How many people can I big chicken feed?

[WhenSheWasBadSheWasHorrid]

Dh loves chicken but hates turkey

I foolishly promised him we would have chicken not turkey this year. I'm starting to panic now.

Just wondering if anyone knows how big the biggest chicken you can buy is. And how many it will feed?

Damn it I is meant to be 1

Just cook 2 chickens! They can sit in the pan together. We do this if we have to feed more.

Do a cockerel! They are bigger than normal chickens so you get the festive feeling of carving a big bird. The meat just tastes like really nice chicken.

I would suggest you ask your butcher. The biggest we've had was about 2.5kg, but you can get bigger but they will be likely a lot pricked as they aren't a standard commercial chicken.

Headcount wise I think it depends what you are having with it. I would imagine that if you wouldn't expect to use a whole turkey up for the number of people you've got coming, then you would probably do ok with a chicken. But equally if you've got tonnes of veg, sides etc, then you probably don't need as much meat as you'd think. We always have heaps and heaps left over no matter how conservative we are with sizes!! I reckon and average chicken for an average Sunday dinner would feed six comfortably, but if you've got plenty of extras (veg etc) then I've managed to stretch to 8 (and it was an especially large bird either).

Or failing that I'd actually go for two smaller chickens (mainly because they don't dry out so much as they don't need so long) or perhaps another meat as well? We usually have turkey and ham, but this year it will be goose, beef and ham as we've our own beef and geese for the freezer this year.

Wow that was quick.

I was thinking I could cook a big one in the oven and then a back up one in the halogen oven.

Pricier not pricked. My iPad is a knob

Biggest we get is about 1.8kg, would do 4 people (but no leftovers). So you'd need to do more than one. The good thing is you can do them early and keep them warm under foil or even the day before and microwave once it's cut up if you don't want any stress.

You must get one of the MN mythical chickens. It will feed a family of eight with enough left over to make a curry the next day, and whatever scraps are left can do for sandwiches. Then you can boil the carcass to make a tasty soup.
God, I've talked myself into a chickeny Christmas, I have ten people sitting down for dinner on The Day.
Sorted.

Last year I cooked a capon. It's a neutered cockerel.
Much larger than a chicken.
You could probably buy it from your local butcher if you ordered it.

Googling it, lots of farms say they sell capon style (not force fed, I guess) large chickens from 4kg.

How many people will you need to feed? You could try goose, or a three bird roast if you need to feed a big group.

Could you slow cook a large ham the day before to accompany it?

yy to getting a capon if you have a butcher who can order one for you.

Second cooking two - good if you have lots of people who like a leg as well! I reckon a 1.8kg chicken would feed six easily enough (especially given there are all sorts of sausages, stuffing and other sides at a Christmas).

I'd do two, two chickens will easily fit on the roasting tin you usually roast a turkey on.

lweji a 4kg chicken that sounds about right.

I'm not sure what numbers we need to feed yet. Could be 4 adults and 2 kids or 8 adults and 2 kids. Dh can put away a lot of chicken when he wants to (how he's stick thin is a mystery).

I live in the North West so will probably get a chicken - or capon from Booths. Thanks for the capon suggestion, I think I can manage this especially with the little back up chicken in the halogen.

Can't believe how many people posted on here. Thanks so much, good to see it's not just me excited about Xmas.

Maybe a chicken and a small turkey or turkey crown?

I ordered a chicken from the Booths Christmas book last year. I thought it would easier and tastier than turkey. The book said it would be around 2kg.
When they delivered it was gigantic over 4kg! I thought I'd been sent a turkey by mistake. We were eating it for days, definitely a MN chicken.

Plus it was only about £18, if I recall correctly you just paid for the bird and it had a guaranteed minimum weight.

So Booths is probably a good place to look.

I bloody love Booths' Christmas stuff!

Picture of giant chicken with my podgy little hand for size guide

Woah!!! That's a chicken!

I've just checked and it was actually 7kg. (I had a Facebook brag about it!) It took forever to roast though.

I love Booths NoWord I keep inventing reasons to go down to Yorkshire so I can pop into one. I'm very excited for this year's Christmas brochure.

The book is a thing of beauty!

We are about 7 miles or so from a Booths. I find reasons to go as often a possible. 😁

7kg sounds like a mutant chicken! 😂

green that chicken is a monster.

So glad I'm not the only one who loves Booths. Dd has a collection of their Xmas brochures, only goes back three years - but she's only six.

Quite excited about Christmas chicken now. I want lots of left overs, Christmas left overs are amazing.

We have chick every year as no one really likes turkey! 🦃 last year I got two giant chickens 🐔 (both just shy of greenrabbit's monster!) And we were eating chicken for WEEKS. They come from the butcher. Yum!