A piece of fried chicken can cost you about $0.99 to make, and a three-piece box with fries and coleslaw about $4.72, if you buy bone-in thighs and drumsticks at $5.50 a kilo, get seven pieces from each kilo after trimming, bread them yourself, measure both the oil they soak up and the oil you throw away, and pay for the labour. Those figures are examples with stated assumptions. Your chicken, your fryer and your portions will move them. The method below gets you your own numbers.
What goes into the cost of fried chicken
Fried chicken has more hidden costs than most dishes, because the oil charges you twice. Following the general method for working out what any dish costs to make:
- Chicken: the price per kilo turned into a cost per sellable piece.
- Brine, marinade and breading: buttermilk, flour, spices, salt.
- Oil absorbed: what stays in the chicken and the fries.
- Oil life: the oil you throw away when it is spent, shared across everything it fried.
- Fuel: gas or electricity for the fryer.
- Sides: fries, coleslaw, dips.
- Packaging: box, bag, dip pots, for takeaway.
- Labour: trimming, breading, frying, packing.
Step 1: chicken per piece
Bone-in chicken is costed per piece, not per gram, because that is how you sell it. Weigh a kilo of the pieces you buy, trim them the way you serve them, and count how many pieces you get. Divide the price per kilo by that count.
If you buy whole birds and joint them yourself, the cost per piece is the price of the bird divided by the pieces you sell from it. What you do with the backs and wing tips matters: if they go into stock you use, they are worth something; if they go in the bin, they are not. The guide to whole chicken versus parts runs that comparison in full.
Step 2: the oil, twice
This is the step almost nobody gets right.
What it absorbs. Mark the fryer level before you start. At the end, measure how much oil you need to bring it back to the mark. That oil left in the chicken and the fries. Divide it by the pieces you fried.
What you throw away. When you change the oil, the whole fryer goes. That cost has to be spread across every piece fried since the last change. How long your oil lasts depends on your product, temperature and filtering, so measure it yourself.
The guide to what frying oil really costs walks through it step by step.
Step 3: fries and sides
Potatoes are bought with skins. Peel and cut a kilo and weigh what is left: that is your yield. If you buy frozen fries, there is no peel loss, but you still pay for oil. The yield tool gives the cost per usable kilo. Coleslaw and dips are small recipes, costed per portion.
Worked example: fried chicken pieces and a three-piece box
Every number here is an assumption. Use your own.
What you measured:
- Bone-in thighs and drumsticks at $5.50 a kilo give 7 pieces per kilo after trimming.
- Brine, buttermilk and seasoned flour for 100 pieces cost $7.00.
- Frying 200 pieces drops the oil by 2.4 litres. Oil costs $2.50 a litre.
- The fryer holds 25 litres and you change it every 1,000 pieces.
- Fuel for the fryer works out at about $0.04 a piece.
Per piece:
| Item | Working | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 5.50 ÷ 7 | $0.79 |
| Breading and brine | 7.00 ÷ 100 | $0.07 |
| Oil absorbed | 2.4 l × $2.50 = $6.00 ÷ 200 | $0.03 |
| Oil life | 25 l × $2.50 = $62.50 ÷ 1,000 | $0.06 |
| Fuel | estimate | $0.04 |
| Total per piece | $0.99 |
Three-piece box:
| Item | Working | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 3 × $0.99 | $2.97 |
| Fries | 200 g × $1.20 per kg ÷ 800 g usable | $0.30 |
| Oil for the fries | estimate | $0.05 |
| Coleslaw | per portion | $0.25 |
| Box | 1 | $0.35 |
| Labour | per box | $0.80 |
| Total | $4.72 |
The chicken is $2.97 of $4.72, more than six dollars in every ten. If your chicken goes up $1.00 a kilo, each piece goes up 1.00 ÷ 7 = $0.14 and the box about $0.43.
Oil looks small per piece here, but it moves. If you changed the oil every 600 pieces instead of 1,000, oil life would be 62.50 ÷ 600 = $0.10 a piece instead of $0.06, and the box would go up 3 × $0.04 = $0.12.
What moves the cost most
In order:
- The chicken price. It is most of the box. Track it every time you buy.
- Pieces per kilo. Smaller pieces mean more pieces per kilo and a lower cost per piece, but a smaller portion. If your supplier changes sizes, recount.
- Oil life. How often you change the oil matters more than how much it absorbs.
- The fries portion. Weigh what actually goes in the box for a few days. Portions tend to creep.
From cost to price
The cost per box is your floor. The plate price tool works out a price from the cost and the food cost percentage you want. With the example, a 50% margin on the price before any sales tax gives 4.72 ÷ (1 − 0.50) = $9.44 for the box. Check your local tax rules for what goes on top.
Do it with the calculator
In the food cost calculator, enter the chicken price and pieces per kilo, the breading, the oil absorbed and the oil thrown away per change, the fries with their yield and the box. It returns the cost per piece, per box and the price for your margin.
Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to buy whole chickens or pieces for frying?
It depends on the price per kilo of each and what you do with the parts you do not fry. Compare the cost per sellable piece of both with your own prices before deciding.
How do I measure how much oil fried chicken absorbs?
Mark the fryer level before service and measure how much oil you need to top it back up afterwards. Divide those litres by the pieces you fried.
How often should I change the frying oil, and how does it go into the cost?
That is your call, based on how the food comes out. For costing, divide the price of the oil you throw away at each change by every piece you fried in it.
Does a delivery box cost the same as eating in?
No. Delivery adds the box, bag and dip pots, and the app's commission comes out of the price. The app price has to be higher to leave the same margin.