5 Costco Chicken Items Worth Buying, And 5 To Avoid

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Chicken is the backbone of the Costco shopping cart, and for many, the reason they step into the warehouse in the first place. But not all Costco chicken is created equal. Having tried dozens of Costco chicken items over a decade of shopping at Costco, I've narrowed my shopping list down to several tried-and-true staples. I also know which items to avoid, so, as a Good Samaritan, I'm sharing this list with you.

Costco sells chicken in nearly every form, from hot and ready to eat to raw and fresh, plus frozen, canned, breaded, and packed into meal kits. As a professional food blogger and recipe developer with more than 12 years of experience — and as a mom of two hungry kids — I've probably tried most of it. Some Costco chicken options offer great value and really stand up to the hype. Other products have cost me a ruined dinner and some fairly grumpy customers. In this list, I'm only including items that were available in-store and online for same-day delivery on the day I shopped, so some of my favorite seasonal products didn't make the cut. But as of the time of publication, these are five Costco chicken items that are worth buying, and five you should avoid.

I feel like the first item on my list, and the one most often in my shopping cart, doesn't need a lot of explanation. The Kirkland Signature Rotisserie Chicken, still somehow magically priced at just $4.99, is the reason many people make a weekly trip to Costco.

The Costco rotisserie chicken is such a mainstay because it's often half to one-third the price of the ones at other stores. But it doesn't end there. As a food blogger, I know a good, juicy whole chicken when I see one, and Costco's unfailingly tastes better and fresher than any others I've tried. The seasoning is consistent throughout, and it's not overwhelming or spicy for younger palates. The chicken is also generous in size compared to other whole chickens, so we get plenty of meat for every dollar.

I buy the Kirkland rotisserie chicken regularly, and sometimes I even pick up two at once for weeklong meal prep. I find it works great in bowls, stuffed into baked potatoes, or as a starting point for casseroles. I also combine it with leftover rice and frozen vegetables to transform into fried rice, or start a poor man's ramen with it as the filler and base. Even the carcass can get a second life when you cook it into chicken soup with chicken breast and aromatics.

My first item to skip may seem controversial to some, but I have good reasons. I have tried the Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks a couple of times for my kids. Both times, I was disappointed because the breast chunks were dry and heavily breaded. The meat-to-coating ratio wasn't favorable, and the heavy shell tasted stronger than the bland filling. We tested them in the oven and the air fryer, and while the latter fared slightly better, my kids left most of their chunks uneaten both times — and the leftovers didn't reheat well, either.

A four-pound bag is also a steep commitment. It's a lot of chicken to store in your freezer, especially if you won't be eating it often. While it may seem to be the most economical frozen chicken at the store, I think that's largely because most of the product's weight is breading. If you want a fully cooked chicken on hand for emergencies, you'd be better off taking a rotisserie chicken apart and freezing it in souper cubes for portioning.

I'm going to say it: despite what you've heard about the rotisserie chicken, the Kirkland Signature Organic Whole Chicken is actually the best deal in the store. From my personal experience, it may be one of the best-priced organic chickens I have found anywhere.

In general, buying a whole chicken is much more economical than buying parts. You can cut the chicken into pieces, spatchcock it, or cook it the traditional way. The trim, made mostly of the backs and wingtips, accounts for about 20 percent of the whole bird's weight, so the per-pound savings are a bit lower; but it is still miles ahead of any cut organic chicken parts, even the ones at Costco. Plus, you can use the trim and bones to make stock and bone broth, which taste amazing when made at home.

Another reason to get the whole organic chicken at Costco is that the cooked meat often tastes better than pre-cut chicken. Bone-in chicken often retains more moisture and flavor than boneless products. And with two birds in each Kirkland organic pack, it's an easy way to cook ahead for the week or to sort out two easy family dinners.

I've bought the Bibigo Chicken and Cilantro Mini Wontons a few times, and I can't say I'd recommend them. They'll do in a pinch to feed a hungry family, but they're not the best wontons or gyoza in the store, and the flavor combination falls a bit flat.

My main issues with this product were the seasoning and how well the wontons hold up to cooking. While the chicken itself was light in flavor, the cilantro was a bit overpowering, making each bite feel different and uneven. It also didn't feel consistent with a wonton's usual flavor profile, and I kept reaching for scallions, chili crisp, and sesame oil for my portion. But the biggest issue was that the wrapping itself just wasn't great. The mini wontons fell apart easily during cooking, and when picked up with chopsticks, the chicken filling often fell from the wrapper onto the plate halfway to your mouth.

The Kirkland Signature Fresh Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts are my go-to for meal prepping. Since most plain chicken breasts taste about the same, the appeal here is flexibility. Each package has enough food to last you a few meals, or even the whole week.

Because the breasts aren't individually packed, you can easily portion them further based on your preferred serving size right after purchase. You can vacuum seal and freeze them in single servings, or combine two or four breasts, depending on how you usually cook them. You can even cut them into cubes or strips right away and freeze them for easy meals. That way, you have a plain, pre-cut chicken breast ready to take on whatever seasonings or sauce you're in the mood for that week.

Of course, you can always buy frozen raw boneless, skinless chicken at Costco, which tends to be cheaper than fresh breasts. But I find frozen breasts have a more chemical aftertaste and a slightly rubberier texture than fresh ones. So for my family and my meal-prep routine, fresh chicken breasts are a weekly must-buy.

