Copycat Costco Chicken Bake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is in the chicken bake at Costco? ›

Product Details. Foster Farms chicken breast strips, mozzarella, provolone and parmesan cheeses, smoky bacon, creamy Caesar dressing and green onions in a hand-rolled crust.

The Costco Chicken Bake is a cheesy, dough-wrapped popular item from the warehouse's food court, but this last year it went through a price raise and they're no longer made fresh on site. So we set out to recreate the recipe so we can have them hot and fresh anytime at home.

As one person stated on Reddit, "The quality dropped during the rougher parts of the pandemic, and we've never been able to go back to that." The store did remove chicken bakes from its menu for a time, but the item eventually made its return, albeit with a different flavor than customers were used to.

In 2022, Costco had customers up in arms when they raised the price of chicken bakes by a dollar, but even before that, the quality of the product was trending downhill.

To get its signature, addictive flavor, Costco injects its chickens with a salt solution. Similar to marinating or brining, this salt solution infuses the chicken with a salty taste in every bite, inside and out.

Since early 2020, Costco has required a membership card to buy anything at the food court, including chicken bakes, barbecue beef brisket sandwiches, ice cream and churros. Costco no longer allows food-court purchases to nonmembers.

These rumors were seemingly confirmed on Reddit, where a Costco employee explained that the chicken bakes, which were once made from scratch, are now made using frozen packs. Some attribute this disappointment to shrinkflation, noting that the new chicken bakes are smaller with less filling.

Costco's Conventional Raw Chicken

The company's rotisserie chickens are like the chickens it sells uncooked under its Kirkland Signature brand.

Is rotisserie chicken processed meat? Yes. While each whole rotisserie chicken may appear unprocessed, the addition of additives like those described above mean it's actually considered a processed food.

Costco breeds and slaughters approximately 100 million chickens per year. The shareholders alleged that Costco—which has near total control over the genetics, lives, and deaths of the birds it sends to these contract growers—has abdicated its legal obligation to protect the animals.

Is the Costco chicken bake unhealthy? ›

However, it is also important to note that it is high in calories, fat, and sodium. While the indulgence of a Costco Chicken Bake every now and then can be enjoyed, it is advisable to consume it in moderation as part of a balanced diet.

In a 2023 earnings call, Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said Costco's rotisserie chicken is "an investment in low prices to drive membership, to drive sales in a big way." That's a fancy way of saying that the product is a "loss leader" for the warehouse store giant.

Chicken Bake, $3.99: The chicken bake is a lot of food for less than $4. It includes chicken breast, cheese, bacon, and Caesar dressing wrapped in bread.

Chunky chicken pieces tossed with bits of bacon and creamy Caesar dressing, wrapped stromboli-style in pizza dough — the sleeper hit of Costco's food court was steeped in mystery, until recently, and now you can actually make them at home.

Costco Raises Its Own Chickens

The plant enables the company to manage the chickens from farm to production and ensures that the birds are grown to the correct size, typically around 3 pounds. The plant has also given Costco a few headaches, as the company was accused of subjecting chickens to inhumane conditions.

3. It's not the healthiest rotisserie chicken available. Costco isn't the only store selling rotisserie chicken, of course — and while their birds may be popular, they're not the healthiest you can buy. Consumer Reports called out chickens from Costco and Sam's Club for excessively high sodium.

It's worth noting that Costco calls the dish "Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken" and has the "seasoning" ingredients listed on the label: salt, sodium phosphates, hydrolyzed casein, modified cornstarch, sugar, dextrose, chicken broth, isolated soy protein lecithin and mono-and-diglycerides.

whole chickens, water, seasoning [salt, sodium phosphate, modified food starch (potato, tapioca) and potato dextrin, carrageenan, sugar, dextrose, spice extractives].

There are 840 calories in 1 bake (227 g) of Costco Chicken Bake. * The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet.