Upside down roasted chickens (Waimea: how much, home, to buy)

[winkosmosis]

I love those roasted chickens groceries sell... For $6 (same price here as in Texas!!) it makes more sense than bothering to cook your own chicken. But why do Hawaiian groceries (so far Foodland and Safeway) cook them and put them in the container upside down, with the breast and drumsticks down in the liquid where it gets soggy instead of crisp and brown? The part facing up is the meatless back of the chicken. Is that how everybody cooks birds in Hawaii?

[hotzcatz]

Maybe so it stays moist? Heck if I know, though, most of our birds are roosters or they wouldn't have been eaten.

It's hard to find Texas type barbeque around here, too. Most of them are a teri-BBQ type sauce.

[winkosmosis]

Good news. I was wrong about Safeway, their chickens are breast-up. I guess it's just Foodland that does it the other way.

BTW, I've noticed that most groceries are the same price or slightly more expensive than Texas. Milk and bread are the two exceptions, but I don't drink milk and I buy the bread that's on sale. I don't see why people complain so much about food prices.

[hotzcatz]

We don't complain about food prices, but we don't shop at the grocery store much, either.

We haven't had store bought bread in years. There used to be a local bakery nearby and we could get their day old bread for $1 a loaf. There were racks of bread on the lanai outside the back door. Take a loaf off the rack and put a dollar in the can. If you needed change, take the top off the can and make change. The owner died, though, and the bakery closed. Sigh! That was several years ago and since then we've pretty much baked all our own bread, crackers and muffins. Noodles are home made, too, since we have flour and eggs. The eggs come from the six hens in the back yard.

Fresh food is abundant so why pay a grocery to get stale food? There are more farmer's markets now and more of them actually have the farmers that grew the food selling the food. Meat is either trapped while trying to dig up the garden (pig trap) or folks drop it off so they can sleep in (extra roosters). Bananas, papayas and pineapples are stone easy to grow. Sweet potatoes, taro and green peppers are easy, too. Small fruited tomatoes grow well.

We do buy flour and yeast, though. But that's usually in twenty to fifty pound bags for the flour and one to three pound packages for the yeast. We also get oatmeal in twenty pound bags and honey, molasses and oils by the gallon from a food co-op. Those are the staples around here but we do buy a few things to fill in around the edges from the grocery although I suspect it's not the usual volume most households buy.

Next time I roast a chicken, I'll roast it upside down and see if it makes a difference. I would think the barbecue sauce would be more important than which side is up, though, don't you think?

[winkosmosis]

Sounds like you're living well without spending much.

The problem with the upside down is Foodland puts it in the container upside down, and all the juices drain into it and make the breast soggy instead of crisp. I think they cook it in a pan with the breast in the juice too because it's not browned.

I think what Safeway does is roast on rotisserie spits.

[Balad1]

In Hawaii Costco is the place to buy the cheapest and best roasted chicken, $5.95+- if I remember.

[Calico Salsa]

A friend of mine takes the Costco chickens and roasts them a bit longer in her own oven. She does this because sometimes the meat is a bit pink, and she likes the extra crisping of the skin.

You could do the same with the Foodland chickens. Come home, toss them in your oven for a short while on a higher temp, just to brown and dry the outside. Then the inside would be juicy and the skin crispy. If you put that chicken in your oven first thing, I'll bet it wouldn't take much longer than putting away the rest of the groceries and getting ready to sit and eat.

But I want to go eat at hotzcatz house!

[franklin42]

Balad1 I believe you are correct. $6 bux for a whole bird is a great deal no matter which way you slice it. Calico Salsa, I second the roast a little longer in the oven. Sometimes the birds are a little to pink for my liking. Not only do we get a couple of meals out of a $6 bird, we also chop the leftover meat for chicken salad sandwiches, shred some on a salad and then use the bones for stock. Such a great deal. Also, GJ's out of Waimea on the Big Island sells their huli huli chicken at the gas station above Honoka'a town, SO ONO. I forget how much they charge. I think they are there every Sunday? I believe they are in Waimea on Saturdays.

[cynmkolohe]

I saw the title of this post when checking city-data on my BlackBerry last night in a place with bad reception. I was dying to read the post, but couldn't get to it until now. That was a great post title!

[survivorqt]

costco kapolei sells theirs for 5