to ask how you make a chicken last the week without poisoning the entire family

[Chasdingle]

Ok the legendary mn chicken that will feed a family for the week. Last night we had a roast chicken and i've got some bits of chicken left over in the fridge that usually DP would use for sandwiches the next day but he was off today. I could use these in a stir fry or curry or soup but i'm alway abit scared as hear horror stories about reheating chicken- what are the actual 'rules' on reheating chicken so i don't poison the family

I got the rules OP.

First time you cook it has to reach 75,

Then the second time you cook it has to reach 85'

You shouldn't heat it a third time, but if you pick it apart and separate it you will have a few lots of chicken to add.

Ok I'll bite...

Chinese style chicken porridge.

What in the name off all things breakfast like is that preciousbane?

I love roast chicken, I love Chinese and I love porridge. Have I missed a trick here?!

In our house it goes - buy chicken, cook chicken, feed family, feed mysteriously large group of boy / girl friends / other hangers on.

Buy another chicken.

You basically make meals where chicken is a tiny ingredient. So easy to make stir fry with lots of vegetables and one breast of chicken for 4 people added to it.

I buy a large chicken, have it roasted then pick it apart and use that in a curry. Depending on what I also lob in with it I can make the curry big enough to feed us for a meal and have a couple of portions left over for lunches at work the next day.
I have no idea how you would make it last a week unless you were using miserly portions of chicken in your dishes. Personally, if I'm eating a chicken meal I want to taste the chicken.

Most people don't cook a chicken properly - it should be cooked upside down eg breast downwards.

Most people don't clean a carcass of all the meat, they leave the underside and wings.

I was guilty of terrible food waste at one point. I'm a lot more savvy now. I use bacobags, or the supermarket generic own brand for all my meat cooking. It keeps everything moist and tender and meat falls off the bone.

With a large chicken I can feed 5 a Sunday roast (and my tribe are meat eaters) and make a curry, bulked outwith veg, for the following day. I might boil the bones down for stock if I'm intending to make a pie later in the week.

Most people are wasteful with food. ask someone who lived through the war with rationing how they would make food last. As a nation we over eat these days anyway. Most portions are larger than need be.

We keep cooked meat for 4-5 days here. If we use it in a dinner I make sure it's properly heated, otherwise it does for sandwiches. Why would you throw out meat after 24 hours?

YY the skiing gardener. People appear to be using pre-refrigeration guidelines or something!

Never found one of these magic chickens in Tesco myself

Either they are the size of a huge turkey or there is little meat in the meals made from them. I would save any bits leftover for the cat or a sandwich but always use within 24 hours. Sandwich meat says use within 48 hours from opening and is likely to have something added to it so theres no way i would eat chicken after 4 days.

Wow we should cook chicken upside down?

Every days a learning day!

Why should we cook it upside down? I'm intrigued.

I tend to stick the carcass in a pot with a load of stock and veg and boil it for ages to make soup. Haven't poisoned anyone yet.

A quick Google shows it's to keep the juices in the breast meat to stop it drying.

I use this technique. Chop a load of veg (onions, potatoes, carrots etc) into large chunks and fill the bottom of a roasting tin with them. Rest the chicken on top and rub all over with garlic and herb butter (use rock salt and freshly ground pepper, I usually use fresh thyme) and a squeeze of lemon. Add the two halves of a lemon into the roasting tin as well. Because the chicken is held off the bottom of the roasting tin it cooks evenly all the way round and doesn't dry out (well it's worked so far). Plus you get all the flavour from the veg and you can keep what's left and use it in the soup the next day. Also baste...a lot...

Mmmm sounds moist! Think I will try that thanks

It really is a piece of piss to do, and it's proven foolproof so far

Funny thing is, I'm vegetarian so have never actually eaten it, but everyone I've cooked it for says it's very moist and tasty.

I can easily make a chicken last a month. My dh and I are happy to share one breast over a week. The trick is sourcing the correct chicken of course.

I once bought a huge chicken which I thought would last us (a family of 3) for 3 evening meals. However, we invited a friend we nickname 'Desperate Dan' for the roast on the first evening and there was not a scrap of meat left anywhere on the carcass for any future meals.

I grew up in a house with a proper larder with marble shelves and a meat safe. The larder was a consistent 2-3 degrees year round you ran in the winter and hung out in there in really hot summers. The left over roast regardless of type always went in the meat safe and always lasted at least another three days no one died or even got ill. I can count on one hand the number if times I have had DV in my 42 years.

This is what we're having for tea tonight:
www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/hugh-s-leftover-chicken-croquettes-recipe
It's about the most unhealthy thing you can do with left over chicken, but is deeply delicious.

I don't use all the herbs he mentions, just bay leaves as I've got those. Basically you make a really thick bechamel, infuse with herbs and onion, leave to cool, mix in the chicken, form into balls, coat in bread crumbs and deep fry. what's not to love?

I'd always try to use up leftovers the next day, or freeze on the day I cooked the chicken by the way.

I cook our roast chicken upside down amd once I did use the left over meat for a curry - I was stringy and pretty horrible. I've not bothered since.

Does anyone manage to get left over roast chicken that isn't stringy!

I should say, the best leftover chicken is from one that's been poached whole rather than roasted. It seems to go further as well. We eat the meat with the broth and the veggies and rice, pepped up with huge spoonfuls of english mustard. It's great.

I slice and pick the remaing meat before washing up. Slicable bits go in one plastic box, picked bits in another. Most often both go into the freezer straight away.

The picked carcase, with skin, feet, ears etc. gets torn up and simmered straight away with odds like carrots and onions.

So you end up with two boxes of bits for your sandwiches, risotto and stuff, and a tub of strained stock that can also go in the freezer. The bits thaw out very fast, and you can put the frozen stock straight into a pan.

If you are absolutely certain it will all get eaten within a day or two, no need to freeze.

I have never had stringy roast chicken from leftovers! I generally buy a 1.5 -1.7kg chicken for us (me, dh and two dc) We have a roast one night, curry the next and generally jambalaya or fajitas the next. Carcass gets used for stock. I agree with a pp who said that people don't strip the meat properly. Dh thinks he has taken all the meat off but I always manage to get lots more off it and DH can't work out how.