Rating 8 rotisserie chickens from Long Island grocery stores

It’s the centerpiece of countless thrown-together meals, the key ingredient in innumerable last-minute salads, sandwiches and tacos. And, after your supermarket rotisserie chicken has given all it has to give, its carcass can be stored in the freezer and exhumed for stock at some later date.

The Feed Me team took on the challenge of finding Long Island’s best supermarket chicken. We stuck to the major chains and tasted each one’s basic bird. None of them was bad, but there was one clear winner, that all four of us put in our No.1 spot: the Kirkland chicken from Costco. At 3 pounds, it was by far the biggest and, at $4.99, it was by far the cheapest. (But do factor in that it costs $65 a year to be a member of the price club.)

At the other end of the value scale was Giunta’s Meat Farms, whose chicken, at $7.99 for 1½ pounds, was more expensive and smaller than the others — which didn’t stop it from nabbing the No. 3 spot. While the Nos. 5, 6 and 7 finishers (Whole Foods, ShopRite and Stop & Shop) were all within a few points of one another, Uncle Giuseppe’s, at No. 8, was a definitive turkey.

It must be said that Costco's winning bird contained a number of ingredients — sodium phosphate, modified food starch, potato dextrin, carrageenan, dextrose and spice extractives — that a home cook would probably skip. 

The two birds with the shortest lists of ingredients (Stew Leonard's and Whole Foods) scored respectably in the fourth and fifth places. 

Our methodology: All the chickens were purchased within two hours of the tasting and were not reheated. This was a blind test: We assessed them whole and then tore into them without knowing which bird was which.

Here are the rankings:

1. Kirkland from Costco

$4.99 / 3 pounds (48 ounces): $1.67 / pound

Ingredients: Chicken, water, salt, sodium phosphate, modified food starch, potato dextrin, carrageenan, sugar, dextrose, spice extractives

Comments: Deemed "the king," it impressed everyone with its size, flavor, meatiness and "gorgeous burnished skin." "An all-around perfect bird," one taster noted.

2. King Kullen

$7.99 for 2 pounds ($4 / pound)

Ingredients: Chicken, water, contains 2% or less of vinegar, salt, sugar, natural flavor

Comments: While some found the breast a little tough, the consensus was that this bird had a "clean flavor," was fairly juicy and had "nicely caramelized skin."

3. Giunta's Meat Farms

$7.99 for 1.5 pounds ($5.33 / pound)

Ingredients: Chicken, paprika, black pepper, garlic powder, salt, onion powder, parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, cumin, water, sodium phosphate

Comments: Our unanimous impression was of a cute little bird with too much paprika.

4. Stew Leonard's

$7.99 for 2 pounds ($4 / pound)

Ingredients: Chicken

Comments: Our specimen was a little burnt on one side, a little pale on the other, but it was "juicy" with "nice caramelization" and a "clean, neutral taste."

5. Whole Foods

$8.99 for 1.75 pounds ($5.14 / pound)

Ingredients: Chicken, salt, pepper

Comments: This bird was fairly juicy but, compared to its pumped-up competitors, pale and skinny with a slightly "rubbery texture. The "mild," "bland" flavor had a marked lack of salt.

6. ShopRite

$7.99 for 2 pounds 1 ounce ($3.87 / pound)

Ingredients: Chicken, water with 2% or less of vinegar, salt, sugar, natural flavor

Comments: While "overall good-looking," this neutral-flavored bird was "tough and dry," particularly the breast meat.

7. Stop & Shop

$7.99 for 1.75 pounds ($4.57 / pound)

Ingredients: Chicken, up to 18% solution of water, vinegar, salt, dextrose, carrageenan, sugar

Comments: "Too much time in the tanning bed," wrote one taster about this "scorched," "too-dark" bird whose flavor was "dirty" and whose skin "didn’t taste like anything."

8. Uncle Giuseppe's

$7.99 for 1.75 pounds ($4.57 / pound)

Ingredients: Chicken, salt, oil, black pepper, garlic, paprika, rosemary, spices

Comments: Not a lot of love for a bird that was "unevenly browned," had a "weird" taste ("Is it herbs? Or chemicals?"), dry meat and coarse skin.

This story was reported by Newsday's Melissa Azofeifa, Andi Berlin, Erica Marcus and Marie Elena Martinez. It was written by Marcus.