How to Cook from a Whole Young Chicken to save Money and gain Health!

I have discovered that there is a whole subset of ingredient swaps you can make that are actually both healthier AND cheaper.

Cooking from a whole young chicken is one of those swaps that saves me about 45% on chicken if I were buying free range, and 6% in comparison to the regular chicken (at Walmart anyway)!

I was taught how to cook from scratch while growing up, but I never took it as far as learning how to cook from a whole young chicken. So although I wanted to improve our meat quality, I was very intimidated.

Below I’ll explain all the tips and tricks I have picked up since switching to cooking exclusively from whole chickens over the past 2 years!

P.S. If you’re interested in other healthy ingredient swaps, check out my article on why I switched to baking with Italian “00” flour!

How much cheaper is it to cook from a whole young chicken?

At Walmart, free range Whole young chickens cost $1.67/lb, while just one shelf up the same brand of cut breasts cost $4.57/lb!

But wait, what about all the bones in a whole young chicken that you are paying for, is it really any cheaper for the meat?

Let me break it down for you.

One large whole young chicken weighs approximately 6 lbs. About 60% of the weight is meat, and 40% is bones.

So for simplicity’s sake we can say that for a 6lb whole young chicken 4 lbs of that whole chicken is meat, while 2 lbs is bones.

If we were paying the cost of the pre-cut free range chicken on the shelf above, $4.57 / lb, those 4lbs of chicken we got off the carcass would cost $18.28!

To put it in other terms, by carving my own chicken I spent only $10.02 instead of $18.28 and saved 45%!

And it gets better! From the chicken carcass, I can make about 64oz of fresh organic chicken stock (not broth) which would cost me about $10 to buy two 32oz containers of and have fewer health benefits than making it myself!

So in exchange for the effort of cutting up one whole young chicken, I spent $10 to get $28.00 worth of meat and stock. It’s well worth it!

My Simple Whole Chicken Breakdown Method

There are plenty of recipes that call for a whole chicken, but what about all the recipes that call for specific cuts of meat?

How to break down a whole young chicken

I would highly recommend batching your activities. If you carve and freeze your chickens when you first get them on your grocery shopping day you will still have cut up meat ready to go when you need it!

This is how I carve and divide up my chicken so that I can make it work for any recipe! At the end you will have:

✔️ 2 breasts

✔️ 2 tenderloins

✔️ 2 thighs

✔️ 2 drumsticks

✔️ 2 wings

✔️ 1 carcass

It’s helpful to set out your supplies before breaking down your chicken.

I always grab a sharp knife, a cutting board, my crock pot, and 2 quart sized freezer ziplock bags, and a sharpie.

As you cut it, divide the chicken into 3 categories:

the breasts & tenderloins in one ziplock bag
the thighs, drumsticks, and wings in another ziplock bag
the carcass (and giblets except for the liver) can all be placed right in the crockpot.

I usually leave the fat on the meat unless I know I will be cooking a recipe where I’ll want to take it off.

This is the video I always recommend to learn how to carve a chicken.

Although it feels laborious the first time, once you have done it a few times it gets much easier!

How to Cook with a Whole Chicken

Divide the meat into dark and light

I find that it works best if I divide the meat from the chicken into two categories: Dark meat (thighs, drumsticks, and wings) and light meat (breasts & tenderloins).

Dark meat and light meat cook better separately rather than combined because of differences in muscle composition, fat content, and connective tissue.

Dark meat has more fat and connective tissues which requires higher temperatures and longer cooking times to break down and become tender.

On the other hand, light meat is leaner and more delicate. It cooks faster and can dry out if overcooked. When cooked alongside dark meat, the breast often overcooks before the thighs and drumsticks reach their ideal temperature!

It is helpful to have an instant read meat thermometer like this one to make sure your chicken is cooked through, since there may be more variability!

It’s recommended to cook dark meat until it reaches 175F-195F, and light meat until 165F.

How to adjust recipes to cook with cut up whole chicken

I simply substitute whatever cut of chicken the recipe calls for with what I have, either dark meat or light meat.

