Undercooked poultry should never be eaten, so always take a moment to inspect a roasted chicken before eating it. If it's white, it's completely cooked. If any part appears pink, it may be undercooked, Werner-Grey said. When they get home, consumers also notice how the chicken is plucked from the bone.
If it has a raw texture and sounds like torn meat, it's undercooked. If you have already bought the poultry and notice that it is undercooked, it is better to be safe than sorry and take it to the store so that it is properly cooked. The advantage of cooking meals at home is that you can control what ingredients are included in the dish. While roasted chicken is generally healthy, there are some store brands that actually contain the sodium in poultry.
Consumer Reports' nutrition experts recently evaluated the nutritional information and ingredients of 16 roast chickens found in seven well-known supermarkets. They discovered that Mark Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken, a member of Sam's Club, was one of the saltiest options of all stores. With 550 milligrams of sodium per 3-ounce serving, experts point out that this bird contains approximately nine times more sodium than a salt-free roast chicken. This was one of the worst roast chickens I've ever brought from a store and it would be better to reuse it in another recipe rather than eating it alone.
At the time of the tasting, my Kroger store didn't have their standard roast chicken and only had this upgrade, which comes in a plastic bag instead of a tray. FOX 11 went to a Southern California grocery store and found that the thermometers didn't even work on the heated screen. Roasted chickens from BJ's Wholesale Club (Perdue roast chicken), Boston Market, Publix (Deli Original), Safeway (Signature Café Traditional), Stop %26 Shop (Nature's Promise and “honey”), Walmart (traditional) and Wegmans (natural not organic) have less sodium, between 170 and 368 mg. But are they all created the same way? Is one as good as the other? And are higher-priced chickens really worth twice as much as value brands? We visited two large supermarket chains, two healthy markets and two affordable stores to find out.
In addition to being raised without antibiotics, organic chickens ate certified organic feed and were raised in living conditions that adapted to their health and natural behaviors, that is, they were not continuously confined to small cages and had access to open air, shade, shelter, open air, clean water and direct sunlight.