I am going to Mumsnet the fuck out of this chicken!

[TheCarpenter]

Place your bets now!

1.546kg chicken

2 Adults
1 Teen that eats like an adult.

I am going to try for:

Chicken Dinner
Chicken and Veg Pie
Sandwiches
Soup

Chicken and veg pie will have peas and carrots.
Sandwiches will be bits mixed with mayo and maybe sweetcorn to bulk.

Any other ideas?

But burgrit

equally there's little point in eeking it out so much to the point it is just scraps.

See, I disagree with this entirely, but have to stress that I agree that BOTH opinions are valid. I find that a few scraps of meat in an otherwise vegetarian main (a pilaf, said) make a big difference, but Not everyone finds that the case and that's fine.

I find that I do still appreciate a much smaller portion of meat, which makes it worthwhile, although I think this would be less true if I didn't have portions as big as my head from time to time.

@ waving a chicken at a meal

We would normally carve, Steppemum, but some recipes do lend themselves more to whole pieces instead - if you roast thighs and drumsticks instead or if you spatchcock the chicken. We do this from time to time, but fewer leftovers.

Sometimes it's nice to have whole pieces though

Can you grind chicken bones and use them for something?!

Ogre bread?

If you cook the whole chicken in the slow cooker, the liquid left at the cooler makes a very good concentrated stock. Strip all the meat off the chicken once it's cooled. Save the stock in the fridge then when it's chilled, remove the fat for

1. Chicken meat with veg and potatoes
2. Shredded chicken bits in a hot and spicy noodle soup
3. Pie made with odd bits scraped from the carcass
4. Save the soggy chicken skin. Put it in the bottom of a hot dry pan to crisp up. Remove the chicken skin then pop some popcorn kernels in the fat that has rendered out and any leftover from the stock. Serve popcorn with the chicken skin crumbled into it.

And pudding. Pudding helps. It's hard to feel aggrieved about no second helpings when there's a fuck off huge apple crumble or bread & butter pudding coming out of the oven with lashings of cream.

No steppemum I nearly fainted as well, i also get the vapours when american friends share recipes that include nearly a pound of meat per person, it's only recently that my spag bol got upped from 700g of mince to a kilo for 6 people

I carve the breast up but give whole legs. The thigh tends to disintegrate into a lovely, mess covered in gravy my favourite bit.

We carve whole thing in slices and scraps. Slices and legs for roast, scraps and one or two slices for dinners another day.

Would never occur to remove a breast as a complete thing, goes against buying a complete chicken really.

Anyone else really really wanting some roast chicken?

fair enough burgit, but I was thinking specifically of a roast chicken

I hate tiny pieces of shredded chicken. I'd rather replace it with some chick peas or something fir me and give a reasonable portion to the kids. they'd eat loads of roast potatoes ir mash given the chance so I prefer to give then a better portion of the chicken and cut down on the potatoes and pasta for them.

worse case senario I'd have a tuna salad.

my spag bol. however I can pad out fir many many meals

HemanOrSheRa

I chop off the whole breast and as much of the meat around it as one lump, and then slice that up. Loads easier to carve.

We managed all that for 8 with a 15lb turkey. A chicken doesn't go far in this house.

is this how we have become an obese nation of meat eaters?

Not if you are low-carbing.

Thank you for all the stock tips.

The chicken looks like it has a hangover, it's grey and sweaty

Oh my word don't get me started on spag bol.. it's really amazing how far it is possible to stretch a pound of mince. My Mum was brilliant at it when I was growing up and we were skint. I can't seem to bring myself to allow a whole 500g pack of mince for just one meal, it gets padded out with carrot/lentils/tomatoes and stretched to 2 x meals for four, plus a couple of lunches. Not just spag bol either, chilli con carne, savoury mince, hot & sour stir fry. I think it tastes better for all the added padding. DH, a certified carnivore, disagrees.

I did 12 chicken thighs yesterday for 3 of us. They were all eaten .

Yeh. Sandwiches is a step too far. I do a roast chicken dinner every Sunday. A leftovers dinner on the Monday, usually chicken curry, but I did pie last week. And soup for lunches during the week. No way I'd get sandwiches too

Wicked soup recipe though OP! Stealing!

I love making chicken stock. Mainly because I remember my mother telling me years ago I'd never be able to make chicken pie as I couldn't handle a carcass (nonsense!) and so I take great delight with using as much as the bird as possible.

What happens here is that the bones, and any bits of skin go into a freezer bag and into the freezer. Every few months I take them all out and defrost, then put in my stock pan together with onions, carrots, celery and whatever other manky veg is lying around, together with some herbs. I then bring to the boil and simmer for the afternoon.

When it's done, and cool enough to handle, I strain through muslin and return to the pan (cleaned) and reduce it down to about an inch of liquid. Then I fill a muffin tray and freeze. One block, plus the juices from a roast and some cornflour makes delicious gravy!

There is nothing wrong with eating a whole chicken at dinner time if that's what you like! I was just looking at it in the fridge this morning wondering what to do with it and thought maybe I'd Mumsnet it for a laugh.

May scrap the sarnies and go for an omelette.

I am excited about the soup notime.

I can't do leftovers from a chicken. It's a hangover from my childhood when Monday was always chicken leftovers with some concoction of pasta. It was the food of nightmares. So, one chicken feeds a family of 6 here and the rest goes to the dogs. The dogs love it when we have roast chicken!

I cook an Indonesian recipe.

It is called Soto Ayam, which means 'chicken soup' but it isn't really. You put lots of bowls of stuff on the table, then to serve you have a bowl of rice, and add some chicken which is shredded and cooked in delicious spices; pakchoi; glass/rice noodles; a boiled egg; and pour chicken noodle soup over it. Then sprinkle on crushed crisps on the surface.

It is hands down my kids' favourite meal, so when we have roast chicken they always ask if we can have Soto Ayam that week with the leftovers.

Risotto is a genius way to make the most if leftovers. DH does all the cooking for us and he isn't afraid to pick the carcass bare!!