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.

@JudgeJ

I'm shocked that having stripped the meat and boiled the carcass no-one has then ground down the carcass to add to your rose bed as fertiliser, that a load of wasters!

I don't grind the bones, just bury them under clematis, which appreciates slow release calcium.

So we aim to always eat leftovers and we make a stock from the carcass which goes in the freezer. Feels like we're doing our best to respect the bird. Last time we were at my PiLs for Christmas my MiL cooked a roast chicken, took about 3/4 of the breast meat off and threw the rest (still hot) into the bin. When I looked visibly shocked and questioned this she said they only like the breast meat and don't end up eating leftovers anyway. 🤦🏻‍♀️

How do you make stock from the carcass please? I always read about it but don't know how

I strip all the meat off - it goes into little packets in the freezer to go later in a stir fry, fried rice or soup.
Carcass goes to make stock for soup or e.g. a chicken curry

@hedgehogger1 it's so easy! We have a pressure cooker but you can use a pan on the hob just as easily 😊 Just take the carcass, cover it with boiled water. We add any leftover veg in the fridge (other than tomatoes and potatoes). Typically tends to be onion, carrot, celery, garlic. Then we chuck in a bay leaf or two if we have them and add some seasoning. Simmer for 60-90 mins and then sieve. Gives us loads of amazing stock and the ones we've done with just onion and the carcass still taste just as yummy as the ones where we have the other bits and bobs lying about. I started doing it when we had our DS so that he could have stock with no salt added. That was 5 years ago and we've never turned back to cubes!

1 meal. Breast and. Legs only here.
1 xl chicken. Me dh teen 3 Yr old and 1 Yr old.

@hedgehogger1

How do you make stock from the carcass please? I always read about it but don't know how

Iirc bbc has nice recipes. Everyone does theirs bit differently. I mix chicken and lamb bones, maybe an oxtail if i get some cheap. If bones aren't roasted, i put them in the oven for like 20 min. Then they go into slowcooker with various veg peels and cuts (i have "rubbish" bag in a freezer), herbs like sage, thyme, bayleaf, parsley and some allspice and black pepercorns. A bit of garlic is nice too. Tiny bit of salt. I genuinely just put a pinch of salt for 6 liter slowcooker size. 8 hours on high, 12-13 on low. Then strain and reduce to half like pp does. Every batch is different depending on veg peels and herb amounts.

I've just realised that everyone is talking stock and I am talking bone broth. 🙈

Thanks @SchrodingersImmigrant and @mummabubs I'll give that a try

I throw the carcass, any meat that we don't eat feeds the dog in fact no meat is ever wasted as dog has it and leftover vegetables alongside her kibble.

All meat is eaten here, either at the time of the roast or in a leftovers meal. Carcass boiled for stock. Can’t imagine not doing that!

@SchrodingersImmigrant

I've just realised that everyone is talking stock and I am talking bone broth. 🙈

I think they're pretty much the same thing, but bone broth is the wanky hipster version.

Neither influencers nor Mumsnet came up with the idea of using a chicken for more than one meal and using the carcass to make stock, it's always been that way, from a time when meat was much less affordable than today.

I'm not 100% sure if the people talking about burying the carcasses in the garden are being serious, but if you do, doesn't it get dug up by foxes, cats etc?

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.

So he made the stock and then threw it away?
If you were there why didn't you say something rather than quietly being furious and watching.

We use all the meat but I can't be bothered with boiling the bones for hours. I did it once and the stock was like jelly - unappealing. Plus surely any environmental benefit is negated by boiling the stuff for hours on end using gas or electricity in the process.

All used. We tend to use white meat for sandwiches for a few days, the brown meat gets used in a curry-style fish. The wings get eaten by the person stripping all the meat off. The juices and carcass are used to make stock with leftover vege bits from during the week, carrot tops, zucchini tops and bottoms, celery leaves etc.

*dish not fish

Two breasts for a roast dinner.
Strip all chunks & scraps of meat off the carcass for sandwiches, casseroles for the next couple of days.
Throw everyday else, except the string holding it together, into pressure cooker fo 30-45 minutes to make stock for the casserole of left overs & soup.

Try to get as much as possible out of a single bird.
A bit of faff when the bird is just out of the oven, but makes for several easy meals for a few days.

Using the pressure cooker straight away to make the stock is what has made the difference. Minimal faff.

Stock like jelly? Perfection.

@HungryHippo11

We use all the meat but I can't be bothered with boiling the bones for hours. I did it once and the stock was like jelly - unappealing. Plus surely any environmental benefit is negated by boiling the stuff for hours on end using gas or electricity in the process.

If the stock was like jelly that means you did it perfectly - it's the gelatine in the bones that make it like that Once you start to heat it up it melts right away.

We "roast" a large chicken in the slow cooker for 4hrs on high (you can crisp up the skin in the oven for 20 mins at the end if you like, I also sprinkle it with paprika or chicken seasoning to make it look a bit less pale), then once it's cooked we take it out to rest and after carving and stripping the carcass we pop it back in the slow cooker, cover it with water and put it on low overnight. Delicious stock and no extra washing up! The slow cooker uses about the same amount of electricity as a light bulb so very eco friendly too

We use chicken stock in anything "wet", so in addition to recipes that call for stock like soup and risottos I use it to cook pasta or rice and chuck it in with curries etc.

Basic soup recipe: soften an onion, add extra veg, top up with homemade chicken stock. Simmer until the veg is cooked, then blitz (I can't be bothered cleaning the blender so I just use a stick one). Tasty basic soups can be made with butternut squash with a pinch of chilli flakes, or cauliflower (surprisingly good), or parsnips with a spoonful of curry powder. Then you can get snazzy by adding extras at the end, like doing a broccoli soup and adding Stilton or a squash soup and adding beans.

@BarbaraofSeville wanky hipster😂 i like that. They are veryuch similsr. Bone broth has some meat in it too and cooks longer (i think the 20 or so is recommended to get everything good from the bone. Some of the beneficial acids etc apparently release only qfter the very long cook) but i think that's it.
Either way, delicious. Ancient thing and from whst i read in some cultures drunk daily just out of a cup like a tea. Loving that

Also, I opt for a free range, preferably, organic bird for better animal welfare & the quality of meat & bone is better.

Although more expensive off the shelf, after a few meals & really good stock, it is very good value.

I think they're pretty much the same thing, but bone broth is the wanky hipster version.

They’re the same thing, this comment is spot on.

I think the person talking about their brother throwing away the stock means they threw away the juices.