Lunch Meat for Less: Home-Smoked Chicken Breast

While I was using the smoker to smoke the short ribs on Monday, I threw a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the smoker. I used some of the leftover rub from the ribs on these chicken pieces and put them directly on the interior racks. I kept the smoker at about 225 degrees F during the time the chicken was in there. After about an hour of smoking (and when the interiors reached about 130-135 degrees F), I wrapped the chicken breasts in foil. It only took about another 20 minutes to bring them up to 160 degrees F in the thickest parts. 

At that point I removed them from the smoker but left them in the foil on a plate. The temperature rose to 165 degrees F in that resting period. After they cooled (about 15 additional minutes), I refrigerated them wrapped in the foil and inside a plastic bag.

We used one of the smoked breasts cubed and in a main dish salad for dinner on Tuesday. Today, Wednesday, I thin sliced the other breast for 4 sandwiches at lunch time.

I paid about $2.29 to $2.49 per pound for the boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I figure they lost some water weight in the smoker. So maybe my finished cost per pound for the smoked chicken is around $2.75, or up to $3.00/lb. The least expensive chicken breast lunchmeat I can find at Walmart runs about $7.00 per pound.

I realize I could also simply bake chicken breasts for lunch meat. But the taste of the smoked chicken really elevated the taste of our sandwiches. The chicken was tasty, unsalted with exception to the spice rub on the outside of the meat, lean, and moist. I also didn't incur additional cost to use the smoker for the chicken, as I was already smoking something that day. The only drawback of home-smoked that I can see is that because it doesn't have any preservatives, it likely doesn't keep very long in the fridge. We used the meat up within 3 days. If I wanted to keep the smoked meat longer, I'd freeze it in portions.

I will definitely add seasoned chicken breasts to the smoker on other days that I have another piece of meat in there.

Inflation Edition: The Scraps Matter

When it comes to saving money in this era of ever increasing food prices, the scraps matter. Making use of every last scrap of food, from bones, to vegetable peels, to stale bread, these little bits and bobs can be remade into something tasty and save some pennies in the grocery budget.

Some frugal habits are timeless. This is something my grandmother did and her mother before her. They saved stale bread slices to make bread pudding or French toast.

When the week's baking

leads to a bulging baggie of bread ends and stale half-slices stored in the freezer, we make it useful in a breakfast bread pudding. 

Since the scraps are non-uniform in size and shape, I find it easiest to dice all of the bread substances. In this batch, I had a half bran muffin, one mini heart-shaped waffle, a tiny square of cornbread, numerous half slices of bread, and several loaf ends too skinny to toast without burning to a crisp. I stirred these cubed bits together with a sweetened egg and milk mixture to bake for a tasty treat at breakfast time. My family thinks it's a special breakfast. I know it's a thrifty breakfast.

But this is nothing new. My grandmother did this and yours probably did too. Some frugal tips save us money as much today as they did a century ago.