Ready-to-eat chicken "gunk"

[samarrange]

I hope this isn't too obvious, but it wasn't to me until I thought of it, so please be gentle in any replies...

When you buy a supermarket rotisserie/ready-to-eat chicken that has been wrapped in plastic, there is often a lot of "gunk" on it when it comes out of the bag. Do not be tempted to throw this away, or to rinse it all off.

Half or more of the gunk is darkish-brown. This is the meat juices (the chicken was still warm when it was packed). The other half is lighter in colour — that's the fat. Chicken fat is not much good for anything, but the juices are free gravy, way better than Bisto!

Open the packaging on a board or plastic mat and get as much of the gunk off/out of teh chicken as you can, either with a spatula or with your fingers inside the cavity after cutting the string that binds the legs together. Pour all of it into a tall glass. Leave if for a couple of hours at room temperature. The fat will rise to the top, and you can throw it away. Keep the brown jelly in the fridge — it'll be fine for several days. Sometimes there will be little pink bits of dark meat in there — keep that, it's all goodness.

DP and I will sometimes have half of the chicken in sandwiches for lunches, then one evening we pick the carcass, melt the jelly, and warm all the bits of chicken up in it. Throw in some peas that have had 4 minutes in the michaelwave, and maybe a couple of leftover boiled potatoes, and you have something not a million miles in taste from a roast chicken dinner in one pan and about 10 minutes!

Or eat the chicken as it comes with a loaf of french bread and wipe up the juices (gunk) as you go.

Agreed, but that's if you get a fresh hot one in a paper bag. It's hard to warm up the shrink-wrapped ones, so I used to just scrape off all the gunk and throw it away!

That is truly fucking revolting. It’s not war times, we don’t need to keep all that shit 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

That "gunk" contains precious collagen!! Madness to chuck it.

Dont you know how to make gravy? Or stock?

It’s really good in risotto use it like a stock cube. Madness to chuck it, same with other meat juices.

Tend to agree with this. Basically, Op is suggesting melting amd mixing all the gunk to create a mush that "tastes like a chicken roast". Mmm... Not.

You need fat to make gravy. Chicken fat and juices for chicken gravy.

Keep the chicken fat and use instead of butter or oil for your next risotto. Then add the juices that you didn’t use for gravy. You will have already stripped the bones and made chicken stock. Any leftover chicken meat bits make it a chicken risotto with wonderful depth of flavour. (I keep the rind from my Christmas ham and it just sits in the fridge. Chop a bit off and toss into the risotto, too, or a stew etc for a little extra flavour).

Use the chicken fat to toss your potatoes in for roasting.

I keep the fat drained off roasts for future roasts and other cooking. Great for making pastry.

And yes, stock and bone broth are very nutritious. Reduces waste too.

I do yes with my own freshly cooked meat - not with supermarket stuff that’s at around for hours on their shelf then boot of car etc. rank 🤮🤮🤮

Exactly it’ll be loads of added artificial flavour that doesn’t ordinarily belong on a chicken if you cooked it from scratch.

Which supermarkets still do a rotisserie? As Waitrose stopped doing them yonks ago.

What? The stuff I'm talking about is literally what came out of the chicken when it was roasted. It's entirely natural (unlike, say, the ingredients list of Bisto).

That's interesting. My Mum always threw chicken fat away as she said it wasn't good for roasting and she wasn't keen on the taste.

Duck fat, on the other hand... 😍

Well, I’ve never cooked a duck and would need to go searching for duck fat. I do have easy access to good chooks.

I have seen duck fat sold in the supermarkets as Christmas approaches.

Many French families will have a big jar of confit de canard in the cupboard, in case unexpected guests need to be fed. This is duck legs that have been slowly cooked and then preserved in their fat. You warm the duck up in a pan and then fry potatoes in the fat. Add a green salad with a sharp dressing and it's fantastic (especially considering it came out of a jar).

Yeah, I have Elizabeth David’s complete collection so could make it but over my way duck is available in only a few butchers. I wouldn’t keep how much it costs.

Oh, and I have never seen smaller jars of confit de canard, let alone big ones, ready to keep in case of unexpected visitors needing to be fed.

Also I sort of think it is ‘war times’ or will be soon enough

Just fyi. It's not the same every where, but Asda's "rotisserie" chicken is actually cooked in a plastic bag in a brine solution. so that run off is incredibly high in sodium.

Morrisons still do

@LogicalBlodgeBig M&S foodhalls will have them. The Manchester one often has a crowd stood waiting for the rotisserie heated-shelf-rack-thing to be restocked!

🤔 I think I am glad I didn't buy pre cooked & ready to eat anything meat chicken... except a bit of ham once in a while. WITHOUT GUNK!

If I remember correctly, Asia is owned by Walmart …

Morrisons