My attempt at the magical MN chicken. Share your ways to make meals go further..

[Budgetconscious2]

I bought a 1.8kg chicken reduced down to £3. Thought I try to see how many meals I could get out of it, seeing as many on here talk about the magical Mumsnet chicken 🐔 😊

If nothing else, I thought it might give others some ideas for making meals go further.

All portions are for an adult, according to recommended portion sizes found on the ingredient packets, or recipe.

I roasted it in the airfryer along with some potatoes and parsnips. I also cooked carrots, runner beans, peas, green beans, and Yorkshire puds . Served with gravy.

Meat portion (cooked) was about 100g × 2 portions. This was less than 1 of the large breasts between us. It was more than enough with all the other trimmings. Different sites put the portion size of chicken anywhere between 80g to 150g, depending on the recipe/rest of the meal's ingredients. For Eg, a curry will usually suggest less chicken/serving than chicken, mash and peas.

The next day, I took off the rest of the breast meat from both sides, which gave just ~400g meat. I used this as the basis for a chicken, mushroom and sweetcorn risotto, using a large tin of sweetcorn, and 3 small tins of sliced mushrooms that had to be used up. Based on 75g dry risotto rice per portion (recommended portion size for an adult), I made enough for 6 adult portions. For someone with a very large appetite, you could always add on some garlic bread.

With the remaining carcass and drumstick/ thigh/ wing meat I made a stock using about 4l water plus 2 stock cubes, salt, black pepper, 1 large diced onion, 2 large whole carrots, and some herbs, as well as the juices/jelly that I'd saved from roasting the chicken. I brought it to the boil and then simmered for ~1 hour.
I then removed and diced the carrots, and removed the carcass and took all the meat off the bone, leaving aside the skin and cartilage and offal bits for my pets. The meat went back into the soup alongside the diced carrots. I then added ~200g dried pearl barley and ~100g red lentils as well as a handful (~50g) of dried split peas and about 500g peeled and quartered potatoes. I then checked and adjusted the seasoning and added some maggi, brought it back to a boil and cooked this at a low simmer for around 40-50mins until the pearl barley, etc, was fully cooked. This made 8 decent sized portions of soup. My dh ate his portions with a slice of homemade sourdough bread, but mine was filling enough without bread for me.

All in all, this 1 chicken was used to make 16 portions. Not bad, although the chicken is obviously not the star of the show in each meal, but the taste did come through and it didn't feel stingy... there was definitely more chicken than you'd get in a ready made risotto or soup 😂😎

I tend to do similar things with all joints of meat we buy. The 1st meal will be a simple roast or something similar, then I'll use up the leftovers in pasta, rice, soup or stew dishes. Depending on the size of the joint, I get at least 4 meals for 2 from each one.

Wow. My partner and I ate most of a while chicken last Sunday with roast trimmings etc
We had a few scraps left for a sandwich the next day.

I do very similar, OP- one chicken will usually be enough for a roast for 4, pie for 4, soup for 8 plus extra stock to be used in another meal. Then again, I did read on here a post from a women who always bought a whole chicken because she liked the look but she and her husband only liked breast so they threw the rest in the bin 😭

I guess it depends on your appetites, and how much meat you like on your plate.

If it had been a joint of lamb, the meat portion for the roast may have gone upto 125g per person, as it's our favourite meat, but I generally try to stick to the recommended portion sizes, especially for meat.

An average sized chicken breast fillet often won't weigh much more than 100-125g once it's been cooked, so 100g roasted chicken seems about right to me, but I accept that's just my opinion and different people do things differently.

I know someone like that and it makes me cry, too. I even showed him how much meat was still left on it by deboning it all, but he just told me to take it home if I wanted it as he'd be throwing it in the bin as he wouldn't eat leftover meat.

I feel like the magical MN chicken only works if you have a small appetite or eat carb heavy meals. I have GD so need a lot of protein in my meals (I appreciate this is a me problem) and a chicken that size would probably comfortably do 6 adult meal portions here - quite a difference.

I think making a chicken and veg soup/stew with added beans or lentils is a good way to stretch it out. If I have lots of trimmings like stuffing and Yorkshires and several veg I can eat quite a small amount of chicken in a roast. My appetite is quite small though. I'd imagine an athletic young bloke would eat double what I do.

We usually get three meals out of a chicken for 5 of us (3 adults 2 teens). I know if one takes to piss but we have loads of veg and yorkshires and potatoes so means we can have some leftover. The second meal is usually pasta with chicken and more veg and the last one is little bits of chicken in a chicken broth and vegetable soup.

I do similar with mince so we get a 500 gram bag of mince and that usually lasts two meals (10 big portions) if not 12 portions. Carrots onion and celery. Add the mince and a few tins of tomatoes and then lentils/kidney beans. Then some spinach. First dates ever chilli or spag bol. Second day make a topping of potato for Shepard's or cottage pie and served with lots of green veg.
Conscious of cost and not eating too much meat and making sure we get loads of veg. Works for us.

I think it's not about the carbs as so much either adding other protein or lots of green veg. Also we get a lot of protein in other meals such as eggs, yogurt and beans

Have you got a price down of each meal per portion?

Did you take it?? I actually did take home someone’s leftover chicken carcass once. Well they offered and I hate waste! I made fantastic stock and had a gorgeous chicken noodle soup from it.

If I'm having a roast, the meat tends to be the only source of protein on the plate... so I wouldn't have less than 150g cooked per person (but again maybe this is just me).

Curries I would always add chickpeas etc.

Jeebus. @Budgetconscious2 I’d take food storage containers every time I went over to their house just to save that food from being wasted!

Yes, I did, 😂 I can't bear waste.

If we're having plain chicken with mash or something like a steak then we might also have a larger portion of meat, say around 150-180g, but we also eat a lot of protein from other sources, eg, lentils, pulses, Greek yoghurt, eggs, etc, so a smaller portion at dinner works for us.

In general, on most days, I eat about the right level of protein for my weight, etc, it just doesn't all come from meat. 🙂

I'm also trying to cut down my consumption of meat in general, so every little helps.

I'm sure I can work it out, if you like?
I bought my chicken reduced, but I can work it out on the full price so that it's more realistic.

I'm sort of interested in the price efficiency when you add lentils, barley, mushrooms etc. Is it actually he most cost effective way of cooking especially with reduced price meat.

Flavour is a completely different matter (and obviously subjective)

I think it could have gone even further if you had removed the wing/drumstick/leg meat rather than boiling it with the carcass and used that meat to make chicken stir fry or chicken fried rice (perhaps a bit too similar to your risotto in that its another rice dish) or chicken and pasta perhaps. You would still have made the same amount of soup, so you may well have added another 4 portions/meals to that 16.

I often would have used the legs up in sandwiches or something similar, to be fair, but I fancied the extra meat in the soup this time 😂

With a chicken and 4 of us I usually use both thighs and one breast for a roast. Most of the rest of the meat then goes in either a risotto or a curry the next day. I'll keep a bit to one side to make a chicken noodle salad (shredded chicken, grated carrot, thinly shredded cabbage and cooked noodles in a soy sauce dressing with sesame seeds) for 2 packed lunches. The carcass is turned into stock the day after I cook it so if I make curry rather than risotto I don't need it so I'll use it as the base for a soup (usually leek and potato with a little bacon). So 10 portions plus possibly a bonus soup.

@Londonmummy66 I like the sound of the chicken noodle salad. I'll try that next time, rather than sandwiches. Thanks 🙏🏼

@TickingAlongNicely I've worked it out and it's a pretty cheap meal. I'd say even including electric or gas it's well under £1/ portion.

This is how I worked it out:

I've given several different prices. One is at the full price of the chicken, and there's a price for 6 and 8 portions. Then I've done the same again using the reduced price I actually paid.

Hth 🙂

Good lord. One chicken is one lunch for me and a sandwich the next day. The cats have the rest. I just can’t eat something that stretches into days old.

Sometimes, needs must, but as I said in a previous post, everyone is different with different appetites, priorities, etc, but this works for me and even if it only helps one other person out, then to me, it was worth posting about.

Bet your cat loves the leftovers!

I also take off all the skin and gristle, etc, for my pets to eat, so once I'm done with the carcass it's picked so clean, almost as though a swarm of meat eating locusts have been (I know there's no such thing).

My OH is like this, he wont eat anything that was cooked more than a day previously and even that has to go in the freezer, the cat gets quite a lot of left overs. I view it as completely wasteful, he wont eat things that have already been opened for example. Whereas I like the idea of that chicken going so far and really making the most of it

@EachandEveryone why not freeze the rest?