Tag: Soups

How to turn one $5 whole chicken into at least 6 meals

So you know those tiny little whole roasting chickens at your supermarket? Those chickens are a frugal gal’s best friend. They go on sale for $.77 a lb every couple of weeks and a good sized one ends up being around $5-$6(stock up at around $.77 a lb!). So why is that chicken a good deal when I can get a pound of ground beef that is only $2.94?
That pound of ground beef might feed your family for one night…but I’m going to tell you how that little chicken can feed your family for at least SIX meals.

You do need a few other ingredients, but luckily they are things most of us have on hand already

RECIPE:

  • 1 whole chicken
  • 1 tbspn olive oil
  • 1 onion (diced)
  • 3 carrots (rough chopped)
  • 4 stalks celery (rough chopped)
  • Salt&Pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Place chicken in a roasting pan either on a rack or just ball up some aluminum foil and set it up on top of the balls. Drizzle the olive oil over the chicken and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes.When the chicken is done, let it cool.
  4. Pull off the skin and discard. You can pull off the breasts and dice them and shred the rest, or just shred it all. I like to portion it out into bags in 1 cup portions and freeze.
  5. Now fill a big stock pot with 6-8 cups of water. Put the chicken, celery, onion and carrots in the water. Season the water with salt and pepper (chicken broth is generally pretty salty, you’ll know after it is cooked if it is to your liking). Bring it up to a boil and then bring it down to a simmer. Let simmer for 2-3 hours on the stove until the bones are totally falling apart.
  6. Drain the broth and portion it off in one cup portions into bags or plastic containers, and freeze. If you like, you can also separate out the veggies and serve them for dinner. They will be super tender and flavorful, but you probably want to eat them right away because they won’t taste as good reheated.

Use the chicken for pizzas, tacos, in casseroles or on salads. The broth can be used in any recipe that calls for chicken broth.

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