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.

I make the dog licky pots with the juices and little bits left over like giant frozen lollies. Pick as much off as possible but as PP say it doesn’t last long in my house.

@CausingChaos2 This is a gravy jug / separator

www.lakeland.co.uk/26364/Lakeland-Gravy-Fat-Skimmer-Jug-with-Strainer-500ml?src=gfeed&gclid=CjwKCAjwjdOIBhA_EiwAHz8xm_Tsqld0TjN-Bsi60UR2O_HA0nE7sdcLi1QtX_8R8k8FBWM4BvaSfxoCNOoQAvD_BwE

I'm a widow and live by myself, so very occasionally I'll make a roast chicken and have some for my dinner, next day a sandwich , then I strip it and give the rest to my daughter's dogs.

@notanothertakeaway Thank you! That’s really helpful, I’m going to have a go on Sunday.

I don’t waste anything. Roast dinner, then curry or chicken supreme or similar and maybe a wee sandwich.

Bones are boiled for stock - sometimes for others dishes, sometimes for dog ice cubes.

We only eat the breast!

Nothing goes to waste though, we strip every bit of meat and feed it to the dogs and cats so at least it’s being eaten!

We take the meat off and bin the rest. I'm not about boiling carcasses for something I buy in little tubs.

All of the meat is picked off. The carcass is binned. Soup and stock won't get used here so there's no point.

Honestly, we rarely eat all of the meat 😱 obviously all the breast gets eaten but the legs themselves rarely do, because no one (but me) in this house likes the meat unless it's the white meat. Sometimes I will strip it right down and make sandwiches with the spare meat but as only I will eat that meat it often gets wasted. Dpup came along earlier this year though and now helps. I make gravy with the stock.

Every scrap.

I will strip the extra large free range or organic chicken of all meat and I make a great stock.

If it doesn't suit to make the stock I wrap the carcass in grease proof paper and freeze.

I hate food waste and really try to avoid it.

We eat most of the meat,.pick the bits off for the animals & throw away the carcass. I've got to be honest I've never had a home made stock that is better than a knorr. A couple if my friends rave about their stock, I think it tastes like greasy water.

@billy1966

Every scrap.

I will strip the extra large free range or organic chicken of all meat and I make a great stock.

If it doesn't suit to make the stock I wrap the carcass in grease proof paper and freeze.

I hate food waste and really try to avoid it.

Crikey Billy if I found a carcass in a freezer my first thought would not be that it was a chicken! 🤣

I bin the carcass because the time I wasted energy trying to make stock it was gross.
But every scrap of meat and skin is eaten.

I buy chicken crowns

If I can't get them and have to buy a whole chicken, I eat the meat and chuck the carcass.

I can't be doing with sodding about boiling bones to produce a broth that'd be utterly tasteless without adding stock cubes and other stuff.

I use carcass for soup stock 75% of the time occasionally just pick meat off and throw bones away as either have stock in freezer or I really don't want to make soup or risotto I never throw away roast chicken without removing all the meat
I don't have magic chickens there are 3 of us on side for one meal second side for next meal, wings oysters scraps for soup or risotto or stock for freezer

One of my first jobs at 14 was cutting up chickens on a food service production line, I only stuck it for one Easter holidays but:

I can debone a chicken into two breasts, wings, legs, thighs and knobs (everything else) in no time. The carcass gets smashed with a rolling pin and goes in the stock pan with any veggie peelings or ends.

You'll need a scary sharp boning knife but there's bound to be guides on YouTube. The whole chicken costs less than a couple of large breasts.

@TheVolturi
🤣

That was a genius Nigella tip actually from years ago.

I might put 2 or 3 into the pressure cooker with loads of herbs, garlic, onions, any half dead veg in the fridge that needs using.

I add the stripped chicken to a curry sauce with lots of veg and its just enough.

I get 3 meals from a big chicken, but we are not big meat eaters.

Mostly just the bones and sometimes the wings.

We have the legs for the roast. Pick off the carcass, and the breasts. Normally a curry the next day, and some sandwiches.

Never made stock, probably should but its so rare we use chicken stock. Not sure I'd want to go through the effort of making it, after making a roast, for the stock to sit, frozen or otherwise for ages. Or store frozen carcasses on the off chance.

@megletthesecond

I bin the carcass because the time I wasted energy trying to make stock it was gross. But every scrap of meat and skin is eaten.

Same here. I've tried a few times, takes ages, faffy, makes a horrendous mess, expensive and doesn't taste nice. We use kallo stock cubes and they're so nice you can just drink the stock like bovril if you want to.

But we never waste the meat, generally does a roast, then something like curry, paella or pasta bake plus skin and scrappy bits of meat for the cats.

But that's a horrendous waste from your brother OP. Why doesn't he just buy less chicken if he CBA using it all?

Reminds me of one of Jamie Oliver's programmes where people claimed they could only afford to buy the cheapest chickens, not free range, but they were then shown eating the breasts and throwing away the legs and the rest of it.

The point that they could have afforded free range if they used all the chicken and got another meal or two out of it was completely lost on them.

@TheSoapyFrog

All of the meat is picked off. The carcass is binned. Soup and stock won't get used here so there's no point.

Same.

We eat all the meat. I make gravy with the juices. I boil the carcass for a stock then give the bones to the red kites that circle above my house on a Sunday!

Roasted a chicken on Sunday,made a curry on Monday. Sandwiches on Tuesday. Carcass in slow cooker for a few hours, then removed carcass and added sweet potato and carrot etc to stock which I then whizzed up in blender. All now sitting in freezer. I stripped the remaining meat off and left for Mr and Mrs Fox.

Oh god, the MN roast chicken again!

Ours does roast dinner for three greedy pigs, then the rest of it goes in a risotto the next day (and sandwiches for lunch if we haven't been TOO greedy). Carcass goes in the bin, because I'm just not organised enough to make stock.

My enterprising local Indian takeaway also does containers of base curry sauce/gravy mild/medium/hot. Presumably they make litres of the stuff.

Obviously this means we normally buy a big chicken. It's a happy day if I can source one with giblets for the cats!

We usually get a fair amount of jelly (add it to risotto or ramen), but I don't usually bother to make stock.