Further to my 'how many meals from a chicken' thread...

[hopefully]

I have completed phase one of mission chicken - roast for me and DP. I now have a chicken carcass, still with about half a chicken's worth of meat on it.

So my plan is to:
a) strip the chicken of all its meat
b) make stock using the carcass, a couple of onions, garlic, carrots etc
c) turn stock into soup tomorrow by adding some of the leftover meat and barley soup mix and some more veggies
d) keep rest of meat to use in risotto or similar. Also, would I be able to freeze this meat, so we can use it on the weekend rather than having chicken 4 days on the trot?

PS, my roast was bloody amazing, first time I have ever made roast without help, thanks to everyone who encouraged me to begin mission chicken!

iirc you can freeze and re-heat so long as it is totally cooled before you freeze.& defrost overnight before re-heating or at least i wouldn't reheat from frozen

I always make extra roast potatoes then next evening slice and shallow fry them and have them with the cold meat and pickle. Is almost better than the original roast - yum!!

Curries are always nice with leftover roast meat.

Impressed with soup, I never get round to doing that!!

Ooh, chukky that sounds yummy. I made mash with my roast today, so not an option (was too scared to brave roast chicken and roast pots all in one go!), but will definitely do that next time.

Thanks for the freezing info lucysmam

Carcass is turning into stock as we speak! (I hope). Sadly DP is keen on chicken sandwiches tomorrow, so I may not get my fourth meal out of the chicken, but I'll try to ration him a bit...

Would definitely recommend it, and roast spuds are easier to do as you just sling it all in the oven! Mash with roast meat sounds delicious - if we eat all the extra roast potatoes (which often happens) I do mash with the cold meat instead and it's yummy!!

Just thought as well for next time, I usually stick the carcuss in the fridge and strip the meat the next day when I'm going to use it. DH once got carried away and stripped it all for the next day and it really dried out. Keeping it on the carcuss keeps it jucier. But I never freeze it so it may well be that it keeps just as nice frozen.

We tried it this weekend too. I got an organic chicken from M&S - it cost about £8.50. I roasted it for Sunday lunch with lots of butter underneath the skin on the breast and I slashed the legs which Jamie Oliver recommends so it would all cook quicker. It was done it about 45 mins and I left it for 30 mins to rest. It was delicious, DH had it with mashed potato and I had it with rice spooned over with the buttery juices. We have eaten a whole chicken in one go before but we only ate half for lunch this time - I was very strict with DH! DS had chicken and rice but only a bit as he is poorly. I stripped the chicken and boiled up the carcass for stock. In the evening we had fried noodles with chicken. For dinner tonight we had risotto with chicken, mushrooms and fresh broad beans made with the left over stock. If I hadn't used the stock for the risotto I could easily have made a soup for lunch so I would have got 4 meals instead of the 3. I can honestly say I have not enjoyed a chicken so much and I got real satisfaction of making it go so far!

Is this a club? I remembered that thread and had an organic chicken from the farmers' market. Roasst on Sunday, tons of meat taken off today, four pints of stock ccooling on the stove that I reckon will do both a risotto and a soup.

I had to get out a very old cookbook to remind me about the stock with instructions for jointing and boning chickens, amazing what cooking skills we have lost isn't it?

Thanks hopefully for getting us started on this!

it's great we're inspiring each other!

My stock was something of a haphazard affair (no recipe), but tastes brilliant! I just stripped the carcass of as much meat as I could, then boiled it up with onions, bay leafs, leftover gravy, carrots etc for a couple of hours, then put the whole lot in a colander and fished out the bones (put the onions and things back in the stock, since it's going to be used for soup)

Managed to restrain DP slightly on his chicken sandwich making, so have still definitely got enough meat left for loads of soup, and with a bit of luck it will stretch to a fourth meal - I'm thinking of making little filo parcels of stir fried chicken and veg with soy sauce, my mum made something similar once and it was great!

