How to stretch a chicken to last the whole week
Do I need to buy a whole chicken?
Buying a whole chicken and jointing it yourself is cheaper than buying ready jointed chicken pieces. If you are going to roast a chicken, then a whole one is much nicer to present at the table I think than pieces.
The price per kg of a whole chicken is much cheaper than a pack of breasts (the most expensive), thighs or wings. You may of course specifically want, say, wings, for a recipe you are making. A whole medium chicken at the time of writing costs £3.19 in Aldi
A medium chicken, on average, will yield coming up to a kilo of cooked meat.
How to use a whole chicken for multiple meals
Our roast chicken after the two of us had had what we wanted
I mentioned recently that I had been inspired to do a stretchy chicken series. I expect most families who need to stretch the pennies have favourite ways to stretch a chicken and ways to stretch minced beef.
There is just me and Mike to feed here, so most of my ideas will be for two people. Although when creating the plan, I thought I’d make it a family plan and make each meal serve 4. If you are a couple like us, each meal can be used over 2 nights. Or freeze half for another time.
We had roasted chicken last night, with some stuffing to pad it out, and in the interests of research I have bought some value stuffing. We don’t usually have stuffing as my husband isn’t keen, although he liked the way I made it this time!
Crunchy roast potatoes – everyone likes 2 or 3 of these with their roast lunch!
my husband loves his Yorkshires!
First steps – the whole chicken
I decided to roast the chicken as a first step in this series and the first meal we would have would be a roast lunch. I weighed what we cut off for ourselves and it came to a smidge over 100g of breast for husband, and the thigh I cut for myself, once I’d minused off the bones, was about the same.
I mixed up the stuffing, which the instructions said needed 250ml of water. So I used the liquid from one of the tins of organic green beans that I got from Approved Food for extra flavour. I used half of a tin of beans at lunchtime that I’ll tell you about later. I also opened the oven and poured out a couple of tablespoons of the juice from the chicken pan and added that to the stuffing mix as well, for yet more added flavour. Then put the stuffing in tiny little piles on a baking sheet. They came out as lovely, crispy outsided little morsels.
The chicken was roasted in the usual way, with no additions, just the chicken.
How to roast a chicken
The simplest way is to take all the packaging off and pop it into a roasting tin. It’s recommended that raw chicken is not washed as there is more risk from splashing than not washing it. Any splashing can spread campylobacter bacteria on to other surfaces, other food, your skin, your clothing and equipment which can lead to serious illness. If by chance the chicken has campylobacter or other bacteria on it, the cooking process will kill it off.
Take the bird out of its packaging and put straight into a roasting tin. Don’t cover with foil or anything else. I don’t usually bother to oil or season the skin, the fat released as the skin cooks is enough.
Just place the tin in the middle of the oven which is on at 200C / 180C Fan / Gas 6 / 400F for about an hour and a half until the skin is a beautiful golden colour and it is cooked through. To check it’s cooked through put a knife in the thickest part of a leg and see if the juices run clear. Or use a temperature probe to check that the internal temperature is 170-175°F (77-79°C).
Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the bird to a serving dish to rest, making sure you hold the chicken over the roasting dish until the juices have run out and back into the tin, and cover with a piece of foil and a couple of tea-towels to keep warm.
What to do with chicken juices after roasting – making proper chicken gravy
the chicken juices being made into glorious gravy
One of the things I like best when roasting a chicken, apart from crispy skin – and who doesn’t like that! – is the gorgeous flavoursome juices. There is SO much flavour in them. They can be used to make utterly delectable gravy, and if you don’t use it all with the roast chicken, add a spoonful or two to any other chicken recipe to boost the flavour.
Making gravy is a very useful skill to have under your belt. Proper gravy has SO much flavour, much better than granules.
Once the chicken was cooked, I removed the cooked bird from the roasting tin to a serving platter to rest the chicken under a piece of foil topped with a couple of tea-towels.
While that was happening, to the juice, in the roasting tin, I added a splash of wine, a tsp of mustard, a spoonful of flour, some bay leaves, a tsp red currant jelly, salt and pepper. Then simmered on the hob, whisking all the while until thickened. Tip in any resting juices from the dish too. Make the gravy in the roasting tin as all those sticky brown bits have bags of flavour and need to be incorporated into the gravy while you whisk. Taste and season. Yum!
