Net weight of meat on a chicken?

compmad1

There is a lot of bone and skin on a chicken. What proportion of a whole chicken is actual meat? I would guess it is about 50%. Has anyone roughly worked this out?
Also I think you get more proportionately more meat on a large chicken than on a small one. Does anyone agree with me?

Mercy

The only way to know is to weigh cooked chicken then weigh carcass when stripped. This will give amount of actual meat.

Not tried it myself, please get back when you have worked it out.

newlywed

compmad1 wrote: »

Also I think you get more proportionately more meat on a large chicken than on a small one. Does anyone agree with me?

I think so on that count - I used to cook 2 smaller chickens at the same time but think a larger chuck might give more meat but not sure if it's just that I cut/strip the chicken differently - but then OH thinks he should get a larger slice so it ends up swings and roundabouts

JCP

I am sad enough to have done this last Saturday...

A 1.5kg chicken from Morrisons provided 800g of meat, not including skin (which I'm not fond of) nor bones/carcass.
I was quite happy with this for a £3 outlay.

compmad1

Mercy wrote: »

The only way to know is to weigh cooked chicken then weigh carcass when stripped. This will give amount of actual meat.

Not tried it myself, please get back when you have worked it out.

Got a fresh chicken from Sainsburys. I shall cook it, strip it of meat and report back.

mi55moneypenny

Sainsbury's chickens are cheaper per kilo according to their size therefore even if the ratio of meat was no greater on the larger chicken (though I'm sure it is) it would still be cheaper IYSWIM

garthdp

Do remember with a lot of cheap supermarket chicken the birds are fed growth hormones to make them put on weight quickly and once killed are pumped up with brine to fatten them further.You may be getting a plump bird but when you cook it you will lose a lot of weight .

compmad1

I got a fresh chicken from Sainburys that weighed 2.896kg. I cooked it and very thoroughly stripped it of meat. The net weight of the cooked meat was 1.223kg, which was less that half the starting weight. The one from Morrisons sounded better. This was a Basics chicken, so maybe that is why.

JCP

A possible additional factor is that the one I picked didn't contain giblets or other bits, so that wouldn't have been included in the start weight of the bird. Don't know if the Sainsburys chicken's start weight would have included this?

eslick

general rule excluding giblets is that chickens are 50% bone and 50% meat, as with most things look for the ones with the widest breast as these have the most meat

Mercy

This would be a nice alternative if we could find someone doing it here :rotfl:

http://louisianasausageking.com/louisianastuffedchickenpage.htm

I'd give it a go

Mx