如何打破去超市买烤鸡的习惯

如何打破去超市买烤鸡的习惯

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.

烤鸡——超市里卖的那些5.99美元(或更少)的已经煮熟的鸡——是晚餐时间的最爱。据《华尔街日报》报道，仅2017年一年，美国人就购买了6亿多美元的烤鸡，而且这一趋势还在持续增长。自20世纪90年代烤鸡成为超市的主要商品以来，我们对烤鸡的消费只增不减，但其价格却没有上涨。为什么?因为杂货店不想提高这种平日的主食的价格。

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.

他们把价格稳定了20年，因为他们通过降低价格赚了更多的钱。首先，它使人们回来更多。很多人，包括我自己，经常在买鸡肉的同时买他们的配菜，这些配菜是赚钱的。

The problem with rotisserie chicken

烤鸡的问题

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.

《华尔街日报》说，出售的烤鸡大多重约2磅，是煮熟的，4周大的鸡。Costco卖的是11周大的鸡，煮熟大约3磅。任何曾经切过烤鸡的人都知道，烤鸡的很大一部分是胸肉。这些鸡被喂养得有大胸脯，这不是大多数鸡的自然状态。它们几乎肯定是工厂化养殖的，无论它们的寿命是4周还是11周，它们都是在拥挤、不人道的条件下长大的。

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.

烤鸡也有其他问题。配料不仅仅是鸡肉和像鼠尾草和百里香这样的香料。例如，一个三磅重的烤鸡的基本成分是水和调味料(盐、磷酸钠、改性食品淀粉、马铃薯糊精、卡拉胶、糖、葡萄糖、香料提取物)。一份3盎司的鸡肉含有460毫克的钠。高钠含量在大多数烤鸡中很常见，其他一些品牌可能含有麸质、防腐剂和食用色素。

Why not cook a whole chicken at home?

为什么不在家里做一整只鸡呢?

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.

烤鸡在家里很容易做，所以这是一个合理的问题。

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

原因有很多，我们每个人都有这样或那样的经历:

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.

不是每个人都有烹饪整只鸡的技能。如果你从来没有做过，这似乎有点吓人。但是有了正确的工具，烤盘是最重要的，这是一个简单的，基本上不干涉的过程。这里有一个简单的食谱让你开始:完美的烤鸡。

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.

整只未煮熟的鸡通常比烤鸡更贵。一只5美元的熟鸡肉似乎比一只9美元的生鸡肉更划算，对吧?但那只9美元的生鸡肉可能更大，也会产出更多的肉，这意味着你可以省下很多。

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.

如果你想做鸡肉馅饼或鸡肉面汤，你需要煮熟的鸡肉作为配料之一，烤鸡是一种快速的方法。

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.

只要你提前买好了东西，这些建议就能让你少去超市买便宜的鸡肉和昂贵的配菜。