This makes a simply glorious gravy and there’s nothing quite like it. It has bags of flavour which helps when stretching a chicken this way. A spoon or two of this flavoursome gravy can be added to other recipes to boost the chicken flavour.
I use all the juice and all the fat from a roast chicken. Chefs tend to say that where there’s fat, there’s flavour! Each portion of dinner last night had a little gravy, and the rest will be used as added flavouring when making the other recipes using this chicken. If you’d rather not use the fat in your gravy, keep it and use it as cooking fat during the week. Delicious!
Next Steps
The remaining meat stripped from the chicken
Once the chicken has cooled, pick all the remaining meat off and weigh it.
We had just over 100g each on our roast dinner.
Picking all the chicken off the carcass yielded 677g.
There is just over half the stuffing left and I will use that in something or other.
Bones and skin to go in the stock pot
Once you have picked off all the meat, put the carcass and any skin, bones and leftover juice in a large saucepan (you may need to break the carcass in half to fit it in) Put in one and a half litres of water and a couple of bay leaves if you have them. Add a little splash of white vinegar. The acid of the vinegar helps the calcium to leach out of the bones giving you more goodness in your stock. You can add some clean, washed egg shells too if you like. Egg shells are made from calcium and will also contribute calcium to your stock. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for 2 or 3 hours. A slow cooker is great for this and will save fuel.
the chicken carcass, bones and skin, waiting to be simmered into lovely stock
Once the stock has cooled, strain the bones and skin out and pick over the carcass again. This will yield you a further 100g of little morsels.
it doesn’t look like much, but there is SO much flavour in this plastic box of stock!
So the total meat yield from a typical medium sized chicken is 200g (our 2 portions of roast dinner) 677g (the initial carcass stripping) and 100g (the post stock making stripping), making a grand total of 977g. To achieve a whole weeks budget stretching chicken recipes, you will need to weigh the roast chicken dinner portions when you serve them, and the remaining yield so you know how much you have available for the weeks recipes.
Easy ways to stretch a whole chicken
You may think that the recommended amount of chicken in each of these frugal recipies doesn’t look like it would be enough. I have tested every one of them several times and believe me when I say that they taste of chicken – and are delicious! I wouldn’t recommend them to you if they weren’t.
Adjusting the recipes to accommodate 977g chicken, each making 4 servings, I was able to stretch it to do the following:-
- Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions, this recipe
- Risotto, 140g chicken, onion, half the the stock, some vegetables butter and parmesan, 4 portions
- Pizza, 117g chicken, tomato sauce, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- Spicy Pasta Bake, white sauce, 120g chicken, onion, spices, stuffing, 4 portions
- Tart, 100g chicken, onions, sweetcorn, couple of eggs, no cheese, stuffing, 4 portions
- Pie, 100g chicken, some of the gravy, onion, maybe some sweetcorn or mushrooms, maybe some stuffing, 4 portions
- Soup with the remaining half of the stock, red lentils, onion, spices, 4 portions
this comes out at a total of 28 portions, which I think is pretty good!
This means that 1 medium chicken can be used to make 7 different budget stretching chicken recipes and feed your family for a week – bargaintastic!
Poached chicken recipes
- Poached chicken
- Spaghetti with olives, sultanas and lemon 140g chicken
- Oaty, nutty, seedy chicken and mushroom crumble 140g chicken
- Chicken and rice salad – red peppers from a jar, peas, gherkins, raisins 140g chicken and some of the stock
- Chicken and something Pizza, sweetcorn, onion, red pepper, mozzarella and cheddar – still to come 140g chicken
- Coronation Chicken Jacket Potato – 140g chicken
- Red Cabbage Waldorf with apple, walnut and dressing – 140g chicken
- Chicken Tart with Butternut Squash, Lemon Zest & Parmesan 140g chicken
this comes out at a total of 28 portions, which is amazing!
What do you think? Can it be stretched further than that? What other ways would you use? Have you got a favourite way?
Mimi – yes, it’s amazing how little meat will give flavour and texture to a dish isn’t it
Thank you for these inspiring (and encouraging) recipes. It is helpful to see how little meat is needed to put a meal on the table. I will see what I can get away with!! After making a batch of stock, I always make a risotto with the vestiges of chicken left on the carcass, petit pois from the freezer and parmesan cheese. Very nourising.
Diane – that soup sounds delicious!
My family love my homemade chicken noodle soup. I pick the meat off the carcass and use broken spaghetti, diced onion, red pepper and frozen sweetcorn, peas and chicken stock.
