Which piece of chicken using the breast or leg or thigh provides the best price per pound of actual meat excluding bones?

Answer 1

Currently in the US, it goes something like this, from cheapest to most expensive:

whole chicken

whole chicken, cut-up

whole legs

thighs/drumsticks

whole breast

split breast

skinless thighs/drumsticks

boneless, skinless breasts

tenders

thin-sliced breast

Basically, the labor used to cut up and debone and skin a piece of meat is expensive, hence less processing = less expensive, even taking the weight of skin and bones into account. Also, breast meat is more expensive than dark meat, due to market demand, thus legs/thighs/drums are less expensive than breasts.

For the least expensive chicken, buy and roast a whole chicken, save the bones in the freezer until you have a few chickens' worth, and use to make stock. That way you pay the least possible for the chicken meat itself, and you can get some use out of the bones.