Some years ago—never mind how long, precisely—while working for a lab in the small city of New Hartford in central New York, it happened that I was dispatched to our location in Herkimer, also known as “the Valley”, there to do some IT stuff. In those dark times, New Hartford had no Wal-Mart Super Center, but the Valley did; and so when my friend in the IT Department heard I was going to the Valley, he entreated me to pick him up a bag of “Wal-Mart Chicken” for lunch. Being the accommodating type, I readily assented; and so I did go down into the Valley, and I did do the IT stuff, and then I did head off to the Wal-Mart Super Center to get the Wal-Mart Chicken. Not being a regular Wal-Mart shopper, I did not know where to find said chicken. All this time later, I can’t recall exactly how it happened—bad advice from a store employee? Random wandering?—but I ended up in the frozen foods section, where, lo! There were bags of frozen chicken bearing the Wal-Mart name. And so I bought a bag of the frozen chicken and returned to New Hartford in triumph. Or did I? For as I entered the IT Department with the bag from Wal-Mart, my friend did make note:
And only then did I learn that “Wal-Mart Chicken” does not refer to a bag of frozen chicken bearing the Wal-Mart label; it refers to hot, cooked chicken under a broiling lamp, along the lines of this: Picture may vary from what Wal-Mart chicken looked like 25-odd years ago.
The rest of the IT Department thought this was a pretty hilarious prank I had pulled on my friend, but he defended my honor. Sort of.
Despite my friend’s disappointment, there were no hard feelings, although forever after, a WAV file of somebody saying “Do I hear clucking? Did somebody bring a chicken in here?” might be played in the IT Department whenever lunch was discussed.**
Anyway, the reason I’m bringing up the Wal-Mart chicken all these years later is because of another, more recent, shopping misadventure. Two misadventures, actually, both involving a recipe I was making, Bihari Kale Chane Ki Ghugni (hereafter referred to as BKCKG), which is a chickpea curry, as well as the sort of thing that everyone who knew me as the kid who lived on peanut butter & jelly, hamburgers, hotdogs, and plain pizza is still stunned that I will make and eat now.
The first misadventure involved the grated, toasted coconut, which is supposed to go on top of the dish after it’s finished. Normally I do the grocery shopping for the recipes I pick out, but lately, my wife has been going to our favorite store, Frazier Farms, on Thursday or Friday, in order to take advantage of sales that they run there on those days. On this occasion she picked up some of the ingredients I needed for the BKCKG, including the grated coconut. Or at least, the coconut. Hi there.
My wife was confused as to why I thought there would be a lot of work involved in using the whole coconut.
Anyway, my wife found some instructions that said to freeze the coconut, then you could whack it with a knife and it would come apart easily and the shell would separate from the meat. I’ll tell you a little later how that worked out.***
The second incident involved the instructions for the recipe where you’re supposed to fry some of the ingredients in mustard oil to start with. I dutifully stopped by our local Middle Eastern/Asian/Mediterranean grocery store to pick up mustard oil, along with a few other ingredients; but when I got it home, my wife noticed something about it that I didn’t.
And so my wife scurried off to the Internet to discover what the deal is with mustard oil. It turns out the oil has a high amount of erucic acid in it, which is associated with myocardial lipidosis**** in rodents, and which prompted the FDA to ban its use for cooking in the USA.
What did it say on the back label? Well let’s take a look. It’s a floor wax! It’s a dessert topping! It’s a massage oil! It causes dangerous fatty deposits on the heart!
So anyway, we kept the banned mustard oil for external use only*****, and ordered a non-banned variety (made from a different kind of mustard seed) online to use instead. Then Sunday evening rolled around and I started cooking, which meant it was time to open and grate the coconut. My wife retrieved it from the freezer, got a knife, and went to work banging away on the coconut.
So I went and got her a hammer out of the garage. This hammer also had, where you would usually find a claw, an actual hatchet, which I thought might come in handy. At this point she took the coconut and all accessories out onto the front step to work on it there. The front step is made of concrete. This will be important later.
So at this point she just needed to scrape out the coconut meat so she could grate it, but YouTube had lied about this part too, apparently; the meat was sticking to the shell quite stubbornly. She finally managed to accumulate a sufficient quantity to toast and then sprinkle on top of the finished dish. More or less.
