My family certainly can not afford it. It is even getting tough to be able to afford a pound of “cheap” ground beef these days even when it is on sale. When I went shopping earlier this week it was over $3 per pound for the cheapest ground beef they had in the meat department.
Needless to say I bought the fryer chickens on sale as a loss leader for $0.79 per pound instead and will be stretching each chicken into at least three dinners for my family of 5. Roast chicken the first night, some kind of chicken casserole with the leftovers the second night and then using the chicken carcass and every bit of the remaining meat meat I can get off of the bones to make a chicken stew, soup, or chicken pot pie.
We will still all have well balanced meals with plenty of protein because I will also include cheap grains and vegetables and fruit such as brown and wild rice, homemade beans, and lots of lower cost vegetables and fruits to go along with the chicken for our meals. Thankfully, I know how to buy rice and grains and dry beans in bulk, and I can cook them from scratch myself so we can make due with less meat per meal.
Take the chicken carcass and put it in a pressure cooker for about 15 minutes at pressure, then the meat will literally fall off the bones................or, boil for 30 minutes covered. Reserve the liquid for stuffing or giblet gravy................