I tried 3 store-bought rotisserie chickens and Costco's famous bird couldn't compare to the best one

Buying a hot, juicy rotisserie chicken is almost always a good idea because it's relatively healthy, usually cheap, and super convenient for when you don't want to cook.

I tried three rotisserie chickens from Costco, Whole Foods, and Safeway to find out which bird tasted the best overall.

I took a sample from the leg, breast, and thigh for the most thorough comparison.

The sheer size of this rotisserie chicken was pretty astounding compared to the other birds. That said, Costco's 3-pound bird was quite a steal at only $4.99.

Costco's rotisserie chicken is also the best deal out of the bunch.

The affordable chicken is such a huge hit with customers that, in 2015, Costco's chief financial advisor Rich Galanti reportedly said they were willing to lose "$30 to $40 million a year in gross margin" on the birds by selling them for under $5.

The other chickens I tried had just a few recognizable ingredients like salt, pepper, and herbs, but this one listed things I hadn't heard of, like sodium phosphate and modified food starch.

But according to Mashed, sodium phosphate is an additive that helps keep meats moist and maintains freshness, and modified food starch is typically used for thickening, stabilizing, or emulsifying.

After a quick internet search, I learned these birds are injected with a special saline solution to add flavor, which can also explain the presence of those ingredients.

Putting aside my skepticism about the ingredients in the Costco chicken, the meat was seasoned well.

The leg wasn't incredibly moist and a little on the dry side, but it was still good. The thigh, which is always my favorite part of the chicken, was very juicy and tender.

The breast wasn't as juicy and moist, but still satisfying considering that this part of the chicken tends to be on the drier side. It was dense and had a good mouthfeel to it.

Though the golden-brown exterior of the chicken was tasty, I noticed that there seemed to be a second layer of skin on the bird. I'm not exactly sure what this was, but it didn't taste very good.

This layer between the golden-brown layer and the actual meat was almost like a fat deposit and was incredibly off-putting.

The other two chickens didn't have this whitish layer on them. Maybe I just got a dud — I haven't seen other people talking about this issue before — but still, this layer of skin made the eating experience less enjoyable.

The meat itself, particularly the thigh, was definitely moist but in an oily, overly wet kind of way. This chicken also leaked more extra juices to the bottom of the container than any of the other birds.

Price-wise, the Costco chicken will never be beaten. However, taste- and texture-wise, it wasn't the absolute best rotisserie chicken I've had. I felt that its flavor seemed unnatural.

However, I'd definitely eat it again in a pinch.

There was honestly nothing super appealing about the $10.99 Whole Foods rotisserie chicken other than the fact that it was made with simple ingredients.

First off, it came in a bag with no juices and it looked shriveled up.

According to the label, this Whole Foods bird was raised without antibiotics or added hormones and the ingredients were clear: organic chicken and pepper and salt.

The chicken was dry and even the dark meat tasted overcooked. At least the skin was crisp and the seasoning, which was just salt and pepper, was appropriate and satisfying.

That said, for the price, I would have expected a higher quality bird.

This was a sad, overcooked chicken that lacked moisture, but it did taste like it was probably good for me.

This chicken was delicious. It was the best of both Costco's and Whole Foods' chickens.

This bird was moderately priced at $8.99 and a manageable size for a rotisserie chicken at under 2 pounds. The ingredients made sense: chicken rubbed with salt, paprika, sugar, turmeric, onion and garlic powder, and natural smoke flavor.

The meat was juicy and tender throughout the bird.

The meat was super juicy, moist, and ever so oily. It tasted really good and the skin's seasoning was by far my favorite out of the three chickens. I also liked the slight smokiness and the sweetness combined with the moderately salty meat.

The dark meat was super moist and not stringy and the thigh pulled apart like it should — not in strings or globs like with the Costco chicken.

The breast meat was moist and had the tender density that I'd expect from this part of the chicken.

If I want another rotisserie chicken, I'm going to Safeway. The skin was so tasty that I ended up wrapping pieces of it around my chicken bites. I also grew up eating this rotisserie chicken and now it makes sense why.

The dark meat was tender and moist, without the strange wetness that was present in some parts of the Costco bird. I liked that I could recognize each ingredient on the list for the Safeway bird as well.

The meat has the texture a chicken should have — not stringy or spongy — with dark meat that's appropriately dense and tender.