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Whole Chicken Delivery or Pickup
The Instacart guide to whole chicken
Whole Chicken Near Me
Buy your favorite Whole Chicken online with Instacart. Order Whole Chicken from local and national retailers near you and enjoy on-demand, contactless delivery or pickup within 2 hours.
FAQs about whole chicken
You need to know how much chicken you need, either by following a recipe or the number of people you intend to feed. Estimate a half-pound per person of edible meat. A whole 6-pound chicken will have around 3 to 4 pounds of meat. Therefore, you should buy a whole chicken that weighs about the same as the number of people you intend to feed. Purchasing a slightly larger chicken is better than getting one too small.
The whole chicken typically comes packaged from the purveyor, not the grocer. These Cryovac packages have a longer shelf life than chicken portioned and packaged by your grocer. In the Cryovac package, the whole chicken can last up to two to three weeks. Once opened, the chicken should be cooked within one to three days. If your whole chicken has any gray or off-color tint, you should avoid using it as this can indicate age and possible spoilage.
Old prevailing wisdom had you wash your chicken, but modern science has proven that you don't need to before cooking. As long as you bring the internal temperature of a cooked whole chicken to 165 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, you have no risk of foodborne illness. Today, experts agree that washing your whole chicken before cooking can increase the risk of certain types of bacteria being spread, transferred through splashing and contact with your hands.