Hope this hasn't been done already .... The Mumsnet Chicken!

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www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/family/mum-feeds-family-entire-week-22750952

Couldn't believe my eyes! And I apologise for the Mirror link, clickbait got me this morning!

Lime*

Thank you @ColleagueFromMars

I didn't think of doing it in the slow cooker that's such a good shout.

Next time we get a full chicken I am going to make this.

Apologies to PP for the chicken breading, I was tired. I did mean chicken breeding!
I also muddled modern laying hens, where the cockerel chicks need to be discarded, and chickens destined for eating. Those chickens are a completely different breed. There is a wiki article “broiler_industry” that explains the modern varieties in use.

I did find the promised Cold War “Chicken of Tomorrow”. Our supermarket chickens today are the descendants of that innovation. freakonomics.com/podcast/farms-race/ (Words or audio)

I bet you were all waiting for that...

[quote IHaveBrilloHair]I found it!
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/2568385-My-Mnetted-chicken[/quote]
All your meals look amazing!

find this hard to believe, chickens take up very little space, reproduce easily, eat scraps and hens once grown pay for themselves. Much cheaper and easier than raising cows and pigs.

Growing up in the 60s chicken was a rare treat- we would eat only once a year.
Unless you lived in a rural area or a farm chicken was very expensive.
We ate a lot of sausage, tinned meat or poorer cuts of beef, usually minced.

It’s true that chickens were expensive back in the 50s and 60s, more so than other meat, but that was in the days before mass production of battery chickens. Free range are still quite a bit more expensive.

Older birds used to be sold as ‘boiling fowls’ - thought to be too tough for roasting.

Thanks @GingerKittyKat.
I did a gammon joint and brisket too.

My parents dated back to the inter war period and chicken was very definitely a luxury meat to them. My mother was brought up in the countryside but during the war chickens were needed for eggs, so not eaten often. My father grew up in urban poverty and meat full stop was a treat, but chicken was for Christmas dinner.

There are five of us. Left to their own devices, two of the kids alone once ate an entire chicken between them, but under controlled conditions we manage a roast meal (with a lot of sides), a curry or stir fry, stock and possibly some noodles or a sandwich. But we do similar with any roasts.

I have really fond childhood memories of my mother feeding leftover roast meat through the enamel mincer for a pie the next day.

Without wishing to sound "Cold Comfort" I agree with Dailyhandtowelwash I agree.
In my part of the country a Sunday roast was not a thing, I didn't even taste roast beef until I was 13, and that was not unusual. These cuts were far too expensive for many people in the poorer parts of the country.
We ate chicken once a year on christmas day, it was a celebration.

Interesting about others accounts, I have chatted about this with my Mam and Nan and I guess due to being so rural chicken wasn't a treat. They did however both say that they had tiny portions of meat and could make a chicken stretch much more than I can. They had free range hens that were for laying but were always allowed to go broody. 8-10 chicks hatched per hen cockrels for meat and hens once they stopped laying regularly, around 3 years.

This is a really fascinating thread, I've learned loads from it.

I've always wondered at the sneery posters, wondered if they had any idea of how other people may not have the same privilege or income that they themselves have?

We do waste a lot of food in this country. I know of several people locally who cook whole chickens - turkeys at Christmas - cut a few pieces off the breast and throw the rest away. That's shockingly wasteful.

Thank you ColleagueFromMars for your pho recipe, I love pho, it's the most amazingly tasty thing to eat.

I dont waste food,but i need 2 chickens for Sunday dinner.

I make a curry and maybe a sandwich but thats it.

Theres 3 adults and 3 kids here.

I think it depends on who you have living with you and there ages.

It comes down to portion sizes, doesn’t it? Every time these threads come up. That, and then people’s interest in cooking any leftovers. But mostly portion size.