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 oysters
Meat off the rest of the chicken, cat sits under my feet and gets any bits that I don't like the look of
Bones binned

I don't use the bones for stock but I make gravy from the pan juices, and usually have enough to keep some back for stock for a risotto or something later in the week.

We pick all the meat off. Usually plenty for 2 chicken-heavy meals, a round of sandwiches, and a risotto or stir-fry, as there's only 2 of us. Depending on the size of the chicken.

Like you OP. Family of 3, we usually get a roast dinner, then a second full meal from the leftovers - either a decent round of sandwiches/salad each, or meat for another hot meal like chicken in creamy sauce with rice or pasta. Then I'll dump the carcass in a pot with water to make stock. Remove it after a while & remove pretty much every remaining gram of meat off it, strain the stock & add the meat back in, makes a pretty good soup base. I usually do this ASAP after it's been roasted so I can add the jelly from the roasting pan to the stock as well. DH eats masses of meat, if it were 3 people with "normal" appetites I could probably get another meal out of it.

My mother used to do it. We never had any money but she was a reasonable cook & made very little money stretch a long way.

We normally only have roast chicken if I want the carcass for chicken stock so it all gets used. The odd time we'll have it because we fancy it and won't bother messaging stock then if we already have some in the freezer. The carcass gets picked completely and the bits go in things like quesadillas, pasta or the cats.

Eat the breast and some brown on a roast

Juices go in the gravy

Bones and any skin I don't snaffle gets booked for stock for soup

Strip the meat left for the soup

1 roast dinner and 2 soup dinners for 3 of us from a chicken

@OneRingToRuleThemAll

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.

Those Nandos chickens are tiny!

Always pick the carcass and use the leftover meat for soup or risotto or sandwiches etc. I always make stock from the carcass too.

My kids have a saying…nothing gets wasted in this house except mum and dad.

None of it other than the bones.

Juices go into gravy.

I have some of the skin on the side - I love chicken skin.

Cold chicken/skin for lunch the next day, and then the rest of the meat into a chicken curry that will do dinner and lunch the following day.

I do the MN chicken method. It feeds 8 people all their meals for a month from one medium sized chicken.

I have heard some can make it stretch to 6 weeks but their portion sizes seem small to me.

All the meat is eaten (good bits by people, any scrappy bits for dcat). Don’t do anything with the carcass though. Only do a whole chicken a couple of times a year. Usually just buy breasts or thighs.

Don't make stock but do strip the carcass so 2 main meals and then one lot of sandwiches and/or pasta or rice dish depending on size of chicken

@CausingChaos2

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.

I always make instant gravy with the juices. Put some boiling water in the roasting tin when the meat is resting then measure it and stick it in a saucepan with the appropriate amount of gravy granules. Adds some extra flavour without being much more effort.

Loads. So i don't buy whole chickens. There is me and 2 young DC in the house, we wouldn't eat much of it having a roast. Id be eating chicken for a week, and I'm not keen on the stripping part. I always feel wasteful so just don't roast a whole chicken anymore.

Chuck the carcass, but take all the meat off. It doesn’t make a weeks worth of meals, I might get some sandwiches the next day, if I hide the leftovers from the DCs.

not much.

And what we don’t eat, the cat does.

Pick off every scrap of meat for sandwiches etc, all skin and scraggy bits for pets, but I don't do stock from the carcass as it involves wasting loads of electricity boiling it down for ages. If I had an aga, I definitely would though.

@CausingChaos2

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.

Well done making your own gravy. Far nicer than granules

To make stock -

Strip the chicken carcass of meat and skin, as best you can

Put carcass in a large pan, preferably with a but of chopped carrot and / or onion and / or celery

Top up with water so it covers, or almost covers the chicken

Bring to the boil

Simmer for approx 1hr 30 mins

Drain. (I usually use a colander over a large plastic bowl. Then pour into a large jug. Then pour into a plastic gravy jug, which allows fat to rise to the top and liquid stays at the bottom. Then pour into eg soup or creme fraiche tubs, so that you know how much you have eg soup tub holds 600ml. Then freeze

Home made stick is a game changer for risotto. Also good for soup

We just eat the meat.

We don't have any pets, and we have a tiny freezer. And we only buy a chicken maybe twice a year.

Nothing. I boil the carcass for stock.

Stock couldn’t be easier, boil carcass with an onion, carrot, couple of celery stick, peppercorn, bay leaf, salt.

Simmer for about 90 mins. The end.

I make a soup with the leftovers. The dog has the gristly bits that I pick out, the bones go in the bin

We pick off the meat thoroughly for curry etc but we hardly ever make stock (an hour's cooking to replace a single stock cube? No thanks) or feed the gristle to the cat.

X post

Meat comes off and then it’s binned , I don’t faff with the carcass .

an hour's cooking to replace a single stock cube? No thanks

It’s far better than a stock cube though.

For most things you wouldn’t notice, but soup or risotto it’s a game changer.

I don’t waste anything at all. We get 2 or 3 meals out of it (4 if it’s a big one) and I use the carcass and all bones/tiny scraps of meat to make stock. It makes me very happy to know that every little bit is used.