Chicken - moneysaving or ethical?

allIcouldwishfor

For us it has to be free-range, preferably organic, although since we switched a few years ago we eat less meat.

I cook a whole chicken in the slow cooker, all the meat falls off, then the bones are used for stock. Nothing from a chicken gets wasted in our house. I even pick through the stock bones afterwards to find any hidden meat to use in my home made dog biscuits!!

A whole chicken does us for 3 meals, that's 2 adults and 2 children aged 3 and 5. I use the meat in curries, casseroles, fajitas, etc and add pulses and lots of veg to it to make it seem like more so that OH doesn't moan he's not getting enough meat! I think we're healthier as a result and I know I'm doing the best I can for my family. I shudder when I see "value" meat now!

1jim

If you can afford it go for the FreeRange chicken, even better go for freerange organic, I find it tastes so much better, we tend to buy a whole chicken, roast it and have a roast dinner, use left overs in a curry or as chicken and sweetcorn pie and have just started to look into making chicken stock from the bones (have never been organised to do this before) as I can make it without salt and use the stock to make nice low salt meals for our children

Penelope_Penguin

Free range organic here, too. The Hugh F-W prog at the end of last year was the final straw. We're aiming to eat less meat, too, and have at least 2 meat-free days a week. Eating pulses and more fresh veg helps to keep the food bills down, and we're not spending more by eating better.

Penny. x

DonnaP

Hi

I agree with all that has been said and we only buy free range chicken (Can't afford organic).

I wondered though, what do people do about ham? I have never seen that free range? I buy other meat for the family (I don't eat it) from the butchers as I hope that is better quality than the supermarkets, but have no idea whether you can get free range ham??

Donna

Angelina-M

I was in Tesco the other day and they had their cheap chicken on the reduced section for about 40p a pack but I simply couldnt face buying it. I have only eaten organic for a couple of years now and the thought of the cruelty involved made me realise that although I love a good bargain, I couldnt eat those chickens.

So I went and paid £8 for an organic one and felt much better.

I know money is a worry for some people but I would just make an organic one stretch further.

ktb

Organic & free range without a doubt! I would rather save up and have organic meat once a month or 6 weeks than cheap meat all the time. I agree with the sentiment if you cant afford the good stuff then dont buy any at all.

organic_wanabe

At the weekend I read in a paper that the hormones in meat/chicken are playing havoc with our younsters, hence boys' voices break far earlier and girls' menstruate at a younger age. A Choir School in London has asked that parents only feed the boys organic meat (unless they are vegetarian of course!) and only organic meat is served in the school canteen. I suppose there is a counter argument, there usually is, but it does make you think.

lilitu93

We only buy free-range eggs, but we can't currently afford only free-range chicken. We do, however, get our meat from Waitrose that does guarantee a certain level of welfare for their non-free-range chicken:

Chicken at Waitrose

We've also supported the Battery Hen Welfare Trust in the past. They help rescue ex-battery hens and also have a good article on their site about why barn chickens are acceptable, though in an ideal world, they'd all be free-range. I have to say I agree with them--we aren't in an ideal world and barn chickens at least have a chance to have a half-way decent life.

comping_cat

lilitu93 wrote:

We only buy free-range eggs, but we can't currently afford only free-range chicken. We do, however, get our meat from Waitrose that does guarantee a certain level of welfare for their non-free-range chicken:

Chicken at Waitrose

We've also supported the Battery Hen Welfare Trust in the past. They help rescue ex-battery hens and also have a good article on their site about why barn chickens are acceptable, though in an ideal world, they'd all be free-range. I have to say I agree with them--we aren't in an ideal world and barn chickens at least have a chance to have a half-way decent life.

Im the same, i always buy free range eggs, and i always try to buy organic/free range meat products (and fruit and veg), but cant always afford it. Its ok saying, if you cant afford it, dont buy it, isnt that easy when you have young children who will not eat a larger variety of vegatarian foods, if i cut out meat, i would struggle to feed them.

VickyM_2

davidspd wrote:

Help, i'm in a chicken quandry.

Chicken is the only meat DH will eat and while one half of me wants to be money saving and buy economy chicken, the other half thinks i should be buying free range.

What do other OSers do?

Divorce their DHs??

Seriously, is he allergic to any other kind of meat or is he just being picky? You might want to work on the re-education a bit here...

Budget for one decent free-range chicken every two weeks and cook vegetarian for the rest of the time, and see what happens!