Despite some vocal supporters on social media, I skip the Kirkland Signature Chicken Street Tacos Kit on my regular Costco shopping trips. Although it's conveniently packaged, it's overpriced, and there is no clear reason it would be better than a DIY taco night.

The issue at the heart of this meal kit is that the protein it uses, the Grilled Chipotle Seasoned Chicken, is available on its own in a two-pound bag for $11.99, and it's one of Costco's best prepared foods under $20. The street tacos kit contains only one pound of chicken for 12 tacos, or about 1.33 ounces per taco. The other components — tortillas, shredded cheese, coleslaw, salsa, crema or sour cream, and limes — are all easily available in the store on their own. Also, the amounts provided are never enough even for a small family of four, and the coleslaw isn't to everyone's liking.

So yes, the Costco chicken street tacos kit tastes great. But you'd be much better off buying the chipotle-seasoned chicken and your preferred components separately and just making the tacos yourself at home.

Ask any chef, and they'll all unanimously say that chicken thighs are hands-down the most flavorful cut of chicken out there. If it's flavor and versatility you're after, then the Kirkland Signature Fresh Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs provide that in spades.

I personally prefer bone-in thighs for flavor, but with two young kids at home, it's hard to compete with the simplicity and ease of boneless chicken thighs. Thighs are truly the superior chicken cut: they carry more fat than breasts, which gives them a moist, rich texture. They suit a variety of recipes, and their natural flavor shines even with minimal seasoning. Thighs are also more flavorful and complex; they don't dry out as quickly, can handle longer cooking times, and are usually cheaper than breasts.

As with Costco's chicken breasts, you can cook these right away or portion them out for use throughout the week. If you're not sure whether you prefer boneless or bone-in, Costco now sells both in their refrigerated meat section. If you only try one new Costco chicken product after reading this list, I urge you to make it the thighs.

If you value flavor over convenience, I recommend skipping the canned Kirkland Signature Chicken Breast, sold in a six-pack of 12.5-ounce cans. I bought it for a series of recipes I'm developing, and after trying to cook it in a myriad of ways, I can say there's not much you can do to salvage canned chicken breasts.

The texture of chicken fresh out of a can is, in full honesty, completely off-putting. It is pale pink and swimming in liquid, and it looks mildly raw even though it is fully cooked. When served as is, the Kirkland canned chicken fell apart, and no one who tried it liked the taste (bland and metallic at the same time) or the texture — which felt wet. It took a lot of seasoning and sauce to cook it right. We did enjoy it in chicken shawarma form, drained overnight and used in a mayo-laden chicken salad, and as a heavily seasoned empanada filling. But because it required so much extra work, it didn't offer much convenience or time savings.

I will note, however, that if you use canned chicken regularly and don't mind the canned taste and texture, Costco's option is as good as (almost) other brands of canned chicken we've tried. But personally, I'd skip it.

I have already mentioned my love for the Grilled Chipotle Seasoned Chicken earlier in the article, but a product this good deserves its own glorious recommendation. The flavor can be a bit strong for kids, and mine ate it only when disguised in casseroles or served with plenty of sour cream or mayonnaise, so keep that in mind if you're cooking for the younger crowd.

For me, and many other Costco lovers, the grilled chipotle chicken tastes just like the eponymous fast-food chain's version, if not better. The bag contains roughly two pounds of grilled and generously seasoned chicken, chopped into uniform, juicy pieces. Each morsel has an orange-reddish coating with visible grill marks, and packs plenty of flavor. Reddit and social media users also recommend it for burrito bowls, quesadillas, pasta, and soup. I love it in tacos and grain bowls, and use it regularly in my meal planning. It's a nice alternative to Costco's rotisserie chicken that feels just as convenient and affordable, without sacrificing nutritional value and flavor.

Tempted by the promise of convenient, protein-heavy snacks, I tried the Fresh Additions Fully Cooked Chicken Breast Chunks. Sadly, it wasn't a raving success, and I am here to warn you against repeating the same mistake.

The Fresh Additions chicken breast chunks come in a package of 10 pouches of 100 grams each for about $20, coming to about $2 per pack. They are pre-portioned, fully cooked, and seasoned, with 24 grams of protein in each pack. But that promise didn't amount to much because the chicken chunks tasted incredibly dry and slimy at once, as though they had a saucy coating. Each piece tasted a little chemical and metallic, likely from the preservatives used to keep the chicken looking fresh for so long. And even though I ate them long before their best-before date, by the time I had reached the last three packages, they had tasted and smelled as though they had gone off. This meant any cost savings from buying in bulk were annihilated, and the convenience factor mattered little when I had rancid chicken chunks in my fridge.

This list came from years of heading to Costco nearly every week in search of good-quality products, chicken chief among them. As the main cook in a family of four, and a full-time food blogger and recipe developer with over a decade of professional experience, I would conservatively estimate I've cooked at least two chicken recipes a week for the past ten years and eaten Costco chicken products hundreds of times. I started this list with our main staples, then expanded it to include a few less-than-successful options that the warehouse still sells. I considered items based on what was seasonally available in store on the day I shopped and what was available online for same-day delivery.

I also considered both kid and adult preferences, which is why some items include specific notes about how children will receive them. When shopping for Costco products, remember that availability and pricing can vary by warehouse and change over time. Check your local Costco before you plan a shopping trip around any single item.