chicken question related to grocery shopping thread

[Greatfun]

Bizarre title but stick with me. I was the OP for the 'how much do you soend on groceries' thread. There are some great tips on there which I will be following up. I always buy chicken breasts but will buy a whole chicken on sunday to get as many meals as poss from it. There will be 3 of us eating it - me, DD and DS. Can anyone give any ideas? I will roast and eat some of the chicken on sunday and maybe have chicken sandwiches on monday but other than that I am clueless. Can I reheat the chicken once its been roasted?

Any other tips on reusing food woudl be good too.

Thanks.

i often mix cold roast chicken into pasta sauce

yummy

yes it can be reheated once roasted, no problem

It's ok to reheat it, but you may find it dries out a bit. I like cold roast meat with bubble & squeak, and deliberately do more spuds and veg than needed for the roast so we can have that next day. You can also use up some of the meat in fajitas if you stirfry it with some veg and sauce.

ahhhh, now i am getting the idea. Thanks very much. Fajitas and curry sound good.

We always have the chicken on the Sunday, then the legs on Monday (one each for dh and I - the kids don't eat with us on a Monday) usually with leftover veg made into bubble and squeak. Tuesday we have the rest of the meat made into a pie, or risotto, or curry, or pasta sauce etc etc. Depending how big the chicken is we sometimes get two meals out of it, or if we are sick of chicken by then I will stick some meat in the freezer and make a meal another time.
The carcass I bung in the freezer as well and when I have three or four I make stock.
HTH

Rupert - So can you freeze the meat and then defrost and reheat it? I am clueless about all this and have therefore just assumed I should chuck it.

i wouldn't freeze then re heat tbh, but it will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, and unless you buy a massive chicken you probably wont have so much left over that you need to freeze it.
if i do roast chicken, we usually have enough to do fajitas the next day and maybe a risotto the day after at a push.

Roast chicken can be reheated as long as it is done very quickly... so small pieces thrown in to a boiling hot sauce is ok... well I've eaten it loads and I'm still alive, not sure about freezing though

Best use for yesterday's roast is my dh's invention... its a kind of chicken noodle broth but its a full meal...

Chicken stock, veg (sliced cabbage, thinly sliced carrot etc), noodles and scraps of chicken... flavour with fresh ginger and soy sauce

I freeze and reheat - it is fine to freeze chicken after it has been cooked - just the same as making a curry or something with chicken breasts and then freezing and reheating.
I just put as much meat as I think I will need for a risotto or whatever into the freezer, then take out in morning and leave in fridge until I cook that night.

I use left over roast chicken to make chicken soup.

If I buy a large chicken, I sometimes cut one of the breasts off and freeze it - then roast the remaining bird.

I find theres enough meat for a roast, plus leftovers for the next days dinner- and a spare breast I can then defrost and use later in the week as basis for another meal

I make a chicken pot pie from leftover roast chicken.

Fry chopped carrots, courgettes, mushrooms, frozen peas & an onion in butter, add a splash of white wine and about a tablespoon of plain flour, chuck it into a casserole dish with all the meat you could get off the chicken, drop a thawed sheet of puff pastry over the top and glaze it with an egg. Bake on a lowish heat for about 1/2 hour or so.

I have a meal of leftover roast dinner (microwave 3 min or heat with a little water in frying pan, make sure is sizzling for 5 min).
Then I pull all the meat off the carcase and put in the fridge for 2-3 days later. I boil up the bones etc to make stock (cover with water, add herbs + pepper and any bits of old veg hanging about, like celery tops, bring to boil, simmer 30 min).

Stock may get frozen, but eventually used for cooking lentils or adding to a rice stirfry that's lacking in meat.

The rest of the meat gets used in stir-fries. It could be frozen as long as it's then thoroughly reheated (5 min sizzling rule again), and never re-frozen.

By stir-fry I tend to mean veg stirfried or cooked and then bunged in pan, bits of meat and cooked rice added, then an egg broken in and all stirred round a bit with a few herbs and soy sauce. It's MrNC's specialty - tasty, nutritious, and uses everything in the back of the fridge!