How many meals can you squeeze from one chicken?

[canoeist52]

Anyone else do this?

http://www.tastebook.com/blog/getting-roast-chicken-get-4-meals-1-bird/


1: Roast Chicken
2: Chicken Salad
3: Chicken and Dumplings
4: Broth and Soups

Oh the soups! Sometimes I wish I could buy just the chicken carcass, just for the broth.

[cbayer]

1. Definitively four, and pretty much like this author does it.

We eat the legs and thighs and I make sure no one throws away the bones.

The next day, I remove all of the rest of the meat and start the broth.

Out of the leftover meat, there is chicken salad and one other dish (could be anything - enchiladas, stir fry, chili).

Then there is the soup. I love just plain broth with noodles, but can use it for just about anything.

I have started getting the chicken man to cut up the chicken into pieces and then just roast the breasts and legs/thighs. That makes for a much richer broth, but all the meat that you want to eat gets roasted and the skin is just right.

Just make sure he gives you the back and innards!

[Kali]

2. there are large people and young men in my house

the correct question is how many chickens do I need for this one meal?

[cbayer]

3. In order to pull this off, you need one chicken for every two people.

That is, as long as your diners are satisfied with a leg/thigh quarter the first day. If not, you are going to need more.

[laundry_queen]

10. LOL, I bet!

When my kids were little, I could pull the 4-dinner thing off too...now that I have 1 preteen and 2 teens (and one tiny little 7 yo who is in the 10th percentile for growth but eats like she's in the 150th percentile) not so much. Last time I roasted a chicken, I was like, omg, there's nothing left! I had to wait for my mom to give me some of her frozen chicken carcasses to make soup, since my little pile of bones just wasn't enough, LOL.

Instead, now I wait until turkeys are on sale - they end up being SO much cheaper than a chicken, and go so much farther.

[noamnety]

4. I do the same thing.

Sometimes with chicken enchiladas instead of chicken salad, but always ending with the soup. My ex-husband actually taught me to make the soup from scratch; his parents were in Europe during WWII and had learned to manage on next to nothing.

I'm well stocked now, krogers had chickens for 49¢/lb this month so I got a bunch of them for $2 or so for the entire chicken. Spread out over 3-4 meals for 2 people, it's hard to beat the price.

[elleng]

5. Roast chicken,

chicken curry, 2+ meals,
chicken soup

[Galileo126]

6. Hmmm...tough to say

I live alone, but for a whole bird I'm good for 3 meals.

1. Roast chicken (dark meat and wings, first night)
2. Chicken salad (next day, using one breast)
3. soup and/or broth with whatever is left.

Pretty standard.

For some reason though, I always seem to make chicken enchiladas on the 2nd night if I bought a rotisserie chicken at the store. Not sure why I do that.

[grasswire]

7. three -- the scraps go to the border collie and the tabbycats

First night roasted usually with fresh rosemary, lemon slices, sea salt, butter. We eat part of the breast meat that night.
Second night usually legs & thighs with rice and mushroom gravy. If not that, then mulligatawney soup perhaps.

Third night rest of the breast meat some way. Stir fry perhaps, or divan perhaps, or chicken salad.

All the skin and all the little misc. tidbits go to animals.

The pets love the smell of roasting chicken!

[Galileo126]

8. Ah, the pets

I used to date a vegetarian veterinarian (say that 5 times fast). She had 2 awesome dogs, 4 cats, and a cool bird.

On occasion, I'd cook up some chicken for myself on her grill, and her dogs would go ballistic. She used to get miffed about it, and when she wasn't looking, I used to toss a few chicken bits to the dogs, and one of the cats. Why one? Because that cat acted just like a dog. Probably the coolest cat I ever encountered.

Pets are cool. I wish I could have one (I travel too much).

Throw some tidbits to the critters for me!

[japple]

9. Well, my mother could probably do more. She was an excellent cook and very frugal.

My dad used to say she had the first dollar she ever earned, but I know for a fact that she spent part of it on a bible which I have to this day: the old family bible (and there's a lot of dust on it.) But, I digress....

