Stretching a (whole) chicken... and other meats

[tortoise]

I bet a lot of you do this without thinking about it, but I'm still working on stretching a chicken.

I bought 3 - 3.5lb whole chicken at $3.99 each. I want them to go as "far" as possible. I'm serving 2 adults and a 3 year old.

I roasted in a large baking pan and put as many veggies in as possible: 1 large onion, 4 tomatoes, 4" cut sliced off the top of a celery "plant" (all the stalks together), 4 carrots, 3 potatoes. Roasted it (yummy!)

My meals:

*Chicken breast with roasted veggies.
*Sliced chicken breast for sandwiches (2 - 3)
*1-1/2 cup chopped chicken for creamy chicken "chowder" (2 meals)
*2-1/2 cup pulled chicken (for BBQ sandwiches)
*4 cups of roasted veggies as side dish for (3?) other meals.
*Carcass and leftover veggies for bone broth. Some for the freezer and the rest for bean soup. (2 meals)

So 10-ish meals, plus bone broth in the freezer.

How do you stretch your chicken? I think I'm getting everything out of the chicken, BUT I don't feel I am stretching it that well. Like the BBQ sandwiches take up a whole lot of meat - more than the soup that will make 2 meals!

 

[patandchickens]

I usually figure about 3-4 meals out of a 3.5 lb chicken for our family (2 adults and 2 young kids) so I think that your 10 meals out of 3 chickens is quite respectable (edited to add: my 3-4 meals includes one of soup, and you're not counting your use of stock I think, so you are probably ahead of me already )

In terms of can you do any better, it depends what you mean "stretching".

I mean, insofar as you are talking about the actual meat off the chicken, obviously that is pretty nearly a fixed quantity, although certainly it pays to spend an extra 10 minutes picking the carcass *really really* clean, and by all means USE the giblets for more than just gravy, and make stock from the bones.

So any apparent "stretching" will primarily come from reducing the amount of chicken meat served in any one meal.

For this reason, anything involving lots of chicken (like eating lots of it from the original roast, or doing bbq sandwiches like you mentioned) is less "stretchy" than dishes that involve lots of veggies or grains and only a *bit* of chicken meat.

Some things that are good even with only a smallish amount of chicken meat in them: fried rice, crepes (plump out the filling with some veggies/mushrooms in addition to the chicken meat), pizza, green bean casserole made with chicken meat in it, peanut-sauce noodles (chinese restaurant style) with a little chicken meat in it.

CHicken soup can be good with *no* meat in it at all if you are really trying to make things go further -- if the stock is flavorful, just use veggies and/or <whatever> for the soup and leave the meat out altogether. Still tastes pretty good

And again I would promote the idea of putting the giblets (fried up and chopped) in crepes or an omelet or whatever.

Still, there is just only so much meat on a chicken, and no fancy cookin' is going to change that

(I notice that my home-raised chickens, even if CornishX, have a lot more muscles in more different places than supermarket chickens do, I guess because of more exercise, so with them it is *extra* worth doing a really good job picking the carcass clean)

GOod luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[tortoise]

Fried rice is a great idea! I was trying to think of how to use "eggy rice" - a favorite of mine. Add some chicken bits, some peas or whatever... that's fantastic - thank you!

 

[savingdogs]

Holy cow, my hat is off to you both. Maybe my family are pigs (I do have two teenagers) but I thought I was doing well to make a small chicken go for TWO meals and then making stock from the carcass.

I think Hubby would whine and complain if his only meat for dinner were little slivers mixed in fried rice. No wonder you all spend less on food!

Good thing raising our own meat is a goal at our home.

 

[patandchickens]

If you have egg in the rice too (and some onions and scallions and stuff), and put it on top of some shredded lettuce if it's available that time of year, it's really pretty filling and satisfying. Well, if you like fried rice anyhow LOL

I think it depends a whole lot on whether one was raised on the "big slab o meat on the plate" plan or whether one was raised with casseroles and soups and suchlike being a significant number of dinners.

Pat

 

[me&thegals]

Soup and potpie

We sell pastured meat chickens, and I actually have a document for my potential customers called "Chicken Yoga: or How to Stretch a Chicken," so your title made me smile

 

[tortoise]

I think it depends a whole lot on whether one was raised on the "big slab o meat on the plate" plan or whether one was raised with casseroles and soups and suchlike being a significant number of dinners.

Pat

Agreed. My mom is an amazing meat stretcher. She can make a whole chicken go a very, very long way!

She would mix hamburger and rice 50/50 for sloppy joes. Do you think that would be good with venison/pork sausage and rice? With sloppy joe sauce?

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Rubber chicken! Mmmmm
I'm like Pat, I can get 3-4 meals out of one chicken, for 2 adults and 2 (always starving ) kids.

Enchiladas, spanich rice, chicken salad (browned chicken bits over salad greens OR the mayo & onion kind), soups, casseroles and more are good ways to make a bit of meat stretch further.

For ground beef, you can add cooked mung beans (just barely tender) to the raw meat to stretch it without an obvious add in. Works in almost any beef dish.

 

[patandchickens]

She would mix hamburger and rice 50/50 for sloppy joes. Do you think that would be good with venison/pork sausage and rice? With sloppy joe sauce?

To stretch ground beef in sloppy joe or spaghetti sauce I sometimes use up to 25% bulgur.

I have experimented with various attempts to inconspicuously bulk up shredded chicken in bbq or enchiladas or that sort of thing but thus far with no good success.

Sometimes I'd rather just eat less and have it be ALL meat, rather than eat more of diluted-down meat

Oh, another chicken-stretching thing (sorta): I have found that if you have leftover roast chicken skin, which you know is never as good past the first 15 minutes it comes out of the oven and certainly doesnt reheat well, you can sliver it into thin shreds and use it as casserole topping. Very good. Like those canned fried onions only a chickeny taste and of course much better for you

Pat

 

[tortoise]

Ooo! Yay! I was trying to figure out something I could use the skin for!