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!

@justanotherneighinparadise

Okay, I’ll admit I’m a freak but I used to do similar and now I do the complete opposite, but I have a technique!

We roast the chicken and it feeds four of us. Then I put it in the fridge and ignore it till the next day. Then I put it back in the oven and cook it just long enough for everything to go yummy and crispy. Then I take off the meat that’s now hot and crunchy and have that with my lunch. Then I put it back in the fridge. Then the following day I take it back out, turn it over and cook the underside. So that goes all crunchy and hot and I eat the underside with my lunch, and then I bin it (it’s my dirty secret, no one knows I do this 😳).

I am more blasé than your average MNer about food hygiene but this sounds like a one-way ticket to food poisoning

@justanotherneighinparadise

Okay, I’ll admit I’m a freak but I used to do similar and now I do the complete opposite, but I have a technique!

We roast the chicken and it feeds four of us. Then I put it in the fridge and ignore it till the next day. Then I put it back in the oven and cook it just long enough for everything to go yummy and crispy. Then I take off the meat that’s now hot and crunchy and have that with my lunch. Then I put it back in the fridge. Then the following day I take it back out, turn it over and cook the underside. So that goes all crunchy and hot and I eat the underside with my lunch, and then I bin it (it’s my dirty secret, no one knows I do this 😳).

How have you not poisoned yourself doing this you are not supposed to re heat twice

@justanotherneighinparadise

Okay, I’ll admit I’m a freak but I used to do similar and now I do the complete opposite, but I have a technique!

We roast the chicken and it feeds four of us. Then I put it in the fridge and ignore it till the next day. Then I put it back in the oven and cook it just long enough for everything to go yummy and crispy. Then I take off the meat that’s now hot and crunchy and have that with my lunch. Then I put it back in the fridge. Then the following day I take it back out, turn it over and cook the underside. So that goes all crunchy and hot and I eat the underside with my lunch, and then I bin it (it’s my dirty secret, no one knows I do this 😳).

You cook it and then reheat it twice? I'm surprised you've not been seriously ill.

One of our quick recipes... Cheats Jambalaya.
Chop pepper, onion, other left over veg. (Carrots work, as do find of sweetcorn).
Fry off meat to warm (leftover chicken, chorizo, prawns, that sort of thing) add veg.
When meat and bed fully cooked, add pouch(es) of flavoured rice. Our favourite is Mexican flavoured.

Pmsl I knew there would be LOADS of pearl clutching 🤣

@justanotherneighinparadise your gut flora must be like highly trained army unit

Make extra veg, gravy, and potatoes.
Buy or make pastry and have it in the fridge.
Stick it all in a pie dish, top with pastry and either freeze it for later or cook it within a couple of days.

Curry is nice too.

@justanotherneighinparadise

Okay, I’ll admit I’m a freak but I used to do similar and now I do the complete opposite, but I have a technique!

We roast the chicken and it feeds four of us. Then I put it in the fridge and ignore it till the next day. Then I put it back in the oven and cook it just long enough for everything to go yummy and crispy. Then I take off the meat that’s now hot and crunchy and have that with my lunch. Then I put it back in the fridge. Then the following day I take it back out, turn it over and cook the underside. So that goes all crunchy and hot and I eat the underside with my lunch, and then I bin it (it’s my dirty secret, no one knows I do this 😳).

This sounds like a recipient for food poisoning!

Fried onion, peppers, spice & diced chicken leftovers. Add creme fraiche or soured cream and walla!

YABU just buy the breast if you're so opposed to any chicken except breast.

I only do roast chicken for the leftovers to go in a sandwich!! Never much left to be fair but no meat goes in the bin. Love leg meat!!

I’m chuckling 🤭

I do know that you shouldn’t reheat twice and I’d NEVER feed my family food with any risk attached to it but I’ve been doing it for probably ten years with no issues.

I do absolutely nuke it though.

How absolutely disgusting OP. A chicken has lost its life for you and you just throw it away? Sickening waste of food. The list is endless: curry, risotto, sandwiches, lasagne...

Easiest thing to do is strip the entire bird when you're removing the breast meat for your dinner, once your hands are in it you may as well keep at it. Then take the carcass - bones and boil up with carrots, onions and celery to make a nice stock. You can use the stock and the remaining meat to make a nice risotto or chicken noodle soup.

I keep soup constantly on the go, just adding more leftovers each day to the usually quite small amount left from the day before. Add the leftover gravy and any veg that's left, or add a ready chopped fresh veg mix if you're really pushed for time. I chuck all mine into my soup maker and make it that evening, then leave in the fridge for the next day. Bung some chopped chicken into a portion-sized amount the next day, heat and pour into a flask for lunch. Freeze any that's left. Or take some of fore-mentioned soup base, add some cream, egg
yolks and green peppers along with your chicken pieces and serve with rice.
I recommend a book called Feed your family for twenty pounds a week. It gives loads of ideas for how to stretch
a chicken, so to speak!
www.waterstones.com/book/feed-your-family-for-gbp20-a-week/lorna-cooper/9781409195672

Cut the legs off before you roast it, split them into thighs and drumsticks and freeze them. Do that for several weeks and you will have loads of frozen chicken portions. If you don't want to cook them, give them to a neighbour.

My lot love Chicken and Spinach cobbler. I put cold leftover chicken in the bottom of a pie dish with lots of wilted spinach. Pour over a thick white sauce with added wholegrain mustard and a chicken stock cube and top with cheese and thyme scones. It delicious and you can make the scone mix earlier and assemble later.

Slow cook the chicken. When it's cooked all the meat falls off the bones. There are loads of different things you can do with the leftovers.

@nimbuscloud

That is an awful thing to do. I’m thinking of the bird that was slaughtered and you are too lazy to even try to use as much of it as you possibly can. You should be ashamed.

This. I'm quite disgusted.

Ah, the Good Times really coming back.

A MN chicken thread is the glimmer of hope we all need. Thank you OP.

But if @littledrummergirl doesn’t come back to explain herself, I may well combust.

Definitely coronation chicken. We also make pastry and make coronation chicken pasties.

Even if you can't be bothered to deal with the leftover chicken one week simply pull the meat off the bones shred it and store it in a bag or container in the freezer. Use it for a quick curry or pasta bake at a later date.

If you’ve got a cat and don’t like stripping the carcass just let the cat loose on it

Don't do this, the bones can splinter and cause a choking hazard or internal injuries.

On the matter of portion size 2 breasts between a family of 4 when the children are small is loads when served with roast potatoes and plenty of vegetables.

Then you have the legs and thighs for the pie, a curry, pasta dish etc, again with veg, pastry, rice, pasta etc, so plenty.

@willloman

Fried onion, peppers, spice & diced chicken leftovers. Add creme fraiche or soured cream and walla!

It's voilà! I know, I hate myself too.

Not only it's a waste, but you're also eating the blandest part of the chicken and throwing away the tasty bits...