How many meals can you get from one chicken?

[slowtypinwoman]

I have hit a personal best of three. lol
Day 1: roasted chicken with veggies
Day 2: chiken enchiladas
day 3: chicken noodle soup

What is your best? Would you share the recipes of them?

Rosemary chicken
one fryer
splice skin and place a chunk o oleo under the skin
cut up an onion and fill cavity
rub skin the salt and peper, rosemary, and lemon salt/peper
Bake in oven @ 350* for about an hour



Chicken enchiladas
take the leftover meat from the chicken and shread with forks
add 1/2 c. onion, 1/2 can red sauce, chili powder, 1 c. sour cream, and a c. shreaded cheese mix
in a 9x13 put a little red sauce on the bottom
assemble ench. ( we like to scorch our on the stove first) place seam side down
Cover ench with the rest of the red sauce cook @ 350* until warm
top with cheese and cook a little longer until cheese melts
**we are also filling ours with rice you'd be surprised how little chicken this takes I can do a whole dinner with just one breast

Chicken noodle soup

cook on about 6 carcass add all the juices you may have left in the pan from orriginal baking. add onion, sweet basil, s&p, oregano, diced cellery, parsly, dried garlic granuals, one bay leaf, and one can chicken broth. boil the heck out of it. I like to let this cook about 2-3 hours alone. when you take out the bones the meat should just fall off. Make sure all the bones are out. Add one diced potato, sliced carrots, half a bag of whatever noodles you have on hand. simmer for about 2 hours more.

[Sara Noel]

We generally get three also.

Usually, it's the whole chicken one night, chicken salad sandwiches, and finally chicken fried rice.

[mom22grls]

I can usually get 3. Mike won't eat soup, so that's not one of them.
I don't know about my *best* I'd have to think about it. Normally I roast or fry the chicken. The leftovers go in the freezer for other meals....like encheladas, casseroles, chinese, quesadillas, tacos, pot pie, creamed chicken, etc. I also save all the drippings....most of the time I'll just go ahead & make a gravy & freeze that in 2 to 3 pkgs, depending on how much I've got.
So at any time, I've got 2 to 3 pkgs of cooked, diced chicken in the freezer.

 

 

eta...I use the gravy I've made in place of cream soups in most recipes......I really like it with salsa, cheese, maybe some chilis, and chicken mixed together for quesadillas. 

[jlxian]

Yummy Marcia!

[YankeeMom]

I can usually only get three meals, sometimes four, from a whole chicken for my family of 6.

The first meal is always Roast Sticky Chicken:
Roast Sticky Chicken
Makes 6 servings
Ingredients:
4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. white pepper
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. black pepper
1 large roasting chicken
1 cup chopped onion

Preparation:
In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all the spices. Remove the giblets from chicken; clean the cavity well and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture into the chicken, both inside and out, making sure it is evenly distributed and down deep into the skin. Place in a resealable plastic bag; seal and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to roast the chicken, stuff cavity with onions and place in a shallow baking pan. Roast, uncovered, at 250°F for 5 hours. After the first hour, baste the chicken occasionally (about every 30 minutes or so) with pan juices. The pan juices will start to caramelize on the bottom of the pan and the chicken will turn golden brown. If the chicken contains a pop-up thermometer, ignore it. Let the chicken rest about 10 minutes before carving.

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Then I pick the bones clean & can usually divide it into two or three more meals. One casserole dish, like dorito chicken or perogies & chicken casserole. And one soup (boiling the chicken carcass w/ celery, onion, & thyme), chicken & rice or chicken & noodle (neither are my favorites though), or chicken pot pie. If I have any left for a 4th meal, it's usually enough chicken to make chicken salad sandwiches for me & youngest ds.

[Jerseygirl]

I can usually get four dinners for 2 adults and 3-4 kids.
Baked the first night, I pull off the wings and boil the bones etc while we eat the rest.
Second day is generally over noodles
Third is in burrito wraps or or tacos
Fourth is soup.

[Valerie in WA]

I just did one this week...let's see:

*We had part of the breasts for lunch, but that was just the girls and I.
*Then we had gooey chicken burritos for dinner, all four of us.
*The next night, I used the rest of the breasts in a casserole, all four of us, except one dd didn't touch hers, so I had it for breakfast today.
*I had leftover gooey burritos for lunch three days in a row.
*The girls had burritos one day for lunch.
*there's one more lunch for me left of the casserole.

So, if I was counting meals for four, I'd say...4.25 meals. Plus I have a very rich broth, but no meat, left over. I'm going to use that broth, some TVP, carrots & celery for soup tonight (with salad and fresh homemade bread). So if you want to count that, it would be 5.25 meals for four.

Oh, and the cat ate the liver and the heart. Does that bring my weird calculations up to 5.5 meals? I usually give the neck to the ducks, but I cooked it with the burritos and thought the diced chilis might make their eggs taste funny.

My feeling is that since I choose to pay $2.50-$3/pound for organic chicken, I'd better get a lot out of it!

[Mojjo]

The only thing I would add is I will take every last piece of meat of it and add it to a quiche...kinda like a chicken quiche lorraine and then i eat that for lunch for the week...it's more of an accent, but yummy.

[forestdale]

none

[Kimberlina]

Rhonda. If I actually had the chickens I want, I suspect my answer would be much the same as yours. (And not to get totally OT here, but I printed up some Jan Brett chicken drawings DD wanted tonight- there were three breeds, and they were all gorgeous. Whenever I get my two hens, I am going to name the Hennie and...Henny!)