#go get a rotisserie chicken. from walmart. I pick all the meat and freeze it in portions for the whole week then make broth from the bones

[fruitviine]

What's your favorite animatronic at Freddy's?

honestly? chica! she seems like she'd be really fun to hang out with, and who doesn't like food? I only hope she could find it in her heart to forgive me for my diet being about 90% chicken though...

[tightwadspoonies]

The Thrill of a $5 Rotisserie Chicken

Few things allow you to feel the potential like a $5-7 pre-rotisserie’d chicken from a fancy, otherwise expensive grocery store like Costco or Meijer or Walmart or Giant Eagle.

First, you didn’t have to cook it yourself (and, generally, for some reason it’s significantly cheaper to buy your bird pre-rotisserie’d than buying the raw bird and cooking it), and second, well, it’s like 4 entire pounds of the expensive ingredient in basically any recipe- and you didn’t even have to run the risk of accidentally messing it up with the wrong seasoning or by forgetting it was in the oven. 

But if you’re like me, $5 is the absolute max you would ever think of spending on any single grocery item (plus, if you think about it, that’s an entire animal’s entire life in that chicken carrier)- so how to justify it?

By getting absolutely every possible single scrap of nutrient and calorie from this former wad of feathers. That’s how.

Today I’ll take you through the process of getting your (7-9) meals’ worth out of that $5 bird in 4 easy steps:

Step 1: Acquire the Bird

Figure out which stores in your area offer the least expensive rotisserie chickens. In many places this will be somewhere between $5-7. It’s worth seeing if they’re even less expensive when purchased day-old from the deli cooler instead of on the warmer, though this is rarer than you’d think. It might be worth it to you to get a biweekly/monthly chicken at a place you don’t normally shop if you, like me, usually shop at grocery stores without such a fine prepared food section.

Step 2:  Divide and Conquer

Resist the urge to eat as-is. You’re on a mission here.

While the chicken is still warm, pick all the meat from the bones. Picking meat from a warm chicken will make the meat come off the bones more easily and net you more meat for less work.

Place the carcass (as well as skin, tendons, drippings, and anything that isn’t meat) in a plastic bag or large container and put it in your freezer for later.

Shred the picked meat and divide into about 6 servings. It may not look like a lot of meat per serving, but many recipes don’t need a lot of meat to make them tasty.

Freeze these in separate containers (baggies are fine, or plastic/glass containers) so you’ll have a convenient, pre-cooked, pre-portioned source of meat for recipes.

Step 3: So You’ve Got Some Conveniently Portioned Chicken...

Find some cool recipes that use chicken. They don’t have to be difficult or time-intensive- find ones that use (or can be amended to use) about 1/6th of a rotisserie chicken. Keep in mind that many recipes are not specific to a particular type of meat/protein, and pre-cooked chicken works for a lot of them.

For example:

Warm shredded chicken on salad greens

Chicken salad (chop carrots, onions, and celery, toss with thawed chicken and dressing, serve on toast)

Chicken enchiladas

Chicken and bean tacos

Chicken bacon ranch casserole

Chicken pasta salad

BBQ chicken pizza

Chicken noodle soup, stew, or white chicken chili

Chicken stir-fry

Chicken Sloppy Joes (chop chicken small and pad out with veggies like finely diced or shredded carrots, potato, sweet potato, onions, green pepper, cauliflower, etc...)

Step 4: So You’ve Got a Chicken Carcass in Your Freezer...

Remember that large container or storage bag with the chicken bones, etc... in it? Well, you know how every time you cut up an onion or carrot, or celery, or other veg there’s bits you don’t eat (onion skin and ends, carrot tops and greens, celery butts, radish greens, etc...*)? Throw those into that bag/container as you go.

Once the container/bag is full of chicken and vegetable scraps, you’re ready to make some broth/stock. Broth and stock helps you get everything else out of the food parts you’d normally throw away.

Put all the scraