How to really stretch a chicken!

[Shell]

If you really want to save some money in the kitchen check out the article on how to stretch a chicken.

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/how...drumsticks.htm

I bought five plump, medium large chicken drumsticks on sale for a dollar twenty nine for the package.
On Monday, I oven fried the chicken, made my own version of spiced rice and opened a can of collard greens. Along with sliced tomatoes, it was a pretty good meal.
We ate three of the drumsticks that evening and I put the other two (still in the glass baking dish, covered with a bread sack split down one side) in the refrigerator. Wednesday night I put the leftover spiced rice in a pan, added another cup of water and a bouillion cube. I added the bit of leftover collard greens, and as it all heated I pulled the skin from the drumsticks, took the meat off and cut it into small pieces. This I put into the rice for a thick and hearty chicken and rice soup.
I put a cup of water into the baking pan to let it set until clean up time. No, I had no intentions of throwing it out!
Instead, it was scraped into the half cup or so of leftover soup, along with the leftover bones and skin and a couple of cups of water. It simmered while I washed the rest of the dishes and cleaned the kitchen.
After about a three quarters of an hour, I put the stock, bones and all, into the refrigerator.
Thursday morning, I took the chicken stock from the refrigerator, removed the thin layer of fat from the top, and dipped out all the jelled part that I could without disturbing the bones and odd bits that lay at the bottom.
That part I heated briefly, (I set the pan on the hot burner - turned off - after I'd boiled water for tea) then I dug into it, separating bones, skin and gristle from bits and pieces of meat. Thurday evening I served it over biscuits. (You could also serve it over mashed potatoes or use it as a base for a casserole or soup.)
Bottom line: $1.29 of meat = three meals.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Can you do a better one? Send it to me. If it's good enough, I'll send instructions as to how you can get it published right here.
The Rest of the Story:
I grew the tomatoes for the first meal in containers this year, since we recently moved and a garden area has yet to be dug. There were a few green ones when it started to frost so I brought them in and allowed them to ripen. They're coming along one by one, for the most part!
The twenty five ounce can held 'way too many collard greens for two people, but it was cheaper per ounce to buy a large can than two smaller ones, so what couldn't be used at once was divided into thirds and frozen for later use.
To oven fry the chicken, I put a cornmeal/flour/salt mixture into which I'd mixed sage and ginger into a heavy plastic bag which had once held rice. Then I dropped the drumsticks in one by one and shook them until well coated. I put them in a shallow baking pan and added a small dollop of butter to each one and baked them at 400 for about 45 minutes.
The green pepper that I used in the rice came from the farmer's market last summer - three very large ones for a dollar. I had chopped and frozen several. The spices and bouillion came from a salvage grocery for about half their grocery store price. The garlic I could have done better with. I bought it in a jar, already minced. I have, in the past, kept a container of garlic growing on the window sill for such things. The window sills here are quite narrow so I'm trying to find another way. (Besides growing it in on the kitchen table!)


By telling you what could be done, I hope to show you that you can stretch meat much farther than you think is possible. Those five drumsticks would have gone even farther if I had boiled them and the meat used in casseroles, salads or other mixed dishes.

Hungry for a good roast, but the prices make you hesitate? You can have your roast and eat it, too! A medium size roast can make several meals for even the hungriest of families. How? To begin with, buy the largest roast you can find for what you want to spend.
When you get it home, cut it into meal sized pieces and freeze. As you roast each piece, make a point of saving enough for another meal before you serve it. How much is "enough?" See below.
You don't have to buy expensive cuts of meat to roast them. The key is to tenderize it with a splash of vinegar before roasting, and to cook with the lid on and a little water in the bottom of the pan (pot roast style).
If you don't want to cut it up and freeze in pieces,go ahead and roast the whole thing the first day and enjoy it. The second day, cut the remaining roast into as many meal size portions as you can. How much for a meal size portion? It will vary according to how many mouths you have to feed, but the following will generally feed about four.
Get a meal out of a little leftover roast

• Grind or mince a half cup for sandwich spread. Add boiled, chopped eggs, pickles, onions, cheese, olives, green peppers - any and all of these things or whatever you have on hand. Mix in enough salad dressing or mayonnaise to make it spreadable. A food processor can make a smooth and tasty sandwich spread in a jiffy.
• Slice a few pieces thinly to eat over mashed potatoes with gravy, or in gravy over bread. Freeze gravy with the slices already in it. It only takes a minute to pack and freeze things, and you'll find this is the simplest way possible to have convenient, inexpensive, and good food.
• Make hash. Cut up two to three cups of vegetables you roasted with the meat, plus the gravy if you made it. (Take out enough gravy to use in another meal if you can.) Add half cup of water and a cup or so of cut up roast. Thicken with a little cornstarch mixed with cold water if necessary, and simmer a half hour or so.
• Chop a half cup of roast meat and make a stew with it. Take out anything you want to save from the pot you roasted it in and add water to the rest, then thicken with cornstarch mixed in a little cold water. Bring it to a boil and add a small can of tomatoes or tomato sauce, and more spices if you wish. Barley, rice or vegetables leftover from other meals can help stretch it. If you use the pan you roasted the meat in, you'll get an added bonus of flavor.
• Another way to use the roast pan leavings: After you've cooked the roast, take it out and brown a cup or two of rice in the drippings. Add water or bouillon, then add spices such as garlic, pepper, and allspice to taste and cook until done. The bits and pieces of meat that would otherwise have gone down the drain are usually enough to provide a hearty meat flavor to your dish. Add a little minced roast, and/or vegetables if you like, to make a complete main dish.
• Reader Brenda sent this tip: "We actually purchase a quarter beef each year. It's wonderful, but you can get a little sick of beef if you're not careful. Not all the roasts are prime cuts, and sometimes the butchers does up huge ones. I've discovered over time, you can slice leftover roast fairly thinly, and into bite size pieces, and then use them in a stir fry. I've discovered the soy sauce (or whatever sauce you choose to use at that time) will take away or cover the 'reheated' taste that can sometimes happen."

Stretching meat to make it go farther doesn't mean you have to be miserly with the taste. Meat flavor is the key, not meat portions. Use every bit of flavor presented by roasting a piece of meat and your grocery budget will thank you.

[KKCondrey]

Yes, I would say she got her moneys worth and then some...lol

[doodlebug]

Makes you wonder what she could do with a whole chicken! I'm in awe!

[Shell]

It really makes you think how we can stretch what we use in so many ways!

[Ellise]

Isn't that amazing? My guys would have eaten every bit of it the first night.

[Guest1]

Mine too Ellise......

I wish I could get my brood to push away from the table while they were at the "nourished" stage instead of going all the way to the "oh my goodness why'd I eat all that" stage......

[blueknitter]

I baked a jerked seasoned whole chicken this past week. Thursday, I think it was. So far we've have:

Baked chicken-- Thursday
Chicken sandwiches-- Friday
Quasi-Thai cp-- Sat
Quasi-Thai cp lo-- Sun (plus two extra servings that DH took for his lunch at work both Sat and Sunday)
Chicken Rice soup- Monday(It's making, now, and it's a big pot)
LO Chicken Rice soup with dumplings--Tuesday

That's about as good as I can do with a 4lb chicken.