This recipe is part of a series on stretching a chicken to the max. I took one medium chicken of 1.5kg and made it feed a family of 4 for a week, with 7 different budget stretching chicken recipes.
I roasted the chicken, had a roast lunch with my husband, then stripped off all the remaining meat and simmered the carcass in water to make stock.
To make Chicken & Sweetcorn Tart
First of all, make the pastry.
Use the oil method of pastry making, or buy a sheet of shortcrust. To do this, put the flour in a bowl, tip in the oil. Then add the water. You may need a little more, or a little less, all flours are different. Simply stir gently with a tablespoon, and it will come together in a few seconds to make a soft dough, don’t over mix, or the pastry will toughen. If it is looking a little dry while you stir, add a little more water. If too wet, add a little more flour.
Line a 20cm tart dish / tin.
Slice an onion and sauté in a little oil until transparent. If your chicken is raw, cook it now with the onions to remove the water that chicken releases as it cooks.
Once the chicken is cooked, chop it into pea sized pieces.
Now mix all the filling ingredients together, except the stuffing balls, if using. Pile the filling into the tart case and dot the stuffing balls around. My husband doesn’t like stuffing, so I haven’t used them here.
Bake for about 35 mins in a medium oven – 180°C Fan /200°C / 400°F / Gas 6 until the filling is set through.
The tart could be used hot or cold, as packed lunches or for picnics, as well as for a main meal.
You will probably have a little pastry left. I make a small tart with it and fill with jam, mincemeat or whatever needs using up.
What changes could I make
- You could use turkey instead of chicken
- And other things could be used instead of the onion and sweetcorn.
- I would use a medium onion instead of the very large one, and then
- Potato and olive
- Carrots and peas
- Frozen mixed veg, straight from the packet
- Potato and frozen spinach.
- If you don’t have any onions, you could leave that out and just use something else.
- You could add some rosemary, thyme or marjoram if you have any.
- You could flavour the onion with bay by gently frying the onion and bay together before putting in the tart filling.
- I would use a medium onion instead of the very large one, and then
Easy ways to stretch a whole chicken to feed your family for the entire week
You may think that the recommended amount of chicken in each of these recipes 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 recipe making 4 servings, I was able to stretch it to do the following:-
- Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
- 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, this recipe
- 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!
There is also a series starting with a poached chicken
- 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 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!
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!
Other tart recipes
Puchka tart. What’s that? Complete deliciousness on a plate, that’s what
Ingredients
- 70 g chicken use a little more if the chicken is raw
- 3 stuffing balls 1/6 value pack, optional
- 200 g onion sliced
- 100 g sweetcorn frozen or tinned
- 3 eggs beaten
- pinch salt
pastry
- 150 g flour self raising, value flour
- 75 ml oil use rapeseed oil if you can. NB oil does not weigh the same in grams as it measures in ml.
- 47 ml cold water
Instructions
Pastry - made with oil
- Prepare the pastry using the oil method . To do this, put the flour in a bowl, tip in the oil. Then add the water. You may need a little more, or a little less, all flours are different.
- Simply stir gently with a tablespoon, and it will come together in a few seconds to make a soft dough, don’t over mix, or the pastry will toughen. If it is looking a little dry while you stir, add a little more water. If too wet, add a little more flour.
- Flour the worktop and roll out the pastry to the size of your dish. Line the pie dish being careful not to stretch the pastry.
Filling
- For the filling, slice the onion and sauté in a little oil until transparent
- If the chicken you have is raw, cook it for a few minutes in with the onion. This is to get rid of the water that raw chicken will give out when cooking.
- Once the chicken is cooked, chop into pea-sized pieces
- Put all filling ingredients in a bowl, except the stuffing balls and mix well.
- Pile the filling into the lined pie dish and place the stuffing balls, if using, evenly round.
- Bake for about 35 mins in a medium oven - 180°C Fan, 200°C, Gas 6, 400°F -until the filling is set.
- Good served hot, warm or cold
Equipment Needed
Notes
You could use turkey instead of chicken, and other things could be used to pad it out instead of the onion and sweetcorn. I would use a medium onion instead of the very large one, and then….
- Potato and olive;
- carrots and peas;
- frozen mixed veg, straight from the packet;
- potato and frozen spinach.
- If you don’t have any onions, you could leave that out and just use something else.
- You could add some rosemary, thyme or marjoram if you have any.
- You could flavour the onion with bay by gently frying the onion and bay together before putting in the tart filling.
All the recipes in this series on making a chicken last a week
- Roast chicken, 400g chicken, gravy, with stuffing, 4 portions
- 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, this recipe
- 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
There is also a series starting with a poached chicken
- 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 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
Sort of like a quiche, but no cheese. Loved the chicken flavour , I’m going to add some herbs next time