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.

[quote CausingChaos2]@notanothertakeaway Thank you! That’s really helpful, I’m going to have a go on Sunday.[/quote]
Simmer on a low heat. It doesn't need any attention

f you get a jug with a strainer, it catches the dregs. The fat rises to the top, so you can just pour the non fatty liquid

@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.

People usually go for more sides with a roast which means you need less chicken plus the Nando's chickens are small imo.

I freeze the occasional carcass and then throw them all away 6 months later when clearing the freezer. Life is too short to make stock or soup imho. Kudos to those who bother though. Apart from that we can strip a chicken naked easily and waste very little.

We eat mostly veggie after trying and failing the cut down on meat for a long time. So now when we do buy meat, it’s either yellow sticker or organic/free range. That makes for a bloody expensive chicken dinner so I am inclined to make much better use of it because it becomes a real treat. We get a roast for all three of us (me, DH and DD who’s nearly 5). I use the cooking juices to make the gravy. Then something like a curry/stir fry, plus some meat for sandwiches/salads or I may freeze some depending on the menu for the week. And I’ll use the carcass to make stock which is either frozen or used straight away for something like a soup.

I should say though, when we ate meat 5/6 times a week, and got the much cheaper joints of meat or chickens, I was much more inclined to waste it. It seems sacrilege to waste a chicken carcass from a bird that could be £15/16 😱😱

Pick all the meat off the bone and throw the carcass. My DD doesn't like gravy or sauces so I rarely have the need for the stock

@notanothertakeaway I’m delighted to have an excuse to pop in to Lakeland so will get the jug you mentioned. Will put on a simmer and leave well alone. Thank you again!

Having mocked having another MN roast chicken thread I'm actually going to say what we do.

We do a roast chicken about once a week. Chicken is about 2lbs ish usually. Feeding 2 adults and 11-year-old.

Day 1. Roast in the oven for evening meal - serve with 3 veg plus some sort of potato or rice/bread

That evening strip all meat from bones and put in a container in fridge. Put all the bones into a pan covered with water, bring to the boil briefly and then simmer for a couple of hours before bed.

Day 2: Pan-fry any liver, heart, giblets etc for breakfast for DH (and me if there's a liver)
Put the stock back on to simmer for a couple of hours.

Now - a lot depends on how the chicken was served the night before - if it was sliced and taken to the table family style then history tells me there will be a lot less meat left because it's tempting to have seconds and keep picking at it. So if I have been sensible and plated it up in the kitchen and given everyone a decent but sensible serving of meat then there is enough left over for the following.

Lunch - chicken salad sandwiches for me and DH

Make a chicken curry using the rest of the leftover chicken, the stock straight from the pan it was made in. If you use the stock straight away like this it doesn't make too much mess and extra work. my chicken curry also has onions, garlic, mushrooms, peppers, sweet potato, chickpeas, carrots, celery and sometimes courgette in so it makes enough for 5-6 adult portions of curry. If DH is fed up of too much chicken in a row I will freeze this to have later.

If I don't feel like making a curry I will freeze the stock and make a chicken and veg pasta bake instead which again will do for one meal plus leftovers.

I buy boned chicken thighs. No waste all meat and delicious.

I barely eat any of it tbh just the nice breast meat 🤣

As a proper mumsnetter I don't waste any of the chicken. Normally, for our family of five using a medium sized chicken we'll have roast chicken one night, leftover cold chicken for lunch (in a huge salad!), chicken risotto the following night and then I'll pick over the carcase to provide enough meat for a curry before making at least 5 litres of chicken soup with the bones that will see us through the rest of the week

I carve off all the meat, sometimes use the carcass for stock/soup - but then often don't get round to using it.
I will eat the meat for three/four days - the cat will only eat it on day one

We eat a fair bit of the chicken ourselves on the day of cooking it, then the leftover meat goes in the fridge. I'll usually do some chicken fried rice or a soup the next day to use up the meat, sometimes making a stock if I have the energy, but usually I bin the carcass. The fatty greasy bits on the bottom of the bird usually gets given to the dog while I'm carving up the chicken. We try not to waste any of the meat. Bizarre that your brother throws lots of it in the bin without even thinking about leftovers.

