Last chicken we bought was from an independent butcher (Vicars, West Street, Reading), a couple of weeks ago. It was smaller, & considerably more expensive per kilo than a "2 for £5" Tesco offer, but was still pretty cheap in my opinion, gave the two of us all the meat we felt like eating for two solid meals, & was very tasty, & solid meat, not slushy & watery, like the last really cheap chicken I had the misfortune to eat some of.
It wasn't even one of their more up-market chickens, but a basic ordinary one.
Your chicken from a proper butcher was probably hand plucked in the traditional way. But chickens that are plucked for supermarkets on a, stack em high sell em cheap, basis are pumped full of water to speed up the plucking process. So your 2kg Tesco chicken has the same amount of meat as a smaller chicken from a proper butcher.
I'm a bit surprised at how unpopular the Tesco chicken is. I sometimes eat a couple a week. They taste good to me.
I don't doubt that a chicken from a butcher is tastier and better quality.
True that poor people don't need to eat meat. I tried being a veggy for a week while touring with £13 per day to spend on my food and accommodation. I cracked after about 6 days and bought a kilogram of cheap sausages
. I do miss meat if I go without. But I don't eat meat every day.