I end up with about 2 lbs of light meat and 2 lbs of dark meat per chicken.

I cook more based on internal temperature than the recipe.

As long as I keep the dark and light meat separate, it all turns out great!

Some recipes may ask for “3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts.” I simply use 2 breasts and 2 tenderloins and call it close enough.

For those of you who are flexible cookers, that might seem like no big deal, but I’m a strict recipe follower so giving myself that freedom to make adjustments was new for me!

How many people can I feed per chicken?

For our family of 2 adults and 2 toddlers, I can get 2 meals out of each whole chicken. One light meat meal, and one dark meat meal.

If I had 4-6 to feed, I would buy 2 whole chickens.

Favorite Dark Meat Meals from Whole Chicken

It’s really easy to fix meals from light meat, since most recipes call for chicken breast.

One thing I love about cooking from a whole young chicken is we eat all parts of the chicken evenly instead of just one cut of meat! I heard somewhere that the breast meat of chickens has high levels of estrogen. I’m glad we are getting a more balanced diet, it seems natural!

My favorite way to fix a dark meat meal is by marinading the thighs, drumsticks, and wings, and then either cooking them in my cast iron pan on the stovetop, or baking them at 425F until they reach 175F internally.

You can do this in all sorts of styles. A couple of our favorites are:

Teriyaki marinade with rice and broccoli.

Greek marinade roasted alongside bell pepper, red onion, cherry tomatoes and topped with feta and kamalata olives. Often I make tzatziki and pita bread to go along with!

Health Benefits of Homemade Chicken Stock

The health benefits of homemade chicken stock are tremendous! Especially if you are in a season of pregnancy!

Not all chicken stock is created equal. You really have to cook it for 18h+ to fully break down the carcass and extract all the amazing collagen, gelatin, amino acids, and minerals chicken stock has to offer! I like to cook mine for 24 hours just to keep it simple.

Chicken stock is rich in collagen & gelatin which support joint health, skin elasticity, hair & nail strength, and seals the gut lining!

It is also high in amino acids like Glycine (supports liver detox, improves sleep quality), Proline (helps collagen production) , Glutamine (strengthens gut lining and muscle recovery) and Arginine (better immune function and circulation)

Another amazing benefit of using homemade chicken stock are the minerals that will replenish your electrolytes! Chicken stock contains calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulphur and other trace minerals.

How I make my Super Simple Chicken Stock

I will write an article with the full instructions of how I make my simple and delicious chicken stock, but here is a brief overview of the process for now.

When I carve the chicken, I throw the carcass, tips of the wings, any extra fat, and giblets minus the liver (which will give a bad aftertaste to the stock) into the crockpot.
Next I add the chopped up ends of vegetables. I save the ends of my celery, carrots, and onions that would normally be thrown away in a ziplock bag in the freezer.
Add a splash of apple cider vinegar to help the carcass break down as it cooks.
Fill the crock pot about ¾ full of filtered water and put about ½ tsp thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper (or whatever seasonings you like!) (Some people recommend leaving out the salt for health reasons, but I use this Baja Gold mineral salt which has amazing health benefits—It keeps us so replenished that I like to put it in everything I can!)
Put the crockpot on low for 24 hours.
The next day around the same time I turn off the crock pot and wait until it is cool enough for me to handle. Then I pour the stock through a colander into a large bowl to remove all the pieces.
Allow the bowl of stock to cool on the counter before putting it in the fridge to continue cooling.
Whenever I get the chance next, if I’m not planning on cooking with the stock right away I pour the totally cooled chicken stock into freezer ziplock bags, date them, and put them in the freezer for later!

I simply use the chicken stock from my freezer whenever a recipe calls for chicken broth or stock. I haven’t had to buy any since I started cooking from whole chickens!

I usually accumulate a stockpile of chicken stock through the summer months, and then use it up in the winter when we eat more soups.

Thanks for reading this article! If you have any other healthy ingredient swaps that save you money please drop them in the comments, I’d love to learn!