To throw away the chicken every week?

[Fluffyhood]

I know IABU but I need to be shamed so I start doing something about it!
Family of 4, we have a roast chicken every week, we eat the breast meat and then I throw away the rest every week, I hate doing it but I'm too lazy and unimaginative to think of what to do with the rest of it!
Please shame me and tell me what you do with yours, I'd love to make it stretch to another meal!

They did a great chicken tea on Eat Well for Less once which we tried and it was yum. Rub the whole bird in curry paste (from a jar is fine) then roast as per weight instructions on top of chunks of wide and red potatoes and cauliflower. Baste occasionally in juices as it cooks, scooping some juice out so the veg isn't too soggy.

Quaff with nana and pickles. Bloody lovely.

Then blitz leftovers for a curried chicken soup.

Oh and another thing with the juices when you've roasted it normally ... once I've transferred the bird to a carving board I carefully pour all juices (after scrapping marmitey bits off side and bottom) into a tub. I the chill this and you end up with chicken dripping on top which I scrape off and cook with in the week instead of olive oil. Underneath you have the most gorgeous potent, rich "stock pot" which you can use again instead of a shop bought one. I know you can also use the tray loveliness to make gravy but unfortunately we don't yet have roasting dish which which can use on the hob.

I'm slightly obsessed with getting every last bit from my beautiful bird, can you tell?!

Naan bread that should say. Please don't eat elderly relatives.

We make jambalaya or chicken fried rice with it.

Google ‘rotisserie chicken ideas’.

@Mrsbadger77 - your chicken fried rice recipe sounds delicious, and I will definitely be trying it.

@Fluffyhood - I do a very simple sticky Asian dish with chicken (or duck or goose). Shred the meat (into reasonable bite sized bits) and stir in soy sauce, runny honey, Chinese five spice and a bit of sesame oil - maybe 2:1 ratio for the soy sauce and honey, with a dash of oil and a tsp of the five-spice, but I don’t measure it. You want enough to coat the meat, but only just.

Then fry it all until it is dark and sticky, and serve with rice. Garnish with chopped spring onions if you are feeling fancy.

I also make a chicken and chorizo baked rice that would be nice with leftover roast chicken.

Finely slice 1-2 onions, chop 2-3 peppers, and cut some chorizo up into cubes (I buy a whole one from the supermarket - it keeps forever in the fridge, and really adds flavour to anything).

Fry the onions, peppers and chorizo, then add rice (basmati or long grain) 100g per person, and some smoked paprika (about 1tsp, less if you don’t want it too spicy) and stir. Add 500g of tomato passata and a tin of chopped tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, a chicken stock cube, and about 300ml of hot water. Scrunch up a sheet of baking paper, open it up and put it onto the surface of the mixture.

As Nigella would say - clamp on a lid, and put into a 180 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

If using raw chicken (I buy skinless thighs and chop into cubes), add the chicken when you fry off the onion, peppers and chorizo. If using cold cooked chicken, cut into cubes/chunks) and add about 15-20 minutes into the cook time.

This is like a tomato-ey risotto, but with no faffy adding ladleful of stock and stirring.

Sandwiches or wraps for Monday .. cat treats ... stock for soup . Curry if enough.

I used to work with a girl who made a roast chicken last for 4 days (she even used bones to make bone broth!). I don’t go that far but I think shredded chicken in risotto is yummy, chicken pie with ready made pastry is super quick, chicken curry, chicken with pasta (I often have chicken, pasta and pesto for lunch on a Monday ). I do prefer to eat the breast with a roast dinner but the rest of meat is actually better for lots of dishes.

Just buy chicken breasts

The leg is my favourite part if I'm having roast dinner.

You can use the rest for absolutely anything. If you don't want to use it all straight away can freeze it and add it to pasta dishes, currys, whatever you want. I even boil down the bones for stock to either make soups or gravy and just freeze it if in ice cube trays for gravy, but the stock makes the best chicken soup.

Exactly..what a terrible waste.....Shocked.

My kids love chicken and veg pie - just use ready made pastry. OR you could make some warming chicken and veg soup.

Risotto chicken soup in Mayo sandwiches or curry. Even cold in a jacket potato with cheese. Last week I made a white sauce added chicken and topped with mash then baked. Family loved it even son who doesn't like brown meat.

Buy breasts if thats all you want.

I live alone, and often roast a small (1.4kg) chicken on a Sunday, and have the breast meat.
Then I pick at it and have salads for a couple of days.
On Tuesday afternoon, I make stock- just put the whole carcass in a pot, cover with water,and simmer for 40 minutes or so. Or, for soup add some left over / nearly finished veg, a little salt, some thyme. That does for lunches until Saturday.

Incredibly wasteful to just throw so many meals away!

I pick the meat off it and freeze it to use for sandwiches.

Why don't you just buy chicken breasts? You should eat / use all of the animal if you are buying it all.

What a waste. Like others have said, strip the carcass, use for sandwiches, salads or , I freeze mine and use it for dinners in the future

I ways carve up the whole chicken when it's cooked it's easier than dealing with a cook of roasted chicken
Put it in Tupperware and cook later in the week

Ramen chicken with a fried egg on top is a fav
Curry
Chicken pie
Or just sling it in a pasta sauce

The day after roast is always chicken korma / tikka to use the chicken. Or if I dont want it I make it then freeze it.

I’m not keen on cold meat either and tend to just finely chop any leftover and mix them with bacon and soffrito veg another day, a bit of stock, any other veg you have left over and some herb Philadelphia or creme fraiche makes a very easy pasta sauce.

I used to work with someone who did this, I told her bring it to me on a Monday morning lol.
Cook some pasta, half way through throw in some pieces veg ( whatevers to hand) to cook with the pasta, drain and throw in a tin of chicken soup, the leftover chicken and season ( dried herbs, garlic granules, pepper, salt.... whatever you season with) and that's it. Less than half an hour dinner.

Don’t buy a dead chicken to begin with lol. It’s a dead animal. Grim.

Take all remaining meat off, make a stock with the bones and you’ve got a base for a lovely left overs soup. Or curry, sandwiches, pasta dishes, risotto, I do Nadia Hussain’s 1 chicken 4 meals every week. Soup off the bones with any left over chicken you can’t get off. 1 breast is a pie, 1 breast is fajitas, & legs and thighs make a curry. We are a family of 4. Her time to eat book is fab! No left overs ever x save you a fortune x

Crikey, that is lazy. And mad! The breast meat is dry and boring compared to the brown meat. Stock and then soup? Coronation chicken? Curry? Pasta bake?

You could even just do something super simple like strip the rest of the neat and make a curry with a jar of sauce? x

It’s either a big chicken or you and your family don’t eat much chicken?
On a serious note though, I was a single parent to my now 45 year old daughter and had a packet of chicken soup to last all day for us, how can you simply through food away, please check your conscious, and just do as other posts suggest and buy two chicken breasts.