Watch Out For One Unexpected Red Flag When Buying Rotisserie Chicken

As far as bang for your buck goes, it's hard to beat a rotisserie chicken. It can feed a family of four if the designated cook can't be bothered that evening. It can also feed a couple and provide enough leftovers for a few sandwiches. And if it's a party of one, some of the best ways to use up leftover chicken include chicken salad, chicken stock, and more. (Or you can do what that guy in Philadelphia attempted and absolutely house an entire rotisserie chicken for forty days in a row.) Truly, a world of wonder awaits you inside every steamy clamshell container.

But be careful! While all rotisserie chickens sit side by side under those heat lamps, not all chickens are created equal. We've established this already with our ultimate customer-based ranking of grocery store rotisserie chickens, but it bears repeating. One chicken may have juicy, tender meat and perfectly seasoned skin, while another may be a dry, chewy, rubbery mound of bones. And while some establishments have consistently great rotisserie chickens, others might struggle to sell their birds. If you want to be sure you're getting your money's worth when buying rotisserie chicken, it would behoove you to pay attention to a store's inventory and see how quickly their chickens sell out.

Whether you're at your local supermarket or your nearest Costco, it's hard to keep your mouth from watering when you see row after row of succulent, glistening rotisserie chickens on display. Talk about being spoiled for choice — it's enough to make you want to look over every last chicken to see which of the enticing beauties you'll be taking home. But if you keep seeing those fully-stocked shelves every time you go to the store, it's worth wondering why no one seems to be buying them. (The inverse is also true: If they sell like hotcakes, chances are good you'll enjoy it.)

But if the chicken isn't good and isn't selling, why does the store keep making them? To paraphrase Jesse Plemons in "Game Night," how can that be profitable for Insert-Supermarket-Here? Well, it could mean that the chickens are so cheap (read: low-quality) that the money spent making them may as well be a rounding error for a particularly large corporation. If that's the case, it doesn't really matter if no one's buying them. 

Besides, even if they don't sell, it won't be a total loss. It's not unusual for supermarkets to use unsold rotisserie chickens to make other things, much as you might do with a leftover bird. The chicken salad that the deli counter sells may very well be made of leftover rotisserie, even the higher-quality kinds.