I have 2lb of chicken breast, how far can I stretch it?

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

I bought an inconveniently huge chicken on the weekend. Made the jointed bits into a vat of coq au vin. Now I have 750g of chicken breast to use up.

I need something to make that is
a - thrifty (most of my 'stretch' recipes with lentils and veg and whatnot tend to use cheaper cuts of chicken) and
b - freezable

Apart from that, no criteria, my family eats everything.

Any ideas?

Burritos / fajitas, or some other Mexican-type recipe that bulks out the meat with refried beans, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, tortillas and cheese. It's not freezable once assembled but you could spice and fry the meat and freeze that, and also the beans (though I think you can get those in a can). It's useful for using up odds and ends of veg in the salsa, which doesn't need to be tomato and onion: courgette and sweetcorn with green chilli is lovely.

Or, if you need something that you defrost during the day while you're at work, what about a risotto (it would be helpful if you kept carcass for this). Delicious with almost any summery green veg in it, and parmesan. Just make it a bit liquidy so that it doesn't dry out when you reheat it.

Carcass became part of coq au vin, so no base for stock left.

Mexican quite a good idea though. Cheers.

Not freezeable but try chicken fried rice for leftover chicken meat another time. Cook up about 1 - 1.5oz brown rice per person. Then finely chop up some spring onions, red peppers, courgettes... add a few handsful peas and sweetcorn....little garlic and ginger for flavour. Stir fry the chicken and vegetables in a little oil until heated through and tender, stir in the rice and heat that through. Finish with some soy sauce..

Chicken chowder with corn, parsley and potatoes in a creamy broth?
Chicken risotto - dice the breast and add it to a pea and leek buttery risotto.
Chicken curry - spin it out with those lentils and some potatoes, spinach or tomato and spices.

But with breast I'd be tempted to do a treat and just slice it thin, dip it in egg, douse it in finely ground herby or spicy breadcrumbs or bashed up cornflakes and fry it. Home made dippers - each one comes out double the size of the chicken that went into it. They are tasty but quite high fat so a rare treat.

Chicken and veg pasta - fry off the chicken (chopped) with garlic and onion and then whatever veg you fancy - I usually use courgette and tomato and add to cooked pasta. You could have that cold with a dressing on it, or hot.

Green thai chicken curry - for the quick version you just need to fry off garlic and onion with the chicken (chopped), add thai green curry paste, then a tin of coconut milk. Serve with rice.

Chicken and potato bake. Again, fry the chicken (chopped) off so its not pink, layer it in a baking tray, pour over a sauce (could be pesto/tomato/white wine/cheese) then layer par-boiled and thinly sliced potatoes over the top, drizzle with oil and bake. Serve with salad or veg.

You could try easy noodles with about 1/2lb of the chicken.

Cook it in 1pt chicken stock, then add some green or red curry paste. Put in a pack of noodles and a tin of coconut milk and simmer until the noodles are done. Add 1/2 a large pack of stir fry veg and cook for about 2 minutes. DOesn't freeze, though

Cook about 12oz or so in a some barbecue ketchup mixed with water a chopped onion and some chilli powder until it is all soft and delicious. Shred the chicken finely between 2 forks and serve in rolls like burgers. This freezes

Use 4oz to make cream of chicken soup.
3tblspns flour
1/4pt milk
2pints chicken stock
4oz cooked chicken
1tspn lemon juice
1tspn nutmeg
2tblspns double cream
seasoning to taste

Mix the flour with half the milk to form a paste. Bring the stock to the boil and stir it into the paste Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add chicken, lemon juice and nutmeg. Season to taste. Mix the cream with the rest of the milk, stir in and heat gently without boiling. You should be able to freeze this.

DIce the rest and cook it. Mix it with 1/2 a pint of thick tomato sauce made like white sauce except with a tin of tomatoes and 1/4 pint of condensed milk, a tin of chopped tomatoes with chilli and peppers and a jar of salsa. Cut a packet of tortilla wraps into 1 inch squares and mix this through the chicken and tomato mix. Put it in a baking dish and sprinkle the top with grated cheese. You can either cover and freeze or bake for about 30 minutes at 180 until bubbly and delicious. My children really like this.

That gives you 4 different meals from the chicken. You could also try:

creamy apple chicken where you mix the cooked chicken with a tin of condensed cream of chicken soup, 1/4pint apple juice, some garlic and some tarragon: Creamy chicken and mushroom, mix diced cooked chicken and mushrooms with 1pint of white sauce made with an onion and 1/2 milk 1/2 chicken stock. I usually add about 1lb of frozen mixed veg instead of mushrooms to this and serve it either with a scone crust or over mash: Chicken nuggets: barley risotto with chicken: chicken pasties or filo parcels: chicken and bacon pasta with tomatoes, garlic and herbs.

You lot are brilliant.

I worry about curry with chicken breast - I usually use thigh fillet so it can be slow cooked. Silly to say that I don't know how to cook breast, which is the expensive bit, but there it is.

I'm leaning towards making two smallish chicken and veg pies, if I can make room in the freezer.

I forgot about pies - if you would rather do something like that they're tasty and simple. Just get your pastry (I cheat and buy mine), roll it out into your dish, put the cooked chicken on top, add any veg you fancy (asparagus, leeks and peas are tasty with chicken), pour over a white sauce (DH has taught me to make lots of sauces from scratch, but you can cheat and buy a sauce or a can of thick soup), put pastry over the top and bake for 25-30mins. They do freeze too which is a bonus.