Costco’s Rotisserie Chicken Is ‘Inedible,’ According To A Chef

Many Costco members were shocked last week after celebrity chef David Chang dubbed the wholesale retailer‘s $4.99 rotisserie chicken to be “inedible.”

On his podcast, “The Dave Chang Show,” the television personality and restaurateur, 45, upset many fans of the dish, deeming it “the worst” after trying it during his second-ever trip to a Costco location.

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During the podcast episode “Dave Chang Goes to Costco and Unraveling the Truffle Conundrum,” Chang spoke with Chris Ying and said, “I got a hot take. I think the Costco chicken is the worst rotisserie chicken.”

Chang, as Today reports, is known for his “hot takes” when it comes to popular food chains, and also is the founder of the culinary brand Momofuku and the Majordomo Media group. In addition, he created and starred in a Netflix original series called “Ugly Delicious.”

“They’re not good. They’re not seasoned,” he continued, regarding Costco’s rotisserie chicken. “The reason why it’s important to have it properly seasoned is, you might eat it the next day cold, and it’s got to taste good cold.”

He went on, “There’s something about all the nitrates and all the crap they pump into the chicken that makes the chicken breast even more disgusting the next day when it’s cold.” Chang stressed said the chicken’s lack of seasoning makes it “inedible” when eaten cold.

It’s worth noting, Today writes,  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.

Chang’s take on Costco’s rotisserie chicken made some Twitter users laugh and others outraged, with one writing, “The way the internet is dragging David Chang for his comment about Costco rotisserie chicken is wild but also justified bc that chicken is fire af.”

Some users, as Today notes, were also quick to point out that “Costco’s rotisserie chicken serves other purposes than that of the gourmet cuisine that Chang tends to cook up for affluent diners.”

As another user tweeted, “Mr. Chang needs to read the room. For many people, this product is an affordable building block for family meal prep. It’s not supposed to ‘taste good cold’ it’s not gourmet. We all have a favorite roast chicken recipe, and when we (have) that, we make that.”

Someone else chimed in, writing, “This is an assault on multiple fronts. Lacking of class consciousness for affordable food aside, how can David Chang, a fellow Asian American, slander Costco?!”

Others, however, didn’t seem to take Chang’s anti-Costco chicken words seriously, and found fun in the whole thing. “You know… I’m all for raising awareness of things and being more conscious in regards to societal issues. But jfc not everything has to be a moral outrage,” another user tweeted, adding, “Like people are mad at David Chang for saying Costco chickens are gross? So what lol.”