What should I do with juices of chicken? Keep? Chuck? Something low effort preferably!

[YoniBottsBumgina]

Bought a reduced chicken for £1.10 yesterday. Have roasted it tonight to prolong it's life a bit longer, and give us some nice cold roast chicken to eat, but because I didn't do any potatoes I've now got loads of juices from it - poured them into a jug and there is almost half a pint.

What should I do with it? Freeze it? Make into stock/gravy (how??) - or is it really too much effort and I should just chuck it away? (Seems a shame...)

Am thinking possibly freeze in small portions for maybe making roast potatoes with?? I don't have an ice cube tray though so no idea how I would manage this.

I make stock. Boil chicken carcass in plenty of water. You can add an onion, carrot, bit of celery, herbs etc. or not if you don't have any. Then I freeze it in pouches.

Can use for soup, risotto, gravy, stews.

Risotto. Do you need a recipe? Risi bisi is delicious and if you are in the UK you could get fresh peas to make it with.

I cannot be bothered with boiling the carcass, sorry. It's been hot enough having the oven on for two hours without filling the kitchen with steam.

Risotto maybe but only I will eat it, and I can't eat cheese, it doesn't agree with me. I always had it pinned as something you can't freeze for later?

You can freeze for later, but it comes under the food hygiene category of something you should only reheat once more and then eat (so don't keep leftovers). I would sieve it and separate the fat/oily layer on top from the watery stock and keep the watery layer if not making a risotto or gravy with it.

To make a stock/gravy, I'd just heat and add a chicken stock cube. You can use it as a base for chicken casseroles or pies next time you have some, or heat and use as a base for couscous. I cooked a chicken yesterday and used the juices to make a soup - fried up a couple of onions, added the juices and a stock cube, added some chopped up root vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, boiled gently for about 20 minutes; added herbs and pretty much whatever other veggies need using up with the less desirable looking chopped up bits of brown/leg leftover chicken (I don't add skin, gristle or bones) cook for a couple of minutes, leave to cool and then either use a potato masher for a lumpy soup or purée it for a smooth soup, add cream or natural yoghurt for a smoother texture.