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.

And I should add that if the chicken comes with giblets (increasingly rare), I boil and mash them as the basis for the gravy (together with the sediment from a bottle of vintage port if I'm lucky )

Use all of it too. Miss having the giblets to use as well

Seems very odd to be furious about someone’s use of their chicken. I can’t even imagine that.

We eat what we wish that day and anything left the next, sometimes some goes in the bin. I don’t make stock and seldom pick the bones.

I never bother making stock, I don't often use actually stock to make anything.

However if you carve the chicken properly, remove the breasts, legs, thighs, wings, in full, there is very little left. We usually shred the brown meat to have with our roast then use the breast for pasta, fajitas, chicken fried rice or something similar the next day, occasionally there is enough left for a sandwich but not often!

One main meal for me OH and DD then sandwiches the cat is given the scraps of gristle that's left he loves it 😂😂😂

Confused about those who think making stock is a faff. Literally just pop the carcass in a pan and cover with water, and I use whatever I’ve stuffed the chicken with which is usually a few onions and some garlic. Bring to the boil, turn down to the lowest heat and then wander away for 2-3 hours. Job done. It’s not faffy or messy and literally takes no time - you’re just putting it into a pan not the bin. Once done, just pour it through a sieve into a big jug and put in the fridge or freeze (I have a giant ice cube tray from Annabel Karmel which is perfect for stock). Chuck a cube into any pasta sauce, curry, chilli or any other “wet” meal for pure deliciousness.

To me this is way easier than stock cubes because I can never get stock cubes to dissolve properly in boiling water and the don’t taste nearly as nice.

We eat the legs, the breasts are used for curry. I strip the carcass for the dog and bin the bones.

to make stock from chicken bones - chop and fry 1-2 onions, peel and chop a carrot or two. Add to onions - stir and cook for a minute or two, add bones (better than putting a whole carcass in - more even cooking)
Cover with water and simmer slowly for up to an hour. Allow to cool. Tip into a sieve to remove veg and bones. Pick off any reasonable looking bits of meat (for the cat). Put liquid back into pan and bring to the boil. To reduce the volume, boil until half the original, cool and then pour into ice cube trays. Allow to set, then freeze to use as stock cubes. Sounds like a phaff but it really isn't as you can pretty much leave it to do its own thing.

Why do you peel the carrots @loopylindi?

sorry, didn't realise this has already been posted

One of my favourite tasks is stripping a chicken carcass! When I go to my MIL for dinner she's one of those that just uses the breasts and would throws the rest away! So nowerdays she wraps up the leftovers/what she doesn't use in foil for me to take home and use for salads and soups!

actually I don't. (peel carrots) That was my brain and fingers not co-ordinating.

@FudgeSundae

Confused about those who think making stock is a faff. Literally just pop the carcass in a pan and cover with water, and I use whatever I’ve stuffed the chicken with which is usually a few onions and some garlic. Bring to the boil, turn down to the lowest heat and then wander away for 2-3 hours. Job done. It’s not faffy or messy and literally takes no time - you’re just putting it into a pan not the bin. Once done, just pour it through a sieve into a big jug and put in the fridge or freeze (I have a giant ice cube tray from Annabel Karmel which is perfect for stock). Chuck a cube into any pasta sauce, curry, chilli or any other “wet” meal for pure deliciousness.

To me this is way easier than stock cubes because I can never get stock cubes to dissolve properly in boiling water and the don’t taste nearly as nice.

Well our cooker needs watching quite closely to stay on a gentle simmer without stopping simmering or starting to boil too much, so certainly can't be ignored for 2-3 hours.

Plus there's quite a bit of dripping and splashing around the cooker to clean up and the jug and you've a sieve, pan and spoon to wash, the cost of 2-3 hours fuel and 'a few onions' because I wouldn't use them when roasting a chicken.

All this for something that doesn't taste of very much, or I could pay a quid for a pack of Kallo stock cubes that actually taste nice and is much easier and probably cheaper.

I have to agree with Barbara and I seldom use stock cubes or make soup so it’s a pointless faff for me.

@loopylindi

actually I don't. (peel carrots) That was my brain and fingers not co-ordinating.

😂 i wondered if you eat them after or not. Thanks

@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.

😲

Nothing is wasted. I make soup and pick it clean for the dogs.

In true MN style, all the meat is eaten, then the carcass is boiled to make stock. What’s left is binned.

@Bluntness100

I have to agree with Barbara and I seldom use stock cubes or make soup so it’s a pointless faff for me.

I agree with both of you. PP says it's not a faff then goes on to describe what sounds like quite a faffy process to me.

Chicken and lamb slowly pulled bone broth is the thing everyone needs in life imho 😁
I do eat broth soup like twice a week so it's totally worth it for me to cook it. As i saod before, fully understand why people wouldn't.
Only issue I would have around waste is the meat being wasted like in some of the ecamples

It is a faff, I don’t know what kind of cooker the poster has but I can’t just wander away and leave something simmmering for up to three hours, it needs checking on, plus it creates mess, that needs cleaning. I’m fully aware of how to make stock as are most people, so don’t need instruction, but as said, I rarely make soup or use stock cubes, so it’s all a bit of a pointless ball ache, plus the house stinks of boiling chicken for a few hours,

Only issue I would have around waste is the meat being wasted like in some of the ecamples

So if you can’t strip it to the bone and eat every bit you shouldn’t be permitted a whole chicken? We do occasionally waste some and I don’t sit and strip the bones and boil them, I see no issue if a small amount is wasted, I have no desire to make like Gollum whispering my precious over a chicken carcass 😂

@Bluntness100

Only issue I would have around waste is the meat being wasted like in some of the ecamples

So if you can’t strip it to the bone and eat every bit you shouldn’t be permitted a whole chicken? We do occasionally waste some and I don’t sit and strip the bones and boil them, I see no issue if a small amount is wasted, I have no desire to make like Gollum whispering my precious over a chicken carcass 😂

No, I meant the people who buy whole chicken, eat part and throw away the rest of the bird, obviously

I don’t buy whole chickens. Wasteful I know, but we rarely ever have a roast meal with chicken. I will buy a large tray of breast fillets as needed, and will buy thighs for those meals where I want a stock too as I’ll poach the meat with veg to obtain stock before cooking.

@SquirrelFan

We eat most of the chicken as a roast, then I strip it for chicken pot pie the following night. I used to use the carcass for stock, but I've tried it a lot of ways and it's always been pretty unrewarding! The "flavour" was barely detectable. And this is hours on the hob, or in the slow cooker, with onions, celery, carrots, etc. Do I simply have jaded taste buds? Or is there a secret to flavourful stock that I don't know?

@SquirrelFan

If you simmer for quite a while, then reduce on a higher heat, then the flavour is stronger

I roast at least 2 chickens a week for my dogs so I don't waste a thing. Theirs are stripped to the bone, gristle and all.

If we have chicken, I'll roast it, take off what we want, take off the other meat we might eat and then pick off the rest. The dogs might have the other meat AND the shitty bits or we might eat it at another meal. Or illtaleoffwhat we want and take off the rest then chuck the carcass in a soup with some meat and the dogs get the manky bits.