What can I do with a whole chicken that isn’t a roast?

[ColinFlower]

I can never think of anything but a roast dinner when I use a whole chicken. What else could I do instead?

Cut it up and make curries.

Bone in chicken makes the best curry.

Nigella’s chicken from the Venetian ghetto is a fab recipe. Really simple, and tastes way better than it should, given how few ingredients/how simple it is.

This masala marinated chicken is do good.

It goes with these cumin crusted vegetables

Spatchcock and periperi spice rub.
Or lemon and herb
Tandoori marinade

Lorraine pascal's peri peri chicken is delicious and one of our summer Sunday dinners - lovely with a bean and green salad.

I roast the chicken but serve it with giant cous cous cooked in vegetable stock, pui lentils, spinach & roast butternut squash - it always goes down really well as an alternative to traditional roast.

Chicken Medicine Soup.

Take your chicken and sit it on a bed of celery, carrots, quartered unpeeled onions. Add in a couple of unpeeled garlic cloves, peppercorns, a generous amount of salt, and a large bunch of parsley...stalks and all

Cover with water, lid on the pan and bring to a boil, reduce to a bare simmer for abut 40 minutes and then off the heat until the chicken is cool enough to handle

Take the chicken out of the stock and strain into a bowl, when cold put into the fridge overnight and skim off the fat in the morning.

Strip all the meat from the chicken...I often keep the breast meat for a pie, and just use the rest for the soup, but if you like it extra chickeny then put all the meat in

When you have skimmed the stock put it back into the pan with the shredded/chopped chicken, some snapped spaghetti and fresh parsley....reheat to serve

*this soup will cure all that ails you. FACT!

I nearly always have a couple of single portion tubs of this in the freezer, it makes me feel all competent, efficient and a very good mother. ;)

I am too lazy to joint a whole chicken, so I would always cook it whole. I assume it's the whole bells-and-whistles roast dinner you want to avoid, as opposed roasting the chicken (aka just shoving it in the oven, so pretty low effort)?

If so, my favourite non-roast dinner thing to do with a roast chicken is to serve it with macaroni cheese and roast cherry tomatoes. It is delicious!

This is quick, easy and gorgeous.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/thai-red-chicken-soup/

Nigella's praised chicken is lovely

I was just coming on to say the Jamie Oliver Thai soup. It’s so so good. I also do some basmati rice with it

Thanks everyone, definitely doing the Thai soup at some point but decided to go for peri peri spatchcock chicken this time. Except it turns out I don't know my breastbone from my back bone!
I'm serving it with spicy rice and corn on the cobs, does that sound ok?

Sounds lovely. What time round you like me to be there??

*would

If I roast a chicken midweek it would usually be served with chips or jackets, salad, coleslaw, corn, maybe garlic bread.

But I do think it is worthwhile learning how to joint a chicken as whole chickens seem to be so much cheaper than joints currently. Then you can make Delia's chicken basque or Nigella's chicken on peas and leeks, both scrummy dishses.

Definitely chew. It hadn't occurred to me before this but there is a huge difference in price, I think I will mainly buy whole chickens now. I didn't realise how easy it is to joint (once you've figured out which bit is the back that is!)

I follow the instructions in Delia's complete cookery course & it now takes about 5mins. I haven't mastered doing it without checking the instructions every time though!

anything and everything! anything you buy breast or thighs for you can alter slightly for your whole chicken and its so much tastier and cheaper.
stews.
chicken in white sauce
stir frys
bbq chicken
pies.
crumbles
goujons.
buggets.
chasseur.

Hairy dieters chicken - remove skin, spatchcock, slather in greek yoghurt mixed with garam masala, ginger and garlic. Marinade for a bit then oven cook or, even better, Barbeque.