Christina writes,
“I pick up a rotisserie chicken from my local grocery store once every week or two and I have taken for granted that this is a healthy choice. I only eat meat a couple of times a week, and I am not all that concerned about my sodium intake. Can you weigh on on the ever-popular grocery store ready-cooked chickens?”
When you’re stopping for groceries on your way home from work, that beautifully browned bird, ready to serve the minute you get home, looks awfully enticing. And it’s just roast chicken, right? What could be more wholesome?
But now that you mention it, they do taste suspiciously succulent. Could they possibly be injecting them with extra fat or something?
It appears not. When I compared the nutrition facts for rotisserie chicken to regular roast chicken (the kind you make at home) the two were pretty much the same in terms of calories, fat, protein, etc.
The rotisserie is about 30% higher in sodium. If they’re injecting them with anything, it’s salt water (which plumps them up and keeps them moister.)
But if you’re not worried about sodium, then it looks like this is a reasonable alternative to roasting your own. And if you’re trying to limit fat or calories, don’t eat the skin. Or at least not all of it.
Add a big salad or other veggies and–for a quick solution to weeknight dinners–you could do a lot worse.
Here’s a nice collection of recipes from Cooking Light that use rotisserie chicken as a quick-start ingredient.
You mention comparing nutrition facts, but how accurate are those labels? Is it possible they just took FDA approved data for whole chicken prepared roasted (presumably the edible parts pureed and a sample analyzed) plus data for their injected brine/other ingredients and added them together? Maybe they don’t differentiate between oven roasted and rotisserie roasted.
Either way, I still think you’re right. I’ve just always been suspicious of those labels.
It’s a good idea to regard those nutrition facts labels with some caution. They’re not always accurate. But in this case, the USDA provided the analysis of both the oven-baked and the rotisserie chickens so we can be sure that they were distinguishing between the two preparations.
This recipe was simple and delicious! I’ve tried a lot of Rotisserie Chicken recipes, and with this one I feel like I finally hit gold! Full chicken taste, beautiful colour,no fussy steps and done in the same amount of time (or less) as other recipes. Life changer!Thanks
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