This past Friday, I ran into the store at the last minute (something I rarely do) and noticed that ground chicken was on sale for $1.29 lb.  Hmm, I thought, I smell a bargain.  🙂  So true to myself, I had to buy some – 35 pounds or so; I hate to leave a good deal behind.

No, I don’t worry about if I’ll like it or how I’ll use it.  I figure that I’ll work that out once I get home, and if it’s inexpensive enough, we’ll have to like it. 🙂   I had just finished placing the last of six large packages of it on the conveyor belt at the store when the woman in front of me noticed it, and asked me what I was going to do with it.  While I was answering her, a man behind us in the next lane asked ds15, who had come along with me, what we were doing to do with it.  Fortunately I had told my son I’d use in the same way I use ground beef, so he had a ready answer. 

When I was checking out, I asked the cashier if it was a new item, since I didn’t remember noticing it before (though I didn’t find it quickly even when I was looking for it because of it being in the sales flyer).  She said she hadn’t seen it before I checked out, and I was there on the last day of the week long sale!

I did some online searching for recipes, and came up with some that looked good.  We used one package (five or six pounds) for chicken burgers for dinner on Monday, and they were a huge hit.  (That made enough for two meals for the ten of us, and it cost less than $8.)  I then canned 17 pounds of it, which filled 17 pints.  A pint may only be a pound of meat, but it’s enough to frugally add some flavor and body to a casserole or stew.  And I can always use two jars instead of one for dinner and not be so frugal, so that one canning session should be enough for 8 – 17 meals.  And now it’s not taking up freezer space. 

My experience so far with ground chicken is very positive.  It is juicy and flavorful – I was expecting it to be more bland and dry, like ground turkey.  Because it’s lower in fat than beef, it doesn’t reduce too much when cooked, so it’s really a bargain, since most of what you’re paying for, you end up eating.  My kids all liked it a lot, and I like that it costs a third of ground beef – I can be a lot more generous with it and make it go a lot further.  Ground beef has small pieces that are easily defined, while this is kind of pasty and mushy (sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?!), so don’t picture it being the same consistency, but it’s very easy to work with.  The difference once it’s cooked isn’t noticeable.

So why was I seemingly one of the very few people to take advantage of this great deal in the past week?  I think that it’s because many people don’t want to try something new, because they might not like it.  Or they think that if it’s a really good price, something’s wrong with it, or it’s not worth more than that (the ‘you get what you pay for’ philosophy).  We tend to get stuck in our culinary comfort zones, like everything else.

I checked the online flyer for this week and didn’t see it listed on sale, but I went back anyway, thinking there might be some left at the sale price.  Sure enough, there was – it looked as if no one had touched the shelf since I was last there!  So I did the store a favor and emptied the shelf for them. 🙂  There’s more canning in my immediate future!

Avivah