to those of you who make 1 chicken last 3-4 meals how do you do it?

[mothersmilk]

dh has just called to tell me he has bought one (it was reduced he resist a bargain)
remind me how to get my moneys worth please we will roasts it tonight for tomorrows lunch.
thanks

Depends how many are in the family.

We have 5 and they are getting bigger so it becomes harder to make it last more than 2 meals and some sandwiches for lunch.

I would have a roast then, sandwiches for lunch next day and then chicken & veg soup or chicken noodle soup or chicken & chorizo rice.

roast
cold with jacket, salad
curry,pie,stew
soup.

of course it all depends on the size of the bird and how many people it needs to feed

Roast and put on plates. Don't put the whole chicken on the table or it will be gone on the first sitting! Just use one side and the legs the first night.
Freeze half the other side chopped in a bag with curry stuff like Patak's /korma paste. Need to freeze some or you get very fed up eating chicken
Second night, use half the other side for stir fry with rice.
Easier to get the meat off the bones when it is still warm.
Soup stock with the bones.

what onfriday said.

Also do risotto or pie or salad and chicken.

one roast; one thing with lumps of cooked chicken, like a pie/curry/casserole/ pasta dish with some kind of white sauce; one cold chicken thing like a big sandwich or a chicken salad or a jacket potato and curried chicken; and one thing largely based on stock made from the bones plus the last scraps (chicken noodle soup, or risotto). and turn it over to get the bits off underneath!

We only ever get two meals

One roast and one risotto/curry/enchiladas etc

Family of four

Roast
Curry
Stir fry
Chicken and salad wraps for lunch

Family of 3. Small chicken.

Dinner 1 - roast leg and breast
Dinner 2 - bits of breast chopped with vegetables, curry paste and rice
Dinner 3 - bits of leg chopped with home made pasta sauce, with tomatoes, onions, veggies and pasta.

The veggies bulk out the sauces so you don't need much meat.

I also save the juices from the roast and any not used to make gravy go into the sauce for dinner 2 or 3.

I'm usually too lazy to make stock but I do get all the bits of meat off the bird!

1. Roast the chicken
2. make noodles or chicken pie with leftovers
3. Make a stock with bones and turn it into a bloody lovely soup

1. Roast, but limit the amount of meat everyone gets. Pad out with roasted veggies (butternut squash, red onion, sweet pots, red/yellow peppers) and a salad and roast spuds.

1. chicken curry (Thai green, pad out with diced spuds and butterbeans). Serve with rice and chapattis

1. layer with potatoes, green pesto, cherry toms and parmesan cheese.

1. Shove in rough puff pastry to make pasties with:

a. chickpeas, tom puree, cumin, lemon b. pesto, tomatoes

1. Pie with sweated leeks, double cream and grainy mustard. Add veg to bulk (carrots, seetcorn - make sure carrots are precooked).

1. Roast
2. Curry
3. Risotto

I only get two meals. If I knew how to make soup, I could get a third.
1: roast
2: Nigel Slater's crunchy fried chicken thing. In sandwiches.

Family of 6, medium chicken:

1. Roast, with stuffing
2. Stew/curry/risotto with rest of the meat & gravy.
3. Then sling the bones in a pan with some water and cook them up. When you've got a good stock, go over the bones with a sharp knife, and get the last bits of meat off them. Use this as a basis for a soup. (I prefer to use this thin stock with vegetables that we then eat in a soup, rather than making a rich stock, and chucking the vegetables out.)

homemade chicken nuggets
casserole
chicken with lentils and potato

1.3kg chicken, family of three, 4 meals

1. Roast
2. Curry made with leftover veg from roast
3. fajitas or jambalaya
4. chicken noodle soup.

One chicken doesn't go far with DH and 2 x DSs!! IF there is any left then chicken and mushroom pie is always a favourite. Always make stock with the carcass so that goes to make another meal. risotto or soup with home made stock is so much better. And the cats get the bits of meat picked off the boiled up carcass so they are happy.

im new here, i dunno how u all get 3 meals out of a chicken we are lucky if we have enough left for sarnies for tea or lunch the next day lol

I buy as big a chicken as i can.

roast it during the day of the day we are eating it (does that make sense?!), then roast for me, DH, DS1(6), DS2(4), DS3 (1) and occasionally 1 extra person.

Then leave enough out for sandwiches next day for me and DS2. Will have another roast dinner for DS3 that night.

Freeze the rest in 1 person portions for fajitas/chickeny pasta thingy/pie/puff pastry muddle (DS1s concoction).....

Have to say though that the meat is not the main part of our roast, we have LOADS of roasties, yorkies, stuffing, suet roast, veggies, gravy, sometimes mini sausages too (if i have a sudden extra to feed)

I have 5 kids, 2 of them late teen boys (19 and 16), none under 6. I can usually get at least 3, normally 4, meals from a medium chicken. We almost never eat roast, I cook the chicken and then strip the meat off and divide into meal size portions. Then I can make all sorts of different things with it. An example would be:

1. use 2 cups of the cooked chicken mixed with mixed veg and onions. Make a white sauce 1/2 milk, 1/2 chicken stock. Combine it all. Make a herb crust and bake as a pie.

2. Use another 2 cups mixed with appropriate veg and make a chicken curry or a pasta bake

3. Any scraps that are left can make savoury rice, risotto or savoury muffins.

4. simmer carcass and skin with a whole onion, a large carrot, some celery ends, a couple of bay leaves and a boquet garni for half a day, and you get a stock for soup. Usually the soup will do 2 lunch times served with homemade bread.

So, That would give about 20 meals portions from a normal chicken. I am veggie, so It's onlt the kids and sometimes OH who eats it.