 |
| Fancy "trussed" chicken. If you can buy chicken in a bag complete with yucky chicken juice - it'll be cheaper and I bet is less likely injected with saline or other crap. |
Seriously. It's way cheaper and doesn't take much work to get 3 meals out of it.
I try to buy the biggest bird at the store. It usually costs $10 - 12.
To cook it I boil it in a pot of water with 1 carrot, 1 onion (quartered with skins on) and 1 chopped celery. Add some parsley, thyme and a bay leaf. You are now making chicken stock. Cook until the bird comes apart. I like to let it cool over night.
Next day. Skim the fat off of the top. Drain saving all the stock. DO NOT POUR THE STOCK DOWN THE SINK. That would be terrible to waste amazing home made stock. You now need to pick through the chicken. This is way less gross than you may be thinking as it is completely cooked and cooled. You should get 2 full chicken breasts and a pile of smaller pieces of chicken.
I can now make some awesome chicken soup with 1/2 of the stock and the chicken meat pieces. I freeze the rest of the stock. I often freeze the chicken breasts for later use too.
3 meals: soup, left over soup for lunches, chicken breasts + BONUS stock in the freezer.
I'm going to comment on my own post - that picture grosses me out.
ReplyDeleteHey Erin, I do something similar only I roast the chicken first, making gravy with the drippings, and I use the pot liquor from the potatoes and other veggies made with the first meal. (save the unused pot liquor to make stock later) After dinner or the next day, I pick as much left over meat off and then I boil the bones to make stock, once again picking more meat off if there is any left. If there is any gravy left over, I use that and any left over veggies from the dinner in the soup I make from the stock!
ReplyDeleteBecause my kidlets are healthy eaters and love Love LOVE my chicken soup, I only get two meals out of one bird, unless I get one the size of a small turkey. I also only wash all the veg, not peeling any to help get more nutrients and don't precook anything except to roast it.
This sounds delicious! I do something similar but without the roasted veggies. What do you use for your veggies? Carrots? Potatoes? anything else? Do you roast the veggies with the chicken or on a separate tray?
DeleteI find the roast chicken was becoming a bit too much - maybe it was because I was stuffing it. I should try it without and see if that seems like less work.
Sorry, I must have written too much, it wouldn't let me sign my name.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post!
Rhea
To turn your delicious soup into Jewish chicken soup, add a parsnip. Matzo balls optional but DELICIOUS. Also you can serve it bubbe-style, which is to say with the bones still in it like my grandmother used to. (I say, "you can," not "you should.")
ReplyDeleteI think Cale would rather eat bugs than parsnips! He hates them more than I've ever seen someone hate a food (except perhaps lamb and goat milk - he hates those too!).
DeleteI should try the Matzo balls.
If I left the bones in - I'd have one kid turn green and not eat it and the other kid asking me to identify every one and describe the function of its shape!