Bone in chicken thigh vs prepared chicken breast cost breakdown

I always hate not being able to tell what works out to be a good deal so I sat down tonight to crunch the numbers.

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local supermarket had a a sale on chicken thigh for 80 cents a lb vs the usual 1.30. Decided to do some quick maths to see whats a better deal in terms of bone in thighs or prepared breast meat. I used a typical sale cost of 1.79 for the breast.

What I came up with was:

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44oz Meat deboned : cost per lb - $1.54/lb : Cost per 100g protein - $1.23 : 2158 calories (higher fat:protein ratio); Cost per 100 cal - $0.196

44 oz Meat+ 12oz skin (1500 calories): cost per lb - 1.25/lb : 3650 calories; Cost per 100 cal - $0.12

15oz Bone

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44oz store bought Chicken breast: 1.79/lb : 385g protein; Cost per 100g protein - $1.28 : 2158 calories (higher protein:fat ratio); Cost per 100 cal - 22 cents

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The take away message is that if youre only concerned about protein then there isn't much of a cost difference even when the thighs are cheaper by $1/lb. Thighs may effectively be more expensive as the values edge closer.

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If you can get a good price and dont mind spending the extra time (it took me approx 20 min to debone 8 thighs) then you do end up with nearly twice as many calories, similar protein values, and bones for stock.

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Caloric values were taken from cronometre.