Here’s a GREAT question that I’m POSITIVE other people have had (thanks Michelle for the email):
“Hi Andy~ Any chance you will be butchering the chickens this year to purchase select meat? The reason I’m asking is b/c we really only eat the white meat and last year a lot of our chicken was wasted. I’m going to order some either way b/c I like the whole birds for soup etc”
ONLY EAT THE WHITE MEAT?!?! You don’t know what you are missing. (stay tuned over the summer for good recipes to use that dark and ohh so tasty meat up!)
We had thought about doing select cuts but there’s a couple of challenges with that. First and foremost, there’s pricing. As you can see based on cooler space when you go to the grocery store and look at the sickly factory chicken – breast meat is certainly preferred… So the rule of thumb used when providing selected cuts off your own birds is – you have to price the breast meat in a way that covers the entire cost of the bird – because a rather safe assumption is – most people will only want the breast meat.
In this case – let’s assume a 5# bird at $3.49/per pound.
Typically – a chicken breast (and, of course it depends on bone in or boneless skinless) – but “the breast” is usually between 40-50% of the bird’s weight. Around 40% by weight with the bones and skin in – around 50% by weight as just boneless skinless… (source)
So – here’s where the math comes in for that 5# bird. If we were to parts it up under the standard rule of thumb to make the breasts pay for the bird – and since we are doing the work – let’s go with boneless / skinless – since that’s the super premium cut. Now – here’s where the sticker shock might come in. Since we pare parting out the breast, that’s about 40% by weight (as I said before) – 40% of 5# is 2#. BUT – you don’t really get 2# of meat because there’s bone + skin in there too. So, remove the bone + skin and you are down to about 1.5# of tasty, pasture raised, 100% white meat.
One more time – back to the rule of thumb – “you have to price the breast meat in a way that covers the entire cost of the bird – because a rather safe assumption is – most people will only want the breast meat“. Which, in following the letter of the law exactly – the bird is $17.45… and that makes the market price of boneless / skinless breast cuts about $11.60 per pound! (Gulp!)
In reality – since there is a small market for thighs, wings, legs and “soup makers” – usually the breast meat is discounted about 15% – so in this case it would be $9.86/per pound of boneless / skinless breast meat. So how does that compare? Here’s this weeks ad for chickens that don’t get pasture, can’t eat clovers and grasses, they don’t get sun light, don’t get to hunt and peck for worms and critters… Feel good about THAT food…
Food you (try and) feel good about
So – I guess I just made the case for parting up a chicken for that cost per pound huh?
My answer to the original question is – I suppose if there’s enough folks who would like their chicken parted up, based on requests, we can do that. Right now – this is the first and only time someone has asked this question about this years birds. The parted up meat would be available by cuts (thigh, leg, breast, soup). Since we are farming for the community I’ll leave the choice up to the community. If there are enough folks who have already ordered or who will be ordering that are interested in this as an option – please shoot us an email or post a comment here. (andy(at)chickenthistlefarm(dot)com or kelli(at)chickenthistlefarm(dot)com)
If enough people want the service we can offer it – but as of right now we are not planning on cutting up your chickens into select cuts.
(In closing I’d just like to offer something other than chopped up chicken to think about. You see the math here – and I hope you visit the farm this summer to see how the chickens are taken care of and raised. Now – for just a moment – seeing how the math works here… consider WHAT you are eating when it’s the “on sale for $0.99/pound” boneless / skinless Value Pack of chicken…)
