I can't believe I'm asking this. Using the whole chicken?

[Spookle]

Please don't laugh too much

I'm new to actual real cooking with fresh things and I have never dealt with a whole chicken before.

Further to my chicken conundrum this morning I went shopping and bought a lovely chicken. It seemed meaty, had a nice Tesco label and is organic. All for the bargain price of £6.50.

Chicken is now cooked and I've just had a small piece or four and it is delicious. So delicious I thought I had better check the label so that I could look for the same one again.

That's when I saw why it was so delicious. It was £6.50 per kilo and at 2.5kg it had cost me £16. So I'm sure you'll understand why I want to get the most I can out of it.

I cooked it in a roasting bag and there is a good amount of lovely jelly stuff. Can I make anything with this? Can I freeze it and use later in a chicken stew or something or would it be too greasy?

I am going to try making a stock from the bones so any tips for that would be great too.

My favourite leftover chicken recipes below. It's a great idea to get the most you can out of it - we get three meals usually. I'm afraid I've no idea what to do with the jelly - hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along!

www.nigella.com/recipes/thai-chicken-noodle-soup

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/23/21-recipe-ideas-for-leftover-roast-chicken

Ps and good for you for cooking with fresh things. No one will laugh at you for trying new things and asking questions.

Bone stock: strip all the usable meat from the bones, put the bones in a big pan, pour cold water on until the bones are completely covered, bring to the boil, turn down and leave to simmer for an hour to two hours. Pour the liquid through a sieve, discard the bones etc and you have stock.

Improvements to this recipe: add vegetable peelings such as the ends of carrots or onion peel to the bones. Add herbs. When the stock comes to the boil, spend a while skimming off the scum on the top - i.e. tilt a spoon so that the white bubbles on the top just sit inside it and then pull the spoon at the same angle across the top fo the liquid.

But TBH the 'bung water on and boil' method is fine as far as I'm concerned.

Stick the jelly in the pan with the bones and any leftover skin when you're making the stock.

You can use the jelly to make delicious gravy to go with your delicious chicken! Or you can add it to the pan when you make the stock with the bones it will enrich the stock, or you can indeed freeze it to use in a casserole for extra flavour.

Things I make with leftover chicken include, Pasta Alfredo, chicken and leek or chicken and mushroom or chicken and ham pie, Asian style soup with noodles, chicken and mushroom risotto, pancakes stuffed with chicken in cheese sause.

Thanks so much everyone, that's all great info!

I've just stripped off all the meat and there is loads! I'm eating a drumstick now with some leftover mash and a garlic and coriander naan so that's my first meal and I have spread the rest over two full dinner plates to cool down a bit quicker. Oh and I think I found the liver and kidneys on the bones so I took a deep breath, pulled them off and threw them in the bowl of jelly.

I already have the ingredients to make a curry tomorrow but there's enough meat there to do something else so I'll have to pop out in the morning for more veg. I've recently had patatas bravas sauce and it was lovely so I'll have a look for that.

I think I can get another 10-12 meal portions out of this plus the stock! I'm a real MNer!

Before the children grew a bit and started eating more we used to do the MN chicken thing. I always found I got more out of it if I cut up the chicken myself raw. Breasts were then used for curry or stir fry. The legs were roasted and the wings were frozen and saved up until we had enough to do things like spicy chicken wings. The carcass then went into the stock pot. Once stock was made I stripped the remainder of the meat from the bones so bits like around the wish bone, the little fillets underneath and the little mini breast strip that gets left behind when you take the breast off. That combined with the stock got used for a risotto or a brothy soup with lots of pearl barley and red lentils.

These days I'm lucky to get enough scraps for a soup after a roast!

That jelly stuff I quite often use for things like pan frying white cabbage. Finely chop, stir fry with chicken schmaltz, add salt, white pepper and a splash of cream. Yummo.

Don't forget to use some of your lovely home made stock in your chicken risotto.
I usually cook my stock for at least 2 to 2 1/2 hours, I put onion garlic celery leaves and bay leaves in mine. I cook it for that length of time to get the calcium etc out of the bones and into the stock.
Once it's chilled you will be able to skim of any fat that rises to the surface, before using it.

I have to ask did any water come out of the chicken and did the chicken shrink please answer question I have to know.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9974/spanish-chicken-pie

This is what I do with chicken leftovers - if you are feeding other people its great because they expect boring cottage pie.

IAmAPaleontologist I did once chop up a raw chicken trying to save money and it was a right mess. None of the knives or scissors I had were up to the job and I ended up hacking away for ages and there were bits of raw chicken all over the place. I never tried it again.

Allalonenow can I freeze risotto? There is only me eating these meals so I need to be able to freeze the extra. I do fancy a a mushroom risotto now. Oh and can I do my stock in a slow cooker? If yes I can put that on in the morning and it will be done by late lunchtime.

Sunshineonacloudyday No, not a bit of water to be seen. I scooped out all the jelly into a bowl and it would have separated wouldn't it? Also with my geek head on I weighed my pickings a bag containing the two breasts and a drumstick was 450g, and a bag containing the rest of the plucked meat was also 450gm. The bones themselves weighed 550g which I was a bit surprised about. The jelly is about a plastic utensil spoon and a half worth.

cdtaylornats Oh that looks delicious. The ingredients sound quite like the patatas bravas sauce so I might do that with the rest of the meat.

I don't think you found the chicken's liver and kidneys stuck to the bones. They would have been inside the skeleton originally but removed before you bought it. I'm not sure what you found though, maybe the oysters?

Chicken and leek pie with puff pastry
Chicken and noodle soup with the jelly, and any tiny bits of chicken left !

£16 for a chicken 🍗

Yes Risotto freezes ok.

I came on to recommend this slow cooker stock recipe You really do need to boil bones for nearer 8-10 hours.

I made Nigella's Thai chicken noodle soup today with leftover roast chicken - it's lovely

www.nigella.com/recipes/thai-chicken-noodle-soup

I love a good chicken thread.

Me too Exit!

A slow cooker is perfect for stock. Glad you bought organic OP even if it did cost you a bit more - they have much better lives.

Oh, oh, I forgot to add my favourite chicken leftovers recipe:
Chicken Pesto pasta for 4
Fry up some onion and 2 chopped bell peppers. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a small container of creme fraiche. Add your cooked chicken leftovers and chuck in some frozen peas if you like them. Put in a tablespoon of Pesto (or more! Adjust to taste, I could it the stuff neat...) and serve with any kind of pasta. YUM.

You need this thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/2540871-I-am-going-to-Mumsnet-the-fuck-out-of-this-chicken

Wow, thanks for all the replies

I've screenshot your ideas and recipes and saved some of the links for the next time I do a chicken.

And here are most of the fruits of my labours!

8 portions of curry + 1 eaten tonight
6 portions of spanish chicken +1 in the fridge for tomorrow night
I ate a drumstick last night and have some breast meat aside for a hot chicken and mustard sandwich lunch tomorrow.

So 18 meals from my £16 chicken!

Oh and the bowl is the stock and I am going to make a mushroom and pea risotto tomorrow.

I've just found a simple risotto recipe and it says to use arborio rice, can I get away with brown rice or is that no good?

It has taken hours and hours and I still have some washing up to do but it has been worth it

X post RobberBride, I will have fun reading that thread now.

I don't think brown rice would work in a risotto, use the correct rice because it breaks down a little with cooking/stirring to give a creamy texture to the dish, and I don't think brown rice will do that.