Blithe I was just thinking it would be much better to joint a chicken than buy pieces, might have to raid my mother's recipe books!

filo parcels sound tasty tasty hopefully!

my stock's always a bit haphazard but still tastes ok

omg no chance here! 6 of us with big appetites! lol

6! I can barely get my head around feeding 2 of us!

Made my chicken soup last night. It was nice, but not as yummy as I'd hoped. I think my main mistakes were:
a) not boiling the carcass for long enough
b) not putting enough other flavours in with the carcass to make nice stock
c) not straining the stock properly, thinking that would make it more flavoursome
d) putting too much barley in the soup, so it was more like stew

However, DP did eat it willingly (despite confessing afterwards he's not that keen on barley! will stick to potatoes next time), and I thought it was quite tasty. Also made way too much - will split stock in half next time and use half for risotto. Which means I will get even more meals out of it! Both having leftover chicken soup for lunch today, then an evening off from chicken (have some frozen meat from carcass to make filo parcels tomorrow)

Chicken meals so far: 7 servings (3 main meals for 2 people, and chicken sandwich for DP)

wow hopefully that's good going! we usually get a main meal from a roast chicken, something with leftovers and stock for soup/risotto & that's about it. i usually pop carrots & onions in with carcass to make stock then strain the whole lot and put new in to make soup

did you bother with the filo parcels you were thinking about doing or not?

I'm planning on making filo parcels tomorrow night - thought we deserved a night off chicken! Put the chicken meat for the filos in the freezer on Sunday night. It's not loads, but bulked up with stir fry veggies will be loads, and putting things in pastry always makes them look fancier/more appetising!

i'd imagine you do feel like you deserve a night off chicken. but sounds like you've definately had your moneys worth as well. I might try filo parcels next time we have a chicken, they sound tasty and a good idea with stir fried veggies!

Americans call it 'rubber chicken'.

rubber chicken blueshoes??

lucysmam, I am not sure I understand your question. The term is in the context of the same chicken being used for many dishes. Presumably 'rubber' because it stretches.

ooooh, yeah that was what i meant!! sorry, not very good at grammar

I assumed the rubber chicken thing was beacuse by the third day the leftovers had got a bit rubbery!

All this stock making has certainly inspired me, the next time we have a roast I'll give it a go! Think the filo parcel things might be a bit beyond me though!

yes you can freeze the chicken meat you pull off the carcass.

You need to add more to your chicken stock to make it into actual soup though, otherwise you will have what you had, a rather bland tasting afair.

improve the stock by adding a pinch of mace and some bay leaves while cooking.

Improve the soup by adding finely chopped sauteed onion, leek, carrot, parsnip, swede courgette or celery (in any combination that suits you)

Add chopped fresh pasley once the soup is cooked

Add small pasta shapes or spaghetti broken into small peices instead of the pearl barley

Or make a chicken and mushroom soup by sauteeing finely chopped muchrooms (chestnut would be perfect) and adding.

Or a thai style chickenm soup with lemon grass, ginger, chilli and pak choy

just thought of another delicious soup:

Chinese chicken and corn soup!:

I cup sweetcorn kernels
1 egg white
1 teaspoon sesame oil
5 cups good quality ready-made chicken stock
1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch, blended with 2 teaspoons water
some of your chicken off the carcass
2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions

Mix the egg white and sesame oil together in a small bowl or measuring cup and set aside. Bring the stock to a boil in a large pot and add the corn. Simmer for 5 minutes, uncovered, then add the rice wine or sherry, light soy sauce, ginger, salt, pepper, sugar, and the cornstarch mixture. Bring back to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Add the chicken. Immediately afterwards, slowly pour in the egg white mixture in a steady stream, stirring all the time. The egg will cook in the heat of the soup in thin strips. Mix in the spring onions and serve.

I bluddy love this soup.

OMDB I'm going to try out your chinese chicken & corn soup with left overs this weekend. sounds very tasty