A couple of weeks ago, I watched a Dr. Mercola video on how to make bone broth and followed his instructions with an organic bird, cooked on the stovetop overnight (at least 8 hours). The broth was unbelievably rich and tasty, but the best part is that the bones were soft. I could crumble them in my hand. After everything was cool, I picked all of the chicken bits off the bones for soup pieces, then I crumbled the bones with the cartilege and tendons and the rendered skin, and made a concoction that the dogs were crazy about. I mix it with a little water, nuke it for 8 sec. then put their dry food on top. You'd think I hung the moon! There was almost no waste, either. Just think how many carcasses are thrown away, with perfectly good stuff left on them.

ETA: Dr. Mercola's video - http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/16/bone-broth-benefits.aspx

Another Edit: He mentions chicken feet, which I have never, ever seen on a chicken that is sold in American grocery stores. If you are lucky enough to live near where organic chicken are grown & sold, by all means, use those chicken fee. I wish I could get them somewhere nearby!

[cbayer]

13. When you buy a whole chicken in Mexico, you often get the feet.

It kind of freaked me out at first, but now I just throw them in the broth and everything is wonderful.

[japple]

16. Those feet make the broth a beautiful color.

[Lucinda]

17. Thank you for the video link

♥

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

11. I do something similar

Roast the whole bird -- I'm going to try the 250° for three hours this afternoon -- and serve the breasts and legs and thighs (there are four of us here). I make sure to keep the bones. In the morning, I strip off the remaining meat and store it. I put the bones with any attached meat, any remaining skin (lots of flavor in the skin), a quartered onion and two bay leaves (Cooks Illustrated magazine did one of their experiments, and discovered that onions and bay leaves were the only two things that gave noticeable flavor to chicken stock) into my 5 liter pot and simmer it for four hours.

After the four hours, I let the broth cool, and strain it into a large bowl. This will give me about 3 quarts of stock which I use for all sorts of things (risotto is a great way to use leftovers or eke out a small amount of food -- I have served the four of us on one pork chop). I give the bones and cooked onion to the dogs, who love it -- I do not give them the bay leaves, because I don't want them to be sick.

Rather than enchiladas, I like to make a chicken pot pie, with some of the stock, carrots, celery and a shallot. Chicken tetrazzini is also a favorite in my household.

There is generally enough meat left that I can make a chicken salad, certainly enough for two.

BTW, are you familiar with Robert Farrar Capon's The Supper of the Lamb? He spends the first few chapters explaining how to get four meals for eight people from a single whole leg of lamb.

[canoeist52]

12. I'd be concerned about giving onions to dogs or cats.

"Onions, garlic, chives, and leeks are of the Allium family, and are poisonous to both dogs and cats. Garlic is considered to be about 5X as potent as onions. Certain breeds and species seem to be more sensitive: Japanese breeds of dogs (e.g., Akita, Shiba Inu) and cats. Onion and garlic poisoning results in oxidative damage to the red blood cells (making the red blood cells more likely to rupture) and gastroenteritis (e.g., nausea, oral irritation, drooling, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea). Other clinical signs of anemia may be seen, and include lethargy, pale gums, an elevated heart rate, an increased respiratory rate, weakness, exercise intolerance, and collapse. Onion and garlic poisoning may have a delayed onset, and clinical signs may not be apparent for several days."
http://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/poison/onion/

Sadly no one in my family cares to eat lamb, but the book looks interesting.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

14. Thank you for letting me know about that.

I shall make sure that I do not give even cooked onions to my dogs any more.

[B2G]

15. Best part about leftover roast chicken

is the homemade chicken salad.

Chicken Salad

3-4 cups shredded chicken
1 stalk of celery, chopped
½ small onion, diced
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon sour cream
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp vinegar
1 tsp dill or tarragon
Dash of fresh ground pepper

Mix mayo, sour cream, vinegar, mustard and spices together. Add chicken, onion and celery. Still well. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. I just finished a large bowl of soup...

second meal from a supermarket rotisserie chicken.

Still have one and a half breasts left, so more soup and maybe tomorrow some chicken salad.

Or chicken a la king.

[Retrograde]

19. Quite a few

I buy whole chickens and disassemble them. The wing tips, back, neck, and gizzards are saved in a freezer bag until I have enough parts to fill the stock pot. The wings are saved separately until I have a Ziploc bag full for a wings feast. I freeze the liver separately as well until I get enough for a liver dish. I usually get two meals for two adults from each breast, and two the thigh/leg combination. So 6 plus.

Any small scraps get used with whatever veggies are on hand in ramen.