Who Makes Costco’s Kirkland Signature Rotisserie Chicken?

There are many beloved Costco items warehouse shoppers swear by, but none could ever dethrone the famed rotisserie chicken. The $4.99 favorite is known for consistently moist and delicious meat, and it’s the perfect starting point for an endless number of easy meals.

We’ve relied on this convenience dinner for over two decades, so now it’s time to find out where these birds actually come from and how, through years of ever-rising grocery prices, they’ve been able to stay shockingly low-cost.

Where Do Costco’s Rotisserie Chickens Come From?

Costco roasts and seasons its chickens in-house, providing customers with a meal that's ready to eat right from the deli counter. But, before these chickens arrive at Costco's warehouse locations, they must first be “harvested” from a grower. And, just as we learned for our Kirkland bacon investigation, the story’s not as simple as tracking down one certain grower.

We spoke to poultry processing expert, Ryan Stegall, to get answers about the rotisserie chickens’ origins.

“Costco traditionally utilizes single-source suppliers for most of [its] other products, however because of the meat industry, it’s very difficult to use a single source depending on where they’re going to get it from,” he explained.

At one point, Costco was buying all of its chickens from Tyson and Foster Farms, but, after reported fall-outs with these companies, Costco made some big changes to its chicken production to vertically integrate the poultry process and essentially own everything. In 2019, the grocer established its own massive chicken production complex in Fremont, Nebraska, and partnered with a company called Lincoln Premium Poultry (or LPP) to manage it.

What does this mean? Well, by this system, Costco owns the facility but pays the private company to raise the chickens from eggs to pullets to broilers, slaughter them, and ship them out raw to stores. Not only does this take a whole lot of liability off of Costco’s shoulders, but it also helps keep costs low for the consumers.

"And, Costco will have the ability to audit that,” Stegall adds. “Essentially, if you screw up they’ll take it from you and sell it to somebody else, almost like a franchise model.”

Right now, LPP aims to supply Costco with 500,000 hens per month—that’s six million chickens per year. Even though that number sounds massive (because it is), Costco sells over 100 million chickens per year, so it’s really a small percentage of the total marketplace.

“But, that Lincoln Premium Poultry model is the model Costco’s going to use moving forward,” confirmed Stegall.

The benefit of supplying this way is that Costco is 100% in control, and when it comes to producing a food product known for its low cost and consistency, that oversight is important. For the Costco customer, it means you can rely on purchasing a juicy, spit-roasted chicken right around three pounds every single shopping trip.

So, whether it’s turned into a white chicken chili, spicy chicken enchiladas, or a creamy chicken salad, a rotisserie chicken from Costco is guaranteed to be in good hands from start to finish.