The Mumsnet Chicken

[FastApprochingForty]

I'll start by saying I'm not a good cook but have been trying. Inspired by the (often satirical) comments, and the fact many of you may have had one as a Sunday roast, how many meals can you get out of a roast chicken, (depending on size of bird and family)?

I've managed to get 3 dinners and 2 lunches for two adults (we've no kids) out a 1.5kg roast chicken:
Dinner 1 & 2: breast meat with salad, hummus and flatbread.
Dinner 3: legs with rice & Asian veg.
Lunch 1 & 2: strip remaining meat off carcass and boil remains for stock and turn into chicken & veg soup. (Not sure I'm doing the stock part long enough, as still end up adding a chicken stock-cube).

Am interested to hear of others meal plans from a single chicken.

Since this is AIBU, mine is that I normally bin the stuff that's left in the bottom of the cooking tray. Should I be doing anything with it, and is there anything to use it for apart from making gravy? I never see any congealed white bits of fat, just all looks like brown jelly when cold, so have never attempted to make gravy as not sure how the fat gets separated out.

Thanks

This is the one I did a few years ago.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/2568385-My-Mnetted-chicken

I did beef and gammon too.

Can I ask a question about the cooking of the mumsnet chicken please?

I regularly roast a chicken for Sunday lunch and normally make pasta bake/ salad with it the next day or two. Last time my DM was here she commented on the fact that I didn't cook the chicken on a raised platform so all the underneath meats didn't look that useable as it was all a bit greasy and not crispy. She turns the chicken over half way through cooking so the base is just as cooked/ browned as the top. Then flips it back over for the last 20 mins to finish the process. Is this just my mum or does everyone do similar to make sure all the underneath meat looks just as 'nice' as the top meat?

@IHaveBrilloHair

I did beef and gammon too.

Do you have a link to your beef one? The chicken recipes look delicious.

The 🐔 must be huge in the UK.
Mind you a chicken fillet in Spain is the size of a large plate.

Depends on portion sizes as with everything. If i were in a pinch though I'd resort to roast chicken as even with very decent portions we could get 3 meals 2 adults one toddler. I don't eat meat so often what would be my portion ends up in sandwiches. For the same reason I don't do the stock as I try to cook as many meals as I can that we can all eat so often I'm adding the meat at the end. The stock wouldn't be able to be used for us all. The local foxes get our carcass once stripped.

I think my Waitrose chicken came with instructions to cook the chicken on its breasts first and then turn it. It was too much of a faff for me. I just lattice the top with streaky bacon, like you would a pheasant.

I smoke chicken on a barbecue with a beer can to hold it vertical, but I only have one oven (and would hate to lose the space for roasties and trimmings).

Then flips it back over for the last 20 mins to finish the process. Is this just my mum or does everyone do similar to make sure all the underneath meat looks just as 'nice' as the top meat?

I have done but it just dries it out, I think the underneath meat tastes much better and juicier if you don’t.

@Barmbraic
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/2580563-My-mumsnetted-brisket

How does everybody flavour the chooks?

I usually rub mine with olive oil, plenty salt and pepper. Garlic clove, rosemary sprigs and a bay leaf inside, then a dod or two of butter on the top. In a roasting tin with a lid for 1.5-1.75 hours until juices run clear. Then drain juices, wrap in foil for 30-40 mins to rest.

And to the PP who said a meal with only a bit of chicken doesn’t count, I disagree! Of course it will usually be just one element of a meal. A few bits of Leftover roast chicken Can transform a salad, pasta dish or risotto in to a completely different dish.

I do mine with garlic, fennel seeds, olive oil and sometimes a few chilli flakes.

I buy a large chicken for two of us. I roast it by shoving a metal kitchen roll holder up it's arse, so it cooks 'stood up'
We have a leg each and the rest is used for curries.
I usually get around four curries out of it.
The dog gets the skin.
The bin gets the carcass.

@Kolsch after getting over the mental imagine of that, it sounds ingenious for all over crispy skin!

@WineAndTiramisu thanks for recipe links. @IHaveBrilloHair I looked at your previous post - great ideas and beautifully presented. I'm not at that stage yet

Some more good tips in this thread; will be trying the ice-cube one for separating the fat out, and the one about making extra gravy / veg and sticking in a tray with a puff pastry top.

[quote IHaveBrilloHair]@Barmbraic
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/2580563-My-mumsnetted-brisket[/quote]
Thanks very much. I never cook beef so there are some good idea to get me started there.

I would honestly be so upset if I were invited to dinner at some people's houses and the meat portion was as described on this thread. I have a leg (thigh and drumstick), wing and a slice or two of breast meat as my portion of chicken with a roast. I'd be gutted to get less!

N.B. I am not fat.

There's a big difference to what you serve to your own family and what you serve to a guest, surely you get that?

I think it’s clear that the meals and portions being talked about on this thread are about feeding a family as economically/cheaply as possible. That’s entirely different from how you would cater for a dinner guest, and what meal and portion size you would offer them.

@IHaveBrilloHair

There's a big difference to what you serve to your own family and what you serve to a guest, surely you get that?

I eat the same as I would if I had guests. I'll eat breast, a leg, wings, stuffing. I'm not saving good dinners for having guests over.

One breast for DH, one leg and thigh for me, one breast between the three kids as one is practically veggie and the other two barely touch it. Oysters for me too (the chef always gets them)

The other leg is then either made in to a pie or a sandwich or pasta the next day.

I have a friend who feeds 8 people on one chicken so they must get a tiny amount of meat each. I grew up in very bad poverty and we never had a whole chicken, ever. My mum called DH the other day and he said “oh yes, Pickle is just putting a chicken in the oven so there’ll be some dinner if you want to come over.” Spare dinner! What a thing! And thats why I buy a larger chicken than needed. I feel secure that there’s more meat should someone be hungry.

I think something missing here is the economical factor

If you can afford to eat a chicken breast or leg, then that’s what occurs, if you cannot it’s eeked out over a number of meals. I don’t think anyone splits a chicken breast five ways if they don’t have to.

I do think though it gets to a level of what’s the point because there is so very little chicken in a given meal you may as well just enjoy the chicken properly instead of having so many meals where no one really can enjoy it because there is so little of it present.

There are many economical ways to feed a family and there comes a point where it’s better to just have one or two good chicken dinners and veggie the rest of the time, rather than twenty meals with so little chicken in the whole thing is pointless.

When I was a kid a 3 pound chicken served 7 people. Nobody got a leg or breast, the whole chicken was sliced up and shared out, tough titty if you didn't like brown meat or whatever. My mum did refuse to boil the carcass up for stock though, she used chicken stock cubes instead.

I agree with @IFwithloadsofchocolate. Let me rephrase, then: I'd be gutted to be the child or spouse of some people on here if their normal portion sizes are as described!

@Bluntness100 absolutely! I only eat meat a couple of times a week so when I have it, I want loads.

I'd much rather have a delicious and fully vegetarian meal than a 'chicken dish' with a sliver of meat as the portion.

I'd much rather have a delicious and fully vegetarian meal than a 'chicken dish' with a sliver of meat as the portion.

But you must understand that not everyone is the same as you and there is a whole range of tastes. Personally I only like a small amount of meat with a meal but I don't insist that's the only way. I accept everyone has their own preferences