When Buying Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken, Do This To Make Sure It's Fresh

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Few epicurean options deliver on convenience and nutrition like a store-bought rotisserie chicken. Swinging by the grocery store for one of these plastic-boxed or bagged beauties is as easy as hitting the fast-food drive-thru, while putting up much higher points in culinary range and bodily nourishment. Although, like any offering from the grocery store, freshness counts and can vary. 

Today's pro tip comes from Caroline Chambers, author of the New York Times bestselling cookbook "What To Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking" and Substack of the same name, who recently partnered with Amazon to create a back-to-school meal plan. Chambers sat down with Tasting Table to share her go-to tips for selecting the best rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. To score the freshest, juiciest bird, says Chambers, don't be afraid to use your voice.

"You can always ask your store when the chickens come out fresh and buy it then!" the chef tells us. "There's not a lot else you can do to determine which chicken is best since it's usually inside bags." Indeed, grocery store rotisserie chicken packaging can obscure any freshness-indicating visual cues from the eye. Without actually taking a bite, quality can be hard to gauge. Who better to know the ins and outs of the product than the store employees who prep it? Don't be shy about asking them for insider info.

If you can peer into the packaging, however, visibly shriveled skin is typically evidence of an excessively handled chicken, while dull or discolored skin can indicate less-than-fresh meat. Steer clear of excessive liquid pooling at the bottom of the container, too.

If consulting an employee proves less than helpful (or no one is around to ask), look for a date or time stamp printed on the rotisserie chicken's packaging or sticker label. Some grocery stores and delis list when each specific chicken was prepared or placed on the display. Foodies can choose the most recent display time or the furthest-out "sell by" date. Pro tip: To increase the chances of happening upon a freshly-cooked chicken, hit the store during peak shopping hours (especially lunchtime or early evening). During these high-traffic windows, the deli has to crank out more new products to replace the quickly-disappearing offerings. For a quick get-the-bird-and-get-out mission, braving the crowd can be well worth it.

As far as putting that fresh bird to good use, "There are endless ways to use rotisserie chicken!" Chambers tell us. "It's a lean protein that adapts well to almost any flavor profile. Mexican, Italian, Thai, you name it. Any good-all-week salad." The chef suggests dinners from taco night to warm grain bowls and coconut chicken curry with spinach. Chambers also recommends shredding the meat off the bones while the chicken is still hot. "It's much harder to do when it's cold," she tells us. From there, she advises to keep the chicken in "an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days." For the record, The Fresh Market is our favorite brand of grocery store rotisserie chicken.