So that mythical MN roast chicken

[MoonahStone]

What meals do you actually turn it into to make it last a number of days without your family dying of boredom (or food poisoning) 🐓

Roast chicken. Then it depends how hungry people were, but definitely either soup or stock depending on what’s needed. If soup then there’s nothing left, but if stock then there’ll be enough meat for sandwiches or a salad.

There's two of us, neither particularly greedy or remotely overweight. We don't eat roast dinners often but will roast or bbq a chicken to eat with salad at least once a week. There'll be plenty left the next day for a curry or stir fry, or to have with potato salad and corn on the cob. I pick off the bits and scraps for the dogs. Sometimes DP might make a casserole or stew with the original leftovers instead which will yield more portions for freezing. I hate cooking so if left to my own devices would just keep eating chicken sandwiches until it was gone 😄

We're in Canada and food costs here are eye-watering. We can only dream of getting 3 chickens for the equivalent of £10 - that's around what we pay for one!

“We can only dream of getting 3 chickens for the equivalent of £10 - that's around what we pay for one!“

I pay more than that for one- but I wouldn’t have chicken if I couldn’t afford free range.

I used to wonder about the mythical MN chickens until a colleague invited me and 5 other adults to her house for lunch. She talked a lot about her cooking so I was really looking forward to it. Food was served, she played everyone's up and it was the portion size I 'd give to a 5 year old. She was waxing lyrical about how food poverty in the UK was a myth; we were 7 adults and she had made a chicken curry with one and a half chicken breasts, half a cup of rice each (which she had the exact pricing for) and some frozen veg. Nobody in the UK has to go hungry! . Clearly she was a frequenter of the 10 meals from a chicken threads. I roast 2 chickens for a family of 5.

Erm me and DS have a cooked dinner - DH has the legs and then I strip it and the dog gets it on top of his food for about 3 meals.

Flummoxed how anyone gets multiple meals. And no we are not massive.

but I really carefully get the meat off

Yes, I spend ages stripping the carcass too. Those who struggle to get more than one meal from a chicken, do you take time to winkle out all the odd bits of meat before disposing of the bones?

It it was myself, my OH and my 2 daughters (both young adults) we would each have a breast or a leg, so one chicken would feed 4 people comfortably, plus there would be enough left for a 2nd meal for me and my OH - something like a pie or maybe a biryani. If it was a very big chicken we could get enough off the carcass for my daughter to make soup with as well. It just depends on the size of the chicken. And obviously, if we needed to make it stretch we would have smaller portions and then we could get another full meal out of it. It’s a luxury to be able to eat however much meat we want.

We have the roast chicken and then use the cooked meat for stir fry or risotto. Sometimes put the cooked meat in gravy for a chicken pie (pastry or mash on top). Very occasionally make stock from the bones (but it is lovely).

If you cook your chicken in a slow cooker it can be very easy to get the meat off the carcass.

Can I just say, I posted on page 2 a list of meals I make from leftover chicken... They're not all from one chicken!! I'll get a roast, maybe one or two off my list and a few bits left over to put in salads / sandwiches out of a supermarket large chicken. I have young DC who don't eat a lot, so that's how I stretch it. I also boil the carcass to make stock to cook other stuff in.

The 3 chickens that are sold for £10 can't possibly have had a long nor a happy life 😢

A cat of ours once jumped through a neighbour's window, swiped a whole chicken from the table and demolished it. Off topic. If she (neighbour) is reading, she will remember! 🐈

Maybe I'm buying the wrong size chicken but for us it does 1 meal, then maybe a sandwich for OH. But he and DS eat a lot of meat with their roast dinner.
Maybe I'll try and buy a bigger chicken.

If we have a large roast chicken on a Sunday, we’re left with one breast, a wing and the back. We’d do a stir fry with most of what’s left after dh has put it in a wrap/sandwich for himself. The stir fry would be for me and him, so not exactly going far between us. Dds are 8 and 9.

