With my MN chicken I made 17 meals and three sandwiches.

[Kendodd]

It can be done!
Large chicken, don't know the weight but it took 2 hours 5 minutes to cook.
We had -
Roast dinner for five.
Chicken fajitas for four.
Chicken and bacon pie for five.
Risotto for three.
And three chicken salad sandwiches.

Two adults, the secondary school kids. Maybe we just don't eat much so our portions are small.

@Kendodd

It can be done! Large chicken, don't know the weight but it took 2 hours 5 minutes to cook. We had - Roast dinner for five. Chicken fajitas for four. Chicken and bacon pie for five. Risotto for three. And three chicken salad sandwiches.

Two adults, the secondary school kids. Maybe we just don't eat much so our portions are small.

And a partridge in a pear tree?

@Kendodd why does family not eat much? Seems very strange. Or is there illness involved? I can’t imagine active people eating such small portions of normal, healthy food.

your family

This is the oddest thread ever, it’s not even funny.

So basically what you’re saying op is for every meal everyone gets a chicken nugget sized bit of chicken. But that makes twenty percent of the meal, so multiplied up you are all not eating enough to fill a toddler.

Just thinking of one day when the OP’s kids go to a pal’s house for dinner and are given a fajita with more than a sprinkling of chicken, it’s going to blow their minds 😂

Who only has 3 small roasties?!

What about the partridge on a pear tree?

I would say the most children per person was on the roast dinner and even then it would have only been 20% of the meal max.

So the trick to the infamous MN chicken is to bulk it out with children. That's where I've been going wrong.

I feed my 11 month old more then that

[quote Kendodd]**@Bluntness100 I always love your posts but the calculations of this dinner with a half of potato have thrilled me.

I think Bluntness got the calculation about right! One large, baking size potato, cut into quarters for roasting, about two quarters each (ok, maybe three).[/quote]
That's not normal.

I think the OP is getting some unnecessary flack here.

And I think some posters balance of meat:veg in their meals is way off (with far too much emphasis on meat). Either that or they’re eating far more food than I do (and I’m no slouch!)

I don’t often do roasts (my dc have various different food issues, and balancing food touching on a plate/personal tastes etc gets difficult) so don’t cook a whole chicken often, but some of the amounts being mentioned here are crazy.

I think one poster said they’d cook 1kg chicken breasts for one meal for 5 people. That sounds way over the top to me.

Generally, I use 1 1/2 - 2 chicken breasts (so maybe 350g?) in a meal (depends on size). In a pasta sauce, I’d also add various veg, sauce etc. That pan of food would then feed us (me plus 3 dc - 2 teens who eat a lot and one 9 year old who can be picky) for that meal (obv with pasta as well), and I’d have another meal (ie a portion for each of us) to freeze. Plus 1, sometimes 2 (but not usually) single portion to freeze as dd1 takes hot meals sometimes. So overall, I’d say it makes 7 adult portions plus 2 child portions. And we don’t go hungry, at all.

I think, overall, as a society, we have lost sight of what is a reasonable portion size, and what proportion of meat/veg/carb is supposed to make up our meal. I’m not claiming to be an authority in any way, btw.

Don’t those meal portion plates show that meat is only supposed to make up 20-25% of your meal? Hang on, I’ll try to find an example.

What is an "MN" chicken?

I do hope you saved the bones to turn into potash fertilizer.

Reminds me of my hitchhiking days, as a student, 50 years ago. A friend and I, hitching a lift back home the morning after a rock concert, were picked up by a laconic truck driver. There was a pungent whiff in the cabin. "What you carrying in the back, then?" one of us asks, to break the silence. "Shit and feathers," he says.

5 of us (all adult size)
when we roast a chicken (very very rarely) we pick it clean.
nothing leftover for anything else. and chicken stock is overrated

The recommended portion of meat for an adult in a adults meal is approx 3 to four times what the op says she allows. It’s not we have lost sight of a reasonable portion, it is the op is serving approx a quarter of a recommended portion.

this kind of plate

You crisped up chicken skin in the oven as topping for the risotto, and that was another meal?

I had a B & B landlady who would make a 3lb frozen chicken stretch to 13 student boarders for Sunday dinner. You needed a magnifying glass...

Crikey don’t invite me round for dinner, I’ll be starving!
One roast chicken does me, DH and DS(3) one roast dinner, one lot of sandwiches and then I use the bones to make stock/soup. No way could I stretch it further than that!

@ElfDragon

this kind of plate

You’re missing the point, the protein section had the equivalent of one chicken nugget in it.

“One chicken nugget” 😭😂

I think one poster said they’d cook 1kg chicken breasts for one meal for 5 people. That sounds way over the top to me.

200g of chicken per person is hardly a crazy amount!

I think saying ‘allows’ is putting in a control aspect that simply has not been there from any of the OPs posts.

OP has stated that she (? - apologies if not!) prefers meals that way, with (from what has been described) plenty of veg, and other accompaniments to a meal.

Cue lots of posters falling over themselves to say how mean she is, how ridiculous, how controlling etc.

I don’t think she is (from the little stated here). I have, before now, made a surprising amount from a full roast chicken when I was determined to use up every bit (and when I had the time!). Meat isn’t the main focus of any meal I make, but is a part of what makes up the whole meal. I don’t think meat should ever be the full focus of a meal, but I appreciate others have different views.

I honestly find it astonishing that 5 people would eat 1kg of chicken breast for one meal, with, presumably, other food as well - I cannot conceive of eating that much, as I imagine the food in proportion to how I serve meals (with about 20-25% meat contribution) and the amounts are just simply enormous if scaled up using 1kg chicken. That doesn’t make me right and another poster wrong. It means I eat more veg/other stuff alongside my meal, I assume. Or that other people really do eat many multiples of what I eat.

Sorry but a chicken does 1 meal for two adults

"People have no clue about portion sizes these days and take more than they need."

From earlier in the thread. I never get this argument. My BMI is on the lower side of normal. If I start cutting my portion sizes, I will lose weight. I don't need to lose weight. None of my family need to lose weight either. Therefore our portion sizes are in line with what we need to maintain a healthy weight! Between 5 of us we'll demolish most of a large chicken in one meal, with enough left over for maybe a sandwich or two. So are you suggesting we starve ourselves in order to conform to your arbitrary idea of a 'normal' portion? I mean, obviously we could fill up with more potatoes or veg. But then we'd be eating more than a 'portiom' of those too. (And we really quite like roast chicken...)

I think 200g of chicken per person in a meal is a lot.

Taking the (very) rough guide of:

25% protein
25%carb
50% veg,

that means the whole meal would have 400g veggies in it, alongside whatever carb as well - that’s a LOT of (eg) carrots per person! I honestly can’t conceive of eating that amount (talking about the whole meal) in just one meal. Or the proportions of the meal are not (in my opinion) right.