如何打破去超市買烤雞的習慣

如何打破去超市買烤雞的習慣

Rotisserie chickens — those $5.99 (or less) already cooked birds that supermarkets sell — are a dinnertime favorite. The Wall Street Journal reports that Americans bought well over 600 million of them in 2017 alone, and the trend has been growing since. Our consumption of rotisserie chickens has only increased since they became a supermarket staple in the 1990s, yet their price hasn't increased. Why? Because grocery stores don't want to raise the price of this weeknight staple.

烤雞——超市里賣的那些5.99美元(或更少)的已經(jīng)煮熟的雞——是晚餐時間的最愛。據(jù)《華爾街日報》報道，僅2017年一年，美國人就購買了6億多美元的烤雞，而且這一趨勢還在持續(xù)增長。自20世紀90年代烤雞成為超市的主要商品以來，我們對烤雞的消費只增不減，但其價格卻沒有上漲。為什么?因為雜貨店不想提高這種平日的主食的價格。

It sure is convenient to bring home a fully cooked chicken when you're scrambling for dinner options. (Photo: Annapolis Studios/Shutterstock.com)

They've kept prices steady for 20 years because they make more money over time by keeping the price down. For one, it keeps people coming back for more. And many people, myself included, often buy their side dishes at the same time they buy the chicken, and those side dishes are money makers.

他們把價格穩(wěn)定了20年，因為他們通過降低價格賺了更多的錢。首先，它使人們回來更多。很多人，包括我自己，經(jīng)常在買雞肉的同時買他們的配菜，這些配菜是賺錢的。

The problem with rotisserie chicken

烤雞的問題

One grocery store can sell hundreds of rotisserie chickens a day. (Photo: Martchan/Shutterstock.com)

The Wall Street Journal says the majority of rotisserie chickens sold weigh about two pounds cooked and come from chickens that are 4 weeks old. Costco sells larger chickens, roughly three pounds when cooked, that are 11 weeks old. Anyone who has ever sliced up a rotisserie chicken knows that a big part of those birds is breast meat. These are chickens that are bred to have large breasts, which isn't the natural state for most chickens. They are almost certainly factory farmed, and whether they have a 4-week life or an 11-week life, they are raised in cramped, inhumane conditions.

《華爾街日報》說，出售的烤雞大多重約2磅，是煮熟的，4周大的雞。Costco賣的是11周大的雞，煮熟大約3磅。任何曾經(jīng)切過烤雞的人都知道，烤雞的很大一部分是胸肉。這些雞被喂養(yǎng)得有大胸脯，這不是大多數(shù)雞的自然狀態(tài)。它們幾乎肯定是工廠化養(yǎng)殖的，無論它們的壽命是4周還是11周，它們都是在擁擠、不人道的條件下長大的。

There are other issues with rotisserie chickens, too. The ingredients aren't simply chicken and spices like sage and thyme. For example, the ingredients in a basic three-pound rotisserie chicken are water and seasonings (salt, sodium phosphate, modified food starch, potato dextrin, carrageenan, sugar, dextrose, spice extractives). There are 460 milligrams of sodium in a 3-ounce portion of chicken. That high sodium content is common in most rotisserie chickens, and some other brands can have ingredients that contain gluten, preservatives and food dyes.

烤雞也有其他問題。配料不僅僅是雞肉和像鼠尾草和百里香這樣的香料。例如，一個三磅重的烤雞的基本成分是水和調(diào)味料(鹽、磷酸鈉、改性食品淀粉、馬鈴薯糊精、卡拉膠、糖、葡萄糖、香料提取物)。一份3盎司的雞肉含有460毫克的鈉。高鈉含量在大多數(shù)烤雞中很常見，其他一些品牌可能含有麩質(zhì)、防腐劑和食用色素。

Why not cook a whole chicken at home?

為什么不在家里做一整只雞呢?

When you roast your own chicken, you know exactly what ingredients are involved — and in what amount. (Photo: Andrew Pustiakin/Shutterstock.com)

A roasted chicken is so easy to make at home that it's a legitimate question to ask.

烤雞在家里很容易做，所以這是一個合理的問題。

There are many reasons — and all of us have experienced this at one time or another:

原因有很多，我們每個人都有這樣或那樣的經(jīng)歷:

Not everyone has the skills to cook a whole chicken. If you've never done it, it seems intimidating. But with the correct tools, a roasting pan being the most important, it's a simple, mostly hands-off process. Here's a simple recipe to get you started: Perfect Roast Chicken.

不是每個人都有烹飪整只雞的技能。如果你從來沒有做過，這似乎有點嚇人。但是有了正確的工具，烤盤是最重要的，這是一個簡單的，基本上不干涉的過程。這里有一個簡單的食譜讓你開始:完美的烤雞。

Whole uncooked chickens are usually more expensive than rotisserie chickens. A $5 cooked chicken seems like a better deal than a $9 uncooked chicken, right? But that $9 uncooked chicken is probably bigger and will yield more meat, meaning you can probably count on leftovers.

整只未煮熟的雞通常比烤雞更貴。一只5美元的熟雞肉似乎比一只9美元的生雞肉更劃算，對吧?但那只9美元的生雞肉可能更大，也會產(chǎn)出更多的肉，這意味著你可以省下很多。

If you want to make something like chicken pot pie or chicken noodle soup, you need cooked chicken as one of the ingredients and a rotisserie chicken is a quick way to get it.

如果你想做雞肉餡餅或雞肉面湯，你需要煮熟的雞肉作為配料之一，烤雞是一種快速的方法。

As long as you've done the shopping ahead of time, these tips should have you heading to the store for a cheap chicken and expensive sides less often.

只要你提前買好了東西，這些建議就能讓你少去超市買便宜的雞肉和昂貴的配菜。