The ₹45 Chicken Curry: Boneless versus Whole Bird
Your school canteen committee has fixed ₹45 per plate for a chicken curry meal for 130 students at the annual function. That ₹45 must cover raw material, cooking fuel (₹300 for the whole batch) and casual labour (₹600). Each plate needs 90 g of cooked chicken in gravy, and the gravy base costs ₹6 a plate. Two supplier quotes are on the table. Supplier A sells boneless breast at ₹280/kg, which trims and shrinks to 75% of its purchase weight by the time it is cooked. Supplier B sells whole dressed chicken at ₹150/kg; after deboning, 60% of the purchase weight is raw meat, which then loses a further 20% in cooking. Bones from Supplier B would make about 3 litres of stock, replacing roughly ₹150 of gravy base. The head cook prefers boneless because it is faster and looks neater on the plate; the treasurer wants the cheaper option. The order has to be placed tonight.
1. Which supplier should the committee choose? Support the decision with a full cost-per-plate calculation for both options.
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Cooked meat required: 130 plates × 90 g = 11.7 kg.
Supplier A (boneless, 75% net cooked yield): 11.7 ÷ 0.75 = 15.6 kg raw → 15.6 × ₹280 = ₹4,368.
Supplier B (whole bird): net cooked yield = 0.60 × 0.80 = 0.48. Raw needed = 11.7 ÷ 0.48 = 24.4 kg → 24.4 × ₹150 = ₹3,656. Deduct the ₹150 stock credit → ₹3,506.
Overheads (same for both): gravy 130 × ₹6 = ₹780, fuel ₹300, labour ₹600 = ₹1,680.
- A: 4,368 + 1,680 = ₹6,048 → ₹46.52 a plate - over budget.
- B: 3,506 + 1,680 = ₹5,186 → ₹39.89 a plate - within budget, saving ₹862 overall.
Decision: buy from Supplier B. The boneless price looks lower per kilogram, but the buyer is paying ₹280 for 0.75 kg of edible cooked meat (₹373/kg) against ₹150 for 0.48 kg (₹312/kg). Costing must be done on edible cooked yield, not on purchase weight. The bone-in route also wins on stock, which improves the gravy without extra purchase.
2. Having chosen the whole bird, what quality and service problems must the kitchen plan for, and how should it handle them on the day?
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The saving brings new risks that must be managed, not ignored:
- Uneven portions. Deboned whole bird gives irregular pieces; some plates could receive only bone or skin. Solution: debone fully after cooking, cut into roughly 25–30 g pieces, weigh 90 g into each plate rather than ladling by eye, and keep the service line supervised by one person.
- Bone and skin yield. Skin and bone add weight that is paid for but not eaten; the model already accounts for this at 60% meat, so any batch yielding less than 60% must be recorded and the supplier challenged.
- Labour time. Deboning adds 25–30 minutes of skilled work. Schedule it before the gravy is finished, and keep the meat covered and above 60 °C or below 5 °C while it waits.
- Appearance. Bone-in meat can look less 'neat' than the head cook's preference. Compensate with a richer stock-based gravy and a coriander garnish rather than switching back to boneless.
- Guest perception. Anyone finding gristle should be able to get a replacement plate; brief the servers on this.
3. Three months later the whole-bird price rises by 12%. The ₹45 cap is fixed. What options exist, and which would you take first?
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Re-run the numbers before reacting: chicken cost becomes ₹3,656 × 1.12 = ₹4,095. Less ₹150 stock credit = ₹3,945. Add ₹1,680 overheads = ₹5,625 → ₹43.27 a plate. The menu is still inside the cap but the margin has fallen from ₹5.11 to ₹1.73 a plate, so any further rise breaks it.
Options, in the order I would take them:
- Reduce the meat portion from 90 g to 80 g. Cooked meat needed falls to 10.4 kg → raw 21.7 kg → ₹3,250, saving about ₹400 (₹3 a plate). A 90 g to 80 g change is barely visible in a gravy dish; a price rise is very visible.
- Extend with a cheaper protein or vegetable - soya granules, peas or mushroom in the gravy - keeping the chicken weight on the plate unchanged.
- Change the menu cycle to a chicken dish every second function rather than every function.
- Raise the plate charge or reduce the guest count, which needs committee approval, not a kitchen decision.
What I would not do is keep 90 g and shave the gravy, fuel or labour - that damages quality and staff pay while pretending the budget still works.