I used to buy two rotisserie chickens a week because they were cheap, easy protein. Since my appetite changed, the warm smell hits me like wet dog.
I can eat cold chicken salad if it’s buried in celery, but the skin? Absolutely not. My grocery spreadsheet noticed: chicken line went from about $20 a month to zero, and cottage cheese went from $12 to $26.
Weirdest part is I still crave the memory of crispy skin, not the actual bite. Anyone else have a food your brain loves but your nose vetoes?
Curious whether it’s just poultry or all warm animal protein? My appetite shifted and I couldn’t do hot ground turkey for weeks,
Not just you. My grocery n=1: rotisserie chicken went from a weekly buy to zero, and canned tuna/eggs/Greek yogurt filled the gap.
I found the trigger for me is the salty skin/drip-pan aroma, not chicken itself—plain poached breast eaten cold with buffalo sauce is fine. Have you tested whether home-roasted plain thighs still bother you?
If yes, it’s probably the smell association; if no, it may be the store seasoning/solution. Also curious what your cottage cheese line jumped to—mine doubled but replaced less protein than I assumed, so I started tracking grams, not just dollars.
I track weekly averages too, and my aversion settled on browning ground turkey rather than chicken. The smell seemed to coat the kitchen, so I started cooking it on the porch with an induction burner, then chilling it and folding it into cold grain bowls with cucumber, herbs, and lemon.
My protein average stayed steady, and I waste less. Have you noticed whether it is the warm skin-and-fat aroma specifically, or any heated meat smell?
That distinction might help you decide what is worth prepping ahead.
Same here, but weirdly it’s the container smell that gets me, not the first bite. If I buy a rotisserie chicken, I have to strip it outside and toss the carcass in the garage trash, otherwise my fridge smells like warm chicken for two days and I can’t eat anything.
My grocery tracking shows I’m buying way more frozen shrimp and Greek yogurt now. Sharp question: does cold rotisserie chicken from the fridge still trigger it, or is it only when it’s warm/just-carried-in?
I’m trying to figure out if I can batch-cook and chill or if I should just accept the chicken era is over.
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