When you roast a chicken, be honest! How much do you waste?

[WheresThatCatGoneNow]

When I cook a chicken, nothing is wasted!

The stock is poured into a tub, and goes into my freezer. All the meat left on the bird after I've had my meal, and all the fatty gristly bits, are painstakingly picked off and stored in airtight containers in the fridge.

They will feed my cats for at least four mealtimes!

Nothing is wasted in my house.

I've watched my brother roast a chicken, take off a leg and some breast, and then throw the rest in the bin because he couldn't be bothered dealing with the messy part! And he threw the stock away aswell

I was furious.

Eat the meat then throw the carcass

I bin the carcass but know I ought to make stock with it. All the rest is used.

DP did that once. Just once.

I get 2 meals out of a reasonably sized chicken and the bones are boiled for stock, any scrips and scraps go in the soup too. No waste in this house!

I strip it and make stock from the bones, the juices are used for gravy. No way would there be enough to feed the cat for 4 meals, how big is your chicken?!

Eat the breasts ourselves, the rest of the meat and scraggy bits for the dog.

I’m with you, op. After the roast dinner, remaining meat is eaten by the cat and I, and the carcass is used for stock. Can’t abide waste when it comes to meat - seems uncaring.

We pick all the meat off so none of that is wasted, but I am guilty of binning the carcass instead of using it to make stock/soup.

Breast meat and legs are eaten. Rest chucked. Hugely wasteful I know but can’t be bothered with the faff of doing stuff with the rest of it.

Could he not be bothered or did he not know how? Or maybe just not want to?? All of the above are acceptable though really.

I take off the meat, I try to get as much as I can but I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with the rest of it to be honest.

We use the breasts and legs, I eat the oysters when I'm stripping it, the dogs get the underneath bit and the gristle

YANBU about using all the chicken.

YABU for starting another Mumsnet Roast Chicken Thread!

Very little - we have three cats

Breasts one meal for 3-4 of us, along with probably one leg maybe two depending who’s eating and what else there is. Good leftovers for sandwiches or wraps etc next day. Less good leftovers including odd legs and scraggy bits in a risotto or pasta dish.
May or may not do stock with the carcass, don’t usually make enough meals needing stock to justify using every carcass. But wouldn’t throw away actual meat. Cat would eat it at the very least.

I bin the carcass but remaining meat is for us for sandwiches or a curry. All the meat is removed and those bits that aren't for us are for the cat.

I only make stock in the winter months (it becomes ramen or a casserole base) so just the bones in hot months. We LOVE a roast chicken

I boil the carcass for stock or soup about 50% of the time at most. Sometimes I just can't be arsed. We eat all the meat, if I'm not boiling it I do pick it carefully and the small bits go in sandwiches.

Dinner, then pick off carcass for risotto, sandwiches, feeding cat. Then carcass for stock. If I really can't be bothered with the stock, then stick carcass into zip lock bag and in freezer for when I can be bothered.

The soup made fro the carcass is DS2's favourite thing in the world. I might nit always bother left to me, but I can't deprive him of that

I don’t have time to boil up chicken carcasses for stock, but all the meat gets eaten. The legs & underneath bits are the best part!

Nigella puts her carcasses in the freezer to make stock later. There's a lesson for everyone!
Any meat left over here gets made into a curry usually. The carcass sometimes becomes stock/soup. DH does the cooking so it's all his fault

Does anyone have an idiots guide to making stock? Does it just mean boiling the bones?

We use the legs and breast for our meals and pick the rest off for the pets. Then the carcass is binned.

I’ve only just learnt about using the juices to make gravy instead of boiling water and granules.

No pets here but it all gets eaten. I love a chicken sandwich so stripping it is a labour of love.

I often do a whole chicken in the slow cooker as it comes out super moist and I don't eat the skin so don't need it to be crispy. I often save the stock from the slow cooker but then rarely use it so it collects in the freezer.

What do people use chicken stock for other than soups?

Given that I only really eat roast chicken in Nandos and always order half a chicken to myself I'm amazed that a chicken can feed a family of 4 for a week.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3863686-To-ask-about-the-Mumsnet-whole-chicken

We eat it all except perhaps the gristle and use the carcass for stock.