We also enjoy a good chicken club sandwich.
Sorry Lesley for taking so long to reply, I’d probably use maybe 200- 250grams of chicken, about 1 cup in size, with 1/2 cup each of onion, celery, carrot all finely diced, peas, corn and a finely chopped rasher of bacon lightly fried, might use any fat off the bacon and onion to make the roux for the white sauce for added flavour with a little mustard and I generally use full fat milk. If you roughly add up all the ingredients it comes to about 4 cups which with the phyllo on top and the sauce would be a decent sized serve per person for 4 people
Yes, Mum’s dog thought all her Christmas’s had come at once whenever a chicken carcass got made into stock – all those lovely sticky gooey bits!
I was always very thrifty when my children were growing up but not so creative as you! But what I did do was when the carcas had been cooked up for stock, the remaining skin and cartiledge etc (minus the bones of course) was picked over and saved for the dog! she thought it such a treat!!!
Joy – That sounds lovely. How much chicken do you think you use in it for 4 portions?
I make a pie recipe that I originally got from Weightwatchers, called country chicken pie, chopped chicken in a white sauce, eked out with lots of vegetables, I use onion, corn, garlic, finely diced carrot, celery, and in season grated zucchini and some frozen peas, then a little finely diced fried bacon about one short rasher. I sweat the onion and the bacon then add the rest , into a wide shallow straight sided dish, about 2” high with the sauce, I always make my sauce with Dijon mustard for a little extra zing, I think that’s the one it’s creamy mustard and seeds together anyway, and a touch of grated Parmesan or strong cheese. Top with 2-3 sheets of filo pastry , each sheet sort of torn onto chunks and scrunched up like waste paper, spray with oil and bake. Really yummy and secretly frugal because it looks lush, so they don’t know how little chicken there is.
Allyson – that sounds really good. Might have to make that.
Chicken fried rice, fry a chopped onion, add chicken scraps and flavour with chinese five spice mix, stir in cooked rice, a handful of frozen peas and sweetcorn, stir an egg into the mix and soy sauce to taste. I also like to fry a very flat omelette, one egg, and cut it into strips to top the fried rice.
Nicola – that sounds very good indeed, I’ll def be trying those!
I use some shredded cooked chicken in a quesadilla. 2 tortillas with some homemade taco sauce (or ketchup) with some grated cheese and the shredded chicken. Dry fry in trying pan until tortillas are crispy and cheese melted (frozen grated bits of leftover cheese work well)
That would be nice wouldn’t it, maybe one day!
Wow. You are SO creative; I wish I could be a member of your U3A group & meet with you regularly. Bit too far to commute, though…
That sounds very yummy, lots of good flavour in there
Hi Lesley, heard you on the radio today and have gone straight to your site. Love some of the recipes – chickpeas are favourites in our house too.
Chicken curry with left over from roast – using any tiny bits of chicken, stock from the bones, onions, celery, curry spices, and pad with chickpeas, parsnips, new potato and add any leftover veg from roast at the end. Even if you don’t have chicken meat left over, the stock and veg makes a really tasty curry.
Do you have any favourite recipes for those you could share? They sound good
It’s really obvious, but you don’t need much chicken to make a chicken fruity curry as it’s mostly about the sauce for me anyway, I also like chicken in a honey and mustard sauce, with carrots and peas like a chicken tonight, with pasta or rice.
love the sandwich filling/toast topper idea
leftovers get renamed in our house to some other recipe – it was meant to be like that!
I make the stock in my slow cooker. After the meal, when chicken is cooled, one of us will strip off as much meat as possible, then the stock gets made overnight.
I’ve used all your excellent suggestions in the past. Here’s another couple of ideas .. [1] .I sometimes blitz the tiny leftovers with a blob of mayo to make a sandwich filling or toast topper [2] a Fridge Scrape Casserole, using all leftover veg from fridge, plus any remaining chicken bits – usually padded out with carbs in the form of dumplings or cobbler topping. If there is any casserole left, that either goes with a jacket spud for a light lunch, or gets diluted with more stock, and blitzed for a chicken&veg broth.
If there’s not quite enough meat left for a 2-person meal, I sometimes stretch it with a spare rasher of bacon, or slice of chorizo.[Aldi do a good, inexpensive one]
My kids had so many ‘leftovers’ meals as they grew up, I dont think they could remember what the original meal was!
blessings xx