Costco's Meal Prep Secret Weapon: The Rotisserie Chicken Product You Should Be Buying Instead

Buying a fully seasoned, fully cooked Costco rotisserie chicken already feels like a meal prep win thanks to significant time savings compared to preparing a whole chicken from its raw state. But Costco has upped its convenience game even further with a bagged, hand-pulled version. This lets you skip the step of shredding the chicken yourself for chicken enchiladas, a strawberry chicken salad, or whatever else you're using the protein for — either way, it's ready to go.

It's important to note that you pay for the added ease — while the nearly 3-pound bag of boneless, skinless, pre-cooked chicken breast isn't too far from the cost of uncooked, unshredded chicken breast, it costs you around $15. That's a big difference from the legendary $5 rotisserie chickens. Still, the bones and skin add to the weight. The actual amount of meat from a Costco rotisserie chicken sometimes comes in at around 2 pounds, rather than 3; you may be getting more meat in the pre-shredded bag than on the bone. Apart from this, there are a few other factors to weigh when you're deciding which option is best for which meal, from flavor to flexibility. But isn't it nice just to know you have the option off offloading the shredding step to someone else?

Beyond cost, what else should you consider when choosing between these two products? To an extent, it depends on how much time you have and how much you dislike shredding your chicken. If you have the right attachment, it's pretty easy to use your KitchenAid to shred chicken. If not, shreding chicken can be a time-consuming and messy process. What truly makes the pre-shredded chicken a meal-prep secret weapon, though, is how easy it is to use it in multiple meals: Split the chicken into Ziploc baggies with various marinades or spice blends and stretch it over the course of a week's meals. Rotisserie chicken lasts up to four days in the fridge.

You do, of course, miss out on including the crispy skin of the rotisserie chicken, as well as the delicious chicken smell wafting through your car on the way home from Costco. But you gain peace of mind and avoid chicken-covered fingers, so it's somewhat of a toss-up depending on what you value more. If you do go for the bulk bag and have extra rotisserie you're unsure what to do with, try making cozy chicken and dumplings, a refreshing Chinese chicken salad, or summery barbecue sliders on Hawaiian rolls.