So remember, kids: When it comes to opening coconuts, hunting safety, and the like, Looney Tunes should be your go-to resource, not YouTube.
* Or however much a bag of frozen Wal-Mart Chicken cost back then ** It was 20 or more years later that I discovered where that WAV file had come from, namely, this scene in the Western movie The Quick and the Dead. When I notified my friend that I had finally learned the source of the audio, his response was, “That sure took a while.”
*** You can probably guess. **** I don’t know what myocardial lipidosis is, but it doesn’t sound good, does it? ***** Which did prove to be highly effective for massaging my wife’s shoulders while subjecting her to an episode of Carnival Row.
I feel cheated. Duped. Bamboozled (yeah, I just went there. ) I wanted to run to my computer and share this all right away. But I was nervous. I mean posting online that I was ripped off at Walmart? What if I got the Oprah treatment? (sued)
The last few times I have come home from Walmart with a package of chicken breasts I got this feeling like something just wasn’t right.
For the past few years I have purchased my boneless skinless chicken breasts from places like Albertsons, Costco and every once in awhile even Walmart.
I paid $10.74 for the package. It says there is 5.14 lbs of chicken inside. At $2.09 per lb the price is correct.
So last week when I brought home another package of chicken from Walmart I decided to go with my gut and actually weigh the chicken and package.
So I went and got her a hammer out of the garage. This hammer also had, where you would usually find a claw, an actual hatchet, which I thought might come in handy. At this point she took the coconut and all accessories out onto the front step to work on it there. The front step is made of concrete. This will be important later.
The first misadventure involved the grated, toasted coconut, which is supposed to go on top of the dish after it’s finished. Normally I do the grocery shopping for the recipes I pick out, but lately, my wife has been going to our favorite store, Frazier Farms, on Thursday or Friday, in order to take advantage of sales that they run there on those days. On this occasion she picked up some of the ingredients I needed for the BKCKG, including the grated coconut. Or at least, the coconut. Hi there.
* Or however much a bag of frozen Wal-Mart Chicken cost back then ** It was 20 or more years later that I discovered where that WAV file had come from, namely, this scene in the Western movie The Quick and the Dead. When I notified my friend that I had finally learned the source of the audio, his response was, “That sure took a while.”
Despite my friend’s disappointment, there were no hard feelings, although forever after, a WAV file of somebody saying “Do I hear clucking? Did somebody bring a chicken in here?” might be played in the IT Department whenever lunch was discussed.**
So anyway, we kept the banned mustard oil for external use only*****, and ordered a non-banned variety (made from a different kind of mustard seed) online to use instead. Then Sunday evening rolled around and I started cooking, which meant it was time to open and grate the coconut. My wife retrieved it from the freezer, got a knife, and went to work banging away on the coconut.
Everything You Need To Know About Buying Chicken At The Grocery Store
FAQ
What are the ingredients in Walmart chicken?
Is Tyson frozen chicken processed?
How long can you keep frozen chicken for?
Is frozen chicken already fried?
Does Walmart have frozen chicken?
While the fresh steaks and ground beef may be risky, there are still some reliable meat options at Walmart: Frozen chicken from major brands like Tyson and Perdue tends to be a good bet for quality and taste. Walmart‘s Great Value frozen chicken is fine too. The freezing process locks in freshness. Some tasty picks include:
Where does Walmart get its chicken from?
You‘ll learn: Let‘s delve in! Walmart gets its chicken from a few dominant meat suppliers: Founded in Arkansas in 1935, Tyson Foods produces 20% of America‘s chicken, beef, and pork. They operate large-scale processing plants and contract with over 6,000 independent farmers to raise chickens.
Does Walmart sell chicken?
Here‘s a comparison of average chicken prices at Walmart vs. other major grocery chains: Based on these averages, shopping at Walmart for chicken can save a family of four around $30-40 per month compared to traditional supermarkets! The price advantage makes it easy to see why many shoppers stock up on chicken at Walmart.
Does Walmart have free-range chicken?
Walmart offers cage-free, locally sourced, and free-range chicken. The majority of its chicken comes from processing plants run by third-party corporations such as Tyson and Maple Leaf in 2022. However, much of the chicken sold in Walmart is usually free-range and locally sourced. So, have we found the answer to the chicken problem?