Stock I use for my roast gravy, main bits of chicken are used on our dinner then the grizzly and fatty bits are used for the dogs dinner. Only bin the bones ....

we pick off the meat for a next meal (sandwiches or soup or pie).

skin and fatty/greasy bits get thrown away.

the carcass and all other bones (so wings, drumsticks, thigh bones) go to our chickens, they love picking off the fleshy/chewy bits we wouldn't eat!

I don't ever make stock after the predators are done the carcass and all the bones go in the bin

There is no meat left on a roast chicken when I have finished with it. I eat all the gristly, fatty bits including the narrow bits in the bones . I don't make stock with the carcas though as I don't really like soup and it seems a lot of trouble just to make stock for other recipes when a gel pot does just as well to my taste buds

I use the breasts in the actual roast meal. Sometimes DP uses the dark meat in sandwiches. The carcass goes in the bin. I used to do the whole stock making deal but it’s more trouble than it’s worth. I did it when I was a student and had to make every penny count!

Also food waste is an important issue in our household in terms of climate change and the use of resources.

Throwing away food wastes not only food itself, but the resources—land, fertilizer, water, paper, plastic, gas--that go into growing, packaging and transporting that food.

In the US food waste habits waste 25 percent of America's freshwater and 4 percent of their oil. THe US spends $90 billion each year to make food that never gets eaten.

As resoures particularly water are increasingly affected by climate change it's going to make it even more essential that everyone - domestic and commercial producers and users of food work together to reduce food waste.

So for the MN chicken when the OP's brother throws away half or more - it's wasting all the resources which went into feeding, caring for, processing, packaging and transporting, (and cooking) that chicken to his table. Followed by the resources then required to contain the waste remains in the bin, transport and dispose of the chicken thrown away.

I use the feathers for making risque outfits for my feather dancing evening classes.

Whilst the beak is a handy thing for plucking the odd stray hair that one suddenly spots in a nightclub toilet mirror.

I don't know what happens to the rest, I think it goes into a sandwich.

The chicken thing always confuses me. Either British people have very small appetite or British chicken are very big. My family of five eats 1,5 kilo bird for one meal easily. I don't know anybody making stock from bones, we use half a kilo of wings to make chicken soup, but I am sure homemade stock is tastier than cube, so maybe that is something to start . However, I've read the whole thread and these stretchy chickens remain mystery to me

All these people who only eat the breast . That is the worst bit for me. I love the leg and thigh and skin ( if crispy) and all the fatty bits at the bottom. The breast always gets used in a curry/ pie as it is so boring / tasteless otherwise. I eat it over a few days. No pets here but absolutely no meat left either

I only roast a ( small) chicken about once a year as it is only me who eats it,-DH and DS are vegetarian. . Lucky really otherwise I'd be even fatter than I already am

@bumblingbovine49 if you start it off for the first half an hour breast down then turn it over the breasts are MUCH nicer.

After eating the meat (first roast, then the rest used for pie or pasta bake or sandwiches etc) I simmer the carcase to make stock. Drain off the stock, pick off any remaining meat, skin etc ( food for pets). The stock is used to make soup.

All that's left is a tiny pile of clean picked bones.

YANBU, but I’m afraid you do come across as a bit smug.

We don’t have much waste- I rarely make stock or soup from it, but we eat the breasts and/or legs on a roast, then strip the remaining meat on all sides and put it in a curry on Monday night, with some for sandwiches on Monday if there’s enough spare.

Odd thing to start a thread over though...

I use all the meat but I don't stand there picking every last bit off it off or make stock.

I very rarely cook a roast chicken but I have to admit that I waste too much. My DS and I will only eat the breast meat so that is all that gets eaten (which is one of the reasons I only very rarely buy one).