, as I was afraid of what I might see. (There are no regulations for food in the DR. At least none that I am aware of. Or none that are strictly enforced!)
“Quisiera un pollo por favor.” (I’d like a chicken please.)
“Si claro.” (Yes, of course.) The chicken man busies himself getting my chicken ready. He got my chicken from his fridge. * sigh of relief* Then threw it up on the scale.
“Ciento viente pesos.” (120 pesos.) He tells me as he’s putting the chicken into a black trash bag for me. No tray, no plastic wrap. A trash bag. *breath of anxiety* OK. OK. Relax. This is just how they do it.
But wait. Feet. There are still feet on this chicken that he is putting in the trash bag. Feet. What? I don’t want any feet on my chicken. Who eats chicken feet anyways??? Not this B/S snob!
“Um, permiso, senor, sin pies por favor.” (Um, excuse me, sir, no feet please.)
“Pero es parte del pollo.” (But it’s part of the chicken.) Yep. Got that. Don’t want ‘em!!!
“Si, yo se, pero yo no quiero los pies.” (Yes, I know, but I don’t want the feet.) “Yo pagare por los pies y puede darles a otra persona.” (I’ll pay for the feet and you can give them to someone else.)
“OK.” With a puzzled look in his eye.
“Gracias senor.” (Thanks sir.)
“A su orden.” (Directly translated. At your service. Really means, happy to help.)
I share this to let you know that was the moment that I no longer considered myself a B/S snob. You’d think it would make me more of a snob, but no. It didn’t. It forced me to get over myself and learn what to do with an almost whole chicken!
Since getting over my squemish-ness and snobbiness, I have started buying bone in split chicken breasts (and sometimes a whole chicken) for 3 reasons.
- They are cheaper by the pound that B/S breasts.
- I can use them to make my own chicken broth since I don’t like to use store bought broth. It is loaded with preservatives, high in sodium and just not as good for you as homemade!
- I can buy a large package and prepare them for upcoming meals with chicken. This saves on time and dishes for future preparation!
Here is my trusty monthly meal calendar that is on my fridge. My March menu plan tells me that we’ll be having Chicken Fajitas and Honey Lime Chicken in the next few weeks, and Ginger Chicken Stirfry last weekend.
Here’s what I did to prepare the chicken for these meals:
First, I peeled off the skin. Sorta like the feet. I’m not a fan of the skin!
Next, I cut along the bone on the side of the breast as closely as I could, to keep the breast in one piece. After pulling off the breast meat, I then cut out the tenderloin piece that was underneath it. Leaving, as you see above, the breast, the tenderloin and the bones with a little meat on them. I cut all 6 split breasts like shown above.
I put all 6 bone pieces into the crockpot filled with water up, leaving about 1.5 inches from the top. I added a few garlic cloves, some Italian seasoning and 2 Tbsp vinegar (Jenn from Frugal Upstate shared this tip on the Keeping it Centsible Blog Talk Radio Show last week. Adding vinegar helps leach the calcium out of the bones and into the broth!) I set it on low for 8 hours and let the crockpot make me some free broth.
Once the broth was going, I finished up with the chicken breasts. I placed 2 breasts and tenderloins into another Ziploc baggies with a $.37 can of Rotel tomatoes for my upcoming Chicken Fajitas. I placed 2 breasts and tenderloins in another Ziploc with 2 Tbsp honey and 2 Tbsp lime juice. Both Ziplocs went into the freezer. To thaw, I place the tightly sealed Ziplocs into a bowl of warm water. In about 30 minutes, the chicken is ready to be sliced and cooked.
I have chicken ready for 3 meals, along with at least 4 meals worth of homemade chicken broth…for just $6.37! It doesn’t get much cheaper than that!
What is your favorite cut of chicken? Are you a B/S snob? Do you prefer to cook the whole chicken to get your chicken to use for future meals? I’d love to hear your favorite chicken “tips” or recipes!
P.S. I’ll be sharing this over at WFMW at We are THAT family!
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Oh yes, I am absolutely a snob. I prefer white meat, but I also heard that the br. meat was healthier as it has less fat, etc. Don’t know if that’s true. I have cooked whole chickens before though.
