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

It really depends on who I'm cooking for I think. If I'm making a roast and the husbands here I'll only get the roast, curry and stock out of a large chicken.

If the husband is on back shift and therefore won't have a dinner I'll get dinner, sweet and sour chicken or something, curry and stock out of one.

I agree about the stripping.. there's loads of meet on one underneath.

Just follow the heat up once more rule if you're worried.. course curry would mean heat in curry, freeze and then heat up but curry preserves meat or something.

I can eat a whole chicken at one go. They're not that meaty, but I do have to fight the cats off.

I really like cooking a roast chicken. Taking off all of the obvious meat to use in other dishes and for sarnies. Then whacking it back into the oven on high so all the left over bits go really crispy and toasted and then I take off all those bits and eat them straight away as a dinner as they are bloody gorgeous!

Chunderella - I've been told you can taste the lemon but it's not overpowering. You can always leave it out if you're not a fan. I just use whatever I have lying around sometimes, but the principle is the same.

don't know what you do to chicken to make it so dry and stringy?

medium chicken. roast on day one. cool and put in fridge covered with foil.

roast day two with chicken from the fridge. also cold chicken sandwiches for dd.

stir fry.

chicken soup. using left over gravy additional protein from beans.

chicken in white sauce (protein in milk)

the children often have had most of the daily amount of protein required from the milk in their breakfast cereal and cereals, and lunch so will not need a huge amount of chicken in their dinner.

I usually freeze the remainder chicken in meal sized portions so we are not eating chicken all week.

Day 1 have roast chicken legs and wings and a couple of sliced of breast. Make extra gravy from the pan juices. Make extra stuffing and roast potatoes. Day 2 reheat the remaining slices of breast in the gravy. Serve with lftover stuffing and roasties. It's never dry or stringy because I cook it upside down. Day 3 pick remaining bits of mest of the carcase and boil up bones with onion and celery, make into a soup and stir in the bits.
Usually buy a 1.5 kg chicken. There are 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 smallish DDs.

Where are these enormous chickens sold? Better still - who breeds them? And where can I buy their eggs? Just think - a one egg omelette could feed a whole dinner party with lots left over for breakfast the next day.

chickens are quite big birds.
but the ones you buy in the supermarket are often very young, just a couple of months old, so not fully grown.
and a fully grown mature bird would be very stringy and tough unless slow cooked.

I think a lot of American stretch chicken websites(!) suggest dividing the chicken on the day it's cooked and freezing portions/cups of chicken. Not sure how many 'cups' you'd get but prob 3/4.
Then one fresh meal/cup
Plus stock used once/twice would give you a weeks worth

I've never had any problems reheating chicken, and I've used it in stir fries, stews, curries, soups, croquettes ... I wouldn't use it after about three or four days though. Freeze what you don't use by then.

Oh, and I don't know about any rules ... often I just throw it in the soup and reheat it for about half an hour, other times (eg curry) it's cooked for longer.

Why do you need to worry about reheating it when it is absolutely fine to eat cold? I have ropey food hygiene standards but never gets food poisoning

We are obviously much greedier than most.

However, one thing I do is just lob the leftovers, carcass and all, into the freezer in a bag. When I have two or three of these I take them out and make them all into a huge pot of stock/soup. It is amazing how much more chicken comes off after it was been boiled.

Yes chicken is safe to eat cold so you don't need to worry about reheating it. Only if it's been frozen. You can freeze it once in each "state" - so raw chicken, freeze, defrost, cook, freeze again, defrost, eat. = fine.

But raw chicken, defrost, use half, re-freeze other unused, still raw half = unsafe.