One medium chicken, dh gets a breast and thigh. Ds gets 2/3 breast, a thigh, a drumstick. I get 1/3 breast and drumstick. I strip the meat off the thighs/drumsticks when serving so don't get into every bit of meat as it's too hot to do by hand.

Once it's cooled down the rest of the meat gets stripped off by hand and the dog gets it as a treat (usually around 1/2 dog bowl).

@notatwork can I ask how you make the stock by slow cooking? I’ve never managed to get any flavour in mine but not sure where I’m going wrong!

Some I'm not who you asked but I think it's really hard to get a good stock from a slow cooker.

Simply the way they work isn't conducive to doing so (it's why I massively favour a pressure cooker over a slow cooker).

That said, you can compensate for the lack of heat by doing two things.

Firstly take the chicken carcass and dust in powdered milk. Yes I know it sounds odd but it does work.

Then roast in the oven on a high temperature until it looks golden and crispy.

Then put in the slow cooker with water, an onion, celery stalks (and leaves) and a carrot.

Cook for as long as you can. In a slow cooker that can be 24 hours.

Only season at the end otherwise it's hard to judge given how much the flavour concentrates.

My best stocks have been 8 hours in a pressure cooker (topping up the liquid) and frankly I could eat them as a meal alone they are so lovely .

I don't know about using a slow cooker but I make stock (or used to, haven't done it for a while), by boiling and then simmering chicken carcass, a bit of uncooked chicken, lots of veg including peelings such as onion (which I sautee first), carrot, leeks, celery, swede or turnip, potato, a little garlic, seasoning and some herbs. I usually add white wine. Simmer for three to four hours, topping up with water. Then I strain it, leave to cool and skim off the fat. It can be put in containers, such as an ice cream box, and frozen for future use.

I used to freeze chicken carcasses but haven't done anything like that for ages. My big stock pot is feeling lonely!

I do many of the above , but one of our favourites is chicken tarragon: sautéed onion, mushrooms, white wine, orange juice, tarragon stalks, reduce add sour cream and chicken. Served with fresh egg pasta.

Stock: I usually freeze carcasses (chicken, turkey, pheasant - I even scrounge from family who’d usually discard) then simmer four (I have a massive 22 litre stockpot) with onions, leeks, celery, bay leaves, peppercorns & thyme for about 6 hours - simmer very, very gently with the veg lying on the top (this creates a lovely clear stock).
I then ladle out most of the stock through a sieve, pot up into plastic yoghurt pots, refill the stockpot with water and simmer again, then strain.

Never add salt, as I add that when using the stock.

This way I get about 15x450ml pots which I freeze. It’s a bit of a faff but I only do it 5 or 6 times a year and I have all the stock I need. So nearly £30 worth of stock from leftovers.

“One medium chicken, dh gets a breast and thigh. Ds gets 2/3 breast, a thigh, a drumstick. I get 1/3 breast and drumstick. I strip the meat off the thighs/drumsticks when serving so don't get into every bit of meat as it's too hot to do by hand.”

Good to see that penis portions are alive and well......

who the hell has a single chicken thigh as an adult portion

er, me....

Me too. It's part of a meal that also has sausagemeat stuffing, yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, Parsnips and veg and sometimes roast onions. I'm always STUFFED to the brim and sometimes can't finish it all. I don't understand why that's a problem for some people.

I must say, I don't strip the carcass bare, perhaps that's where others get so much more meat. I leave quite a lot as I wouldn't eat veins etc. The dogs get it and they're quite happy.

DirtyDennis

But you should have at least the carcass to make stock even if that's all that's left.

Home made stock makes the best risotto.

This thread is pure food porn. I’m considering roasting a chicken in the office to satisfy my bizarre 7am chicken needs. When I roast a chicken it makes roast chicken and then I stand by the work surface grazing on the leftovers and throwing bits to the cat. I’m going to have to up my game.