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!

Blimey are we still talking about chicken?

A thread about a chicken feeds even more people than the chicken does yearin

OMG I honestly thought I had checked what I wrote before I posted, that's got to be my best typo ever , obviously child = cold

So you have a family of four and you throw away a chicken that has been grown to its optimum weight and bred specially for meat, and your happy to waste food?
It’s not a thread you need it’s imagination and less money then you wouldn’t waste food or need a thread

Love a good child meat thread. My family eats for months of a child.

@PeggyHill

Love a good child meat thread. My family eats for months of a child.

It's ok. It's tough times🙈

Wait for it to go cool. Take all the meat off the bones. Leg meat, wing meat and the meat from underneath tastes amazing. Put it in pies, curry puffs, risotto, sandwiches, just cold? Then put the bones in a pan with water and make a stock you can then boil it down a bit until it's concentrated and pop it in the fridge for gravy or sauce for the pie/soup etc. Don't chuck anything away if you can help it.

If you don't like to do this just buy a few breasts and cook them. Better for you and the environment.

We are a three adult household. A large roasted chicken with enough veg for six makes three easy meals i.e.nine ample adult portions.
It works like this

1. Fresh roast on Sunday
2. Left over roast and veg plated up and thoroughly reheated in microwave. Monday or Tuesday. Chicken stripped to select best meat for this and untidy pieces back in fridge.
3. Left over chicken used for a stir fry, mixed with mushrooms in a white sauce or similar and served with boiled rice. Tuesday or Wednesday, I make it up as I go depending on what veg is in fridge.

Sometimes I use all bones to make a stock for chicken and vegetable soup as well. I usually alternate chicken weeks with pork, beef or lamb. I usually buy a larger joint than needed as there is less shrinkage when roasted and leftovers can be used in similar way. I am quite thrifty and justify the more expensive meat by alternating with the chicken. Saves time too, for the midweek meals.

Biryaani is a good way to use up left over meat & vegetables from a roast. Just add basmati rice and a biryaani spice base, I make my own.

Fry onions, salt pepper, garlic & ginger & then add when soft: Bayleaf, cinnamon stick, cardomom pods, star anise, 1 small tbsp garaam masaala, cumin, coriander & a bit of paprika. Taste & add more if necessary, add splash of water to prevent it from drying.

Add washed basmati rice gently flip over to coat. Fry for ten mins & then add meat & veg. Gently stir & Cook for 10 mins & then add water.

(1 mug rice to 2 mugs water serves 4) for meat from half a chicken I use 2 mogs of rice & nearly 3 3/4 - 4 mugs water. Don't fill mug, 3/4 full & put a tea towel towards end of cooking to absorb moisture & switch off heat.

Without even reading the other 26 pages I can tell this has turned into a MN competitive 'I can feed half the street from the rest of the chicken after sunday lunch' thread

but

OP this is bloody awful. I do hope you feel shamed into using the other half of your chicken now. Only three of us in the house eat chicken but yes, we genuinely do make it last all week - cold chicken for lunch or salads or sandwiches, chicken curry, chicken risotto, chicken pie, chicken in the stir fry ... I also make stock but not every week - I tend (if I CBA) to put the stripped-off bones and carcass into the freezer, then do three at once in a big pot and make soup or risotto with the stock.

I’m so excited to have roast chicken today! It’s a big one - 2kg, and I should easily get at least three dinners and two lunches out of it for us. But it’s just the two of us tbf.

Can’t wait! Crispy, salty, delicious skin, lovely succulent wings straight from the oven...Going back to sneak a few more pieces a bit later after dinner whilst the bird is cooling down (including the oysters)...Later still, after it’s been refrigerated, sneaking a few more pieces to eat dipped in salt. Mmmmm.

Then the fun of deciding what deliciousness I want to make with the leftovers!

I've just popped our chicken in the oven. Can't wait.

I’ve decided to do a pictorial study of a Mumsnet Chicken.

Here it is smothered in EVOO and butter, having first had salt rubbed into the skin. I also added a good amount of freshly ground pepper.

I prepared sage and onion stuffing from a packet - one portion for DH to have today (we’ll keep a little back for a chicken sandwich tomorrow or the next day). I made the rest into three stuffing balls which will go into the freezer ready for the next time we have roast chicken.

Apologies if this has been said, as im not reading though 27 pages of chicken waste ideas, lol, but there's a great app where you can share food with your local community called Olio.
Instead of wasting it. List it. You could be helping feed another family!

Oh I also stuffed half an onion, half a lemon, some thyme sprigs and a garlic clove into the body cavity.

@TheMNChernobylChicken

Just bulk me out with lentils like one of your French girls.

snort >

Strip the whole bird while it’s still warm (easier than cold) into a dish, what you don’t use for Sunday lunch use on sandwiches, curry, salad just about anything other than throwing it away 🤦‍♀️

@Ninkanink

Oh I also stuffed half an onion, half a lemon, some thyme sprigs and a garlic clove into the body cavity.

I stick and onion and half a lemon (or some lemon juice) inside, too - keeps it moist and makes it tasty! LOVELY grav

@bridgetjones1

Strip the whole bird while it’s still warm (easier than cold) into a dish, what you don’t use for Sunday lunch use on sandwiches, curry, salad just about anything other than throwing it away 🤦‍♀️

Quite agree, but am I the only one who gets a twitchy eyelid when people call it 'the bird'?

You can shove it in curry, Thai curry, stir fry, stew, sandwiches.
Makes life so much easier with a speedy dinner the next day.

Thank you all, consider me well and truly shamed, I already knew I was being ridiculously wasteful but now its here in black and white I will never waste another chicken again.
I've screen shotted many recipes and ideas and I look forward to seeing what I make 🙃

What about putting it outside for the foxes ? Or sandwiches , salads ect

As everyone else has said sandwiches, soup, curry, risotto, pasta, etc.

But apart from that: the leg meat is the tastiest part of the chicken!

If you really don't want to eat the rest of the chicken at least strip the meat from the bones and feed it to your or the neighbours dog or cat.

Dont understand why youre being so rude to @littledrummergirl.

My 2 teen boys eat just one breast between then on a Sunday with loads of veggies and potatoes and gravy. My husband and I share a leg and wing.
I always make risotto the next day with the other leg and wing (and stock from the last week's chicken).
Then later in the week I use the other breast for a lunch sandwich for each of me and my husband with lots of fresh salad and mayonnaise.

I then always boil the carcass for stock and keep it in the freezer for the next week's risotto.

Sometimes, we even have enough left on the carcass for me to make a soup.

Perfectly normal.

@Fluffyhood

Thank you all, consider me well and truly shamed, I already knew I was being ridiculously wasteful but now its here in black and white I will never waste another chicken again. I've screen shotted many recipes and ideas and I look forward to seeing what I make 🙃

You have taken it in very good spirit OP.

Anyway, yesterday i was supposed to make stuffed chicken crepes with my leftover chicken but when it came to it could not be arsed with fiddling with rolling and baking and all that.

i made a dish that my super fussy 12 year old loves. It's a bit grim sounding, but is tasty - cook diced onions, carrots, celery. Add chciken meat. Por over a tin of cream of mushroom soup and serve over rice. It is surprisingly good and it is also what i tend to use as the inside of my chicken pies.