This Costco Item Is Made With Leftover Rotisserie Chicken, But Does That Mean It's Old?

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Part of the Costco experience is the tempting smell of its famous rotisserie chicken wafting from the back of the store — where it's intentionally placed so that customers have to pass through aisles of products to get to it. The $4.99 it's cost since 2009 makes it even more appealing, and one of the best Costco grocery deals that's hard to pass up. Just like the iconic food court hot dog meal stays at an inexpensive $1.50 as a draw for customers, the super low-priced chicken also attracts shoppers to the warehouse retailer. People buy a huge amount of them, and the store uses the birds that aren't sold in other ways, including in its popular Kirkland Signature Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup, but there's no need to worry that it's old.

Costco doesn't allow the chicken to be out on sale for more than two hours after it's been cooked to maintain the best flavor, according to the 2023 book, "The Joy of Costco: A Treasure Hunt from A to Z." Those not sold by the two-hour limit are shredded for the store's prepared dishes – things like pot pie, quesadillas, pastas, and wraps. So, it's chicken that was only in the sales case for a couple of hours, not leftover poultry that sat around for a day or two.

Redditors who claim to work at Costco say all the rest of the soup arrives at the store pre-made and frozen, including the vegetables and noodles. All they do is add the freshly-shredded rotisserie chicken to the thawed soup. This method also keeps the meat from getting dry, since it's not cooked more in the soup.

Kirkland Signature Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup is made with carrots, celery, onions, and egg noodles, and the ingredients list also has things like parmesan, cream, and sugar. There are several thickeners as well, including potato flour, as well as potato, tapioca, and corn starches, which help give it more body. It's available seasonally in the colder months and can be found in Costco's refrigerated deli prepared food section. It's sold in approximately 3- to 4-pound containers for around $4.50 a pound.

Online reviews praise the soup for not skimping on the poultry, and say there are a good number of firm vegetables in the savory broth. There's also an abundance of egg noodles, although some contend there's actually too many. There are also critics who think it has too much salt or black pepper. Some people add chicken low-sodium stock or broth to the soup to thin the consistency a little, stretch it, or make it less salty.

You can find many internet recipes that also use Costco rotisserie chicken leftovers to make soup, one of the ways to get the most out of them. And we don't just mean the meat — you can use the carcass and bones to make a delicious stock.