Rotisserie Chicken

There are a few things I keep hearing on TV that make me want to throw something at it. Carrie Bradshaw's monologues, Blayne on Project Runway's use and abuse of the suffix "-licious," those ads that try to argue that high fructose corn syrup is good for you because it's made from corn, any mention of or statement by Sarah Palin...

But the commercials that make me feel like I'm taking crazy pills are the fast food ones that present the idea that their chicken whatevers are healthy because they use all white meat chicken. There's always a pretty young mom, who is a Good Mom, because she would only feed her children white meat chicken. McDonalds, sure, but it's white meat. What is this? Who decided that breast meat was the only part it was ok to eat? Ok, sure, white meat has less fat, but that shit is deep fried! It just absorbs all of that fat, so instead of the normal chicken fat that you're meant to eat, you have lean chicken soaked in partially hydrogenated soybean oil. And if this was actual chicken breast that was breaded and fried I could maybe tolerate this claim, but it's about 10 steps removed from a chicken- it's been cooked, ground to a paste, bleached (all white!) and extruded through a tube and pressed into a patty-shaped mold. To meet the demand for chicken breast, the chickens are castrated and feed piles of estrogen so they grow enormous breast muscles, which they certainly can't use because they're stuffed in boxes, which is good because actually using those muscles tends to make them not quite as white a pristine. And as long as only 1/5 of the meat is useable, of course 5 times as many chickens need to be produced. So, kids, enjoy those chicken patties, and enjoy getting your period when you're 7, girls. "Mmm all white meat patties! Thanks mom!"

It's probably more upsetting that this enormous distance from where the meat comes from (the animal) and what people want to see when they eat is considered so normal. I've met too many people who say that they love eating meat but they won't eat anything on a bone, or anything that has a shape suggesting it was once a body part. How is this remotely ethical?

I'm not a vegetarian, it's jsut not going to happen. But I'd like to think I have an appreciation for where meat comes from. But I'm still a student, and when I stand in the grocerey store comparing prices on organic and store brand chicken, the wallet often wins.

But I can at least feel like I've gotten as much out of a chicken as I can. This morning I bought a rotisserie chicken, without any real plans for it. I stripped of all of the dark meat first and made a chili from a Fine Cooking recipe with white beans, chipotles, and canned tomatoes. I shredded the rest of the white meat, mixed it with some scallions and tomatoes and mayo, and made a chicken salad vastly superior to the crap I had for lunch from Wawa last week. The rest I threw in a pot with a few sprigs of parsely, bay leaves, the stumpy end of a small head of romaine. I've been planning on making tomatillo soup, from Kalyn's Kitchen, and this will save me having to buy the stock. I've never made chicken stock before; for some reason, I thought it would be hard. I think I'll be doing it a lot more, if only for the way it has made my apartment smell.

So, I've got an amazing chili, 2 cups of chicken salad, and soon, a quart of soup, 6-8 meals. Everything that went into all three probably cost between $10 and $15.