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This made me laugh since I just purposely tried chicken feet at dim sum yesterday. They were, interesting.
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Wow!! I tried cutting chicken breast when I was in college (I lived in the dorms). And I was terrible at it!! I felt like I was dissecting a frog. LOL… It still baffles me how my mom makes it seem so effortless and enjoyable.
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I’m a B/S snob! I really don’t like any meat with bones in it and for me, its just not worth it to de-bone it myself. Plus, the thought of de-boning myself just grosses me out. LOL.
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Slightly off topic … is there something else to be done with the bones besides broth? My family has been eating a lot more turkey than normal lately because of the incredible sales … My freezer is stocked fairly well with turkey broth at this point, but every time I’m faced with the carcass, I can’t bear to throw it away … is there anything else I can do with it?
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Your post may be the one that tips the scale for me… I have seen several posts and recipes for making homemade broth and cream soups lately, and while I do normally buy B/S breasts for convenience – stocking up on sales – I haven’t seen a good sale in a while! Now that I have a good use for the bones, I think I’ll go all out! That’s part of what has kept me from doing it so far – feeling I would waste the bones and the bits of meat which are left on them. Oh, and the idea to freeze the chicken in with the sauce is great! That might just get me to make a full commitment to menu planning as well. Thanks again.
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Here in Mozambique Africa the chicken feet is a delicacy! It’s a great honor to receive the chicken foot on your plate. I, however, have not managed to eat it. And there is ZERO meat on that foot, I have tried to find it and it’s just not there! It is seriously just skin and crunchy bones.
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My husband ate some kind of bird feet in China one time. LOL
I love how you packaged it!
-Kim
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OK, so THIS is awesome! Thanks so much! We pretty much only eat chicken in this house and your tips are fantastic. Not only are they going to help us save money, but time. WOOT!
Peace and love~
~*Michelle*~
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Last week when Meijer had the split chicken for $1/pound, I stockpiled. Good, right? Well…we are s/b snobs (nothing to be ashamed of
). For the first time ever, I actually cut the split chicken into b/s! All on my own! And it didn’t look bad and all in one piece!! 
Wow, did I save a ton of cashola by doing that.
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Erin, Thanks so much for sharing this. I guess I am a B/S snob. I hate looking at the insides of the chicken. I don’t even eat fried chicken on the bone. It all grosses me out. But, because of you last week I actually bought bone-in chicken. I cooked some of it the other day and it wasn’t so bad. Today I’m going to try and do it your way. Thank you so much for helping me save money!
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Thank you for this. I am a B/S snob, mostly because I have never know or tried anything different. This is a great education and I will have to try it.
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I’m a B/S chicken snob! But that’s mostly because I have the hardest time cutting a whole chicken. My mom gets these amazing rotisserie chickens, but I can never slice them. So I automatically go for b/s chicken breasts. The sad part is, my mom is an amazing cook and actually owns a catering company, I’ve just never asked her to show me how to cut a chicken. Thank you for the advice though. I’m new to your blog, but I think it’s such a fantastic idea.
God bless,
Hannah
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Ok so I have to be honest with you I am totaly a snob too!! I will only buy boneless skinless chicken breast but……. I am willing to try it now I am and will go and buy the whole chicken darn it!! I am going to try it and I am going to save ur blog to so I can com eback to it and tell you all about it thank you so much no more S/B snob lol
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I love this website! You do a wonderful job! I’d just like to caution thawing meat in warm water. Cold water should always be used to thaw meat. It’s a sanitation issue.
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I have tried buying cheaper cuts of chicken, but it really isn’t worth the time for me. I have a rule that I will NOT buy B/S breast unless it is $1.99/lb or less (and there are quite a few of those sales around here). I tried the bone-in breast, but:
-I have a hard time getting the skin off (it’s so slimy & hard to keep a grip on while you cut it).
-I haven’t been doing anything with the bones (I don’t have a crock pot, so I still don’t know what to do with the bones).
-From the time I open a bone-in package to the time it’s in a storage baggie, it seems like it has taken me FOREVER to deal with. Maybe I’m just a slower cook. I don’t know.
As long as I keep finding the $1.99 B/S, I will keep dealing with that. Thank you for the article!! It was very informative, since I didn’t know how to make broth!!
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Just found the site today after you appeared on the RR Show-which is my new favorite! Thanks so much for the great tips. I’m finally a stay-at-home mom so any new trick will help. My newest trick for chicken-I boil a combo of bone-in Thighs(.78/lb) and bone in Breasts (.99/lb) then chop the meat for chicken casseroles for the rest of the month. After I divied up the meat in zippies, my cost per dish is now $1.56. I saw on RR show that the thigh meat is very comparable to the breast meat but cheaper. After cooking it, the thigh meat did seem to be very similar to the white meat and I will do this combo from now on.
My mother is a fabulous cook and I can remember calling her in college to ask how to cut a whole chicken-phone on shoulder, chicken in one hand, knife in the other. Since then I have never been afraid of bone-in chicken. My husband unfortunately is a LOUD B/S snob, so I have to camouflage the bone-in chicken. I am slowly winning him over with my frugality and maybe soon he will see the light!
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To Claire:
To get skin off a chicken, use a paper towel to peel the skin back. It’s not slimy and comes off pretty easily.
As for the bones, no crock pot, don’t worry. Get a big pot and do exactly the same thing only on a stove on very low heat for 8 hours. It’s the same thing.
Time savers: get a moist towel to put under your cutting board to keep it from slipping, make sure you have a sharp knife to work with, have your pot ready for the bones, have a ziploc ready for your new b/s chicken breasts to go in the freezer or to marinate.
Hope this helps,
Gina
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I believe you need to try out for: “Hey Can you cook” on rachael ray ( I know you’ve been on the show) OR Next Food Network STAR – as you are a star and have lots of interesting stories and the such like they want on the program! Thanks so much for all the tips, recipes, and fun here on $5 dinners! Maybe we should all take inspiration from the movie Julia and Julie too and blog our way through various cookbooks – like you are your own too – Or try to turn the recipes into $5 dinners!? Just a thought… I post favorites from various sites and especially Food Network on my blog! Cooking, Baking, Shopping, Meal prep, couponing, and all is SO MUCH FUN!
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I wasn’t always good with whole chickens. Here are a few things I’ve picked up. Apart from basic good procedure, like SHARP knives, get a pair of kitchen shears made to cut food. (Mine are from Smith & Wesson. They even have a notch by the pivot just for chicken bones, and they come apart for cleaning. They are incredible!!)
Cool, and the pickings should fall right off. Perfect for salad, casserole, whatever.
My best cheat for whole chickens is to stuff the bird with a chopped onion–dust the onion with paprika, curry, herbs, or whatever YOU like. If you can’t sew, close the openings with toothpicks, but don’t ‘bury’ the picks. Oven roast. Lay the bird breast up for a “show” bird, or breast down for the juiciest roast chicken you’ve ever had. Then the whole thing is already cooked, and the leftover can be picked as soon as it’s cool enough. QUICK, CHEAP, EASY! The Cheapskate trifecta!!
Chicken comes from a whole animal: bones, gizzards, guts, skin, feathers and feet. Your story about the Dominican butcher gave me a good laugh, but it also made me appreciate my roots on the farm. I’ve killed, plucked, prepped, roasted and eaten chickens that I’ve known and fed. I also got a puzzled chuckle out of the comments about being “grossed out” by a whole chicken, or even the parts that aren’t purely muscle. You and I have skin and bones; so do birds. Even the ones we eat. Remember, respect and be grateful for/to the animals you eat.
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red.kitteh Reply:
October 6th, 2009 at 12:36 am
@red.kitteh, Oops, I think I left in a gratuitous sentence there at the end of the first paragraph. Sorry.
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how is cutting frozen chicken easier? i can see partially frozen. sorry I just found this website and it’s awesome
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Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom Reply:
October 25th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
@kim,
The knife cuts cleaner through the chicken when frozen. (But you hands will get cold!)
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Thank you for posting this. I too am kind of a b/s chix snob but I think it’s becuase I have no cooking skills and didn’t even know where to begin with whole chickens. I buy food through the Angel Food Ministries program and they always put in whole chikens and split chicken breast, becuase it’s cheaper, but I never know what to do with them. You post has helped greatly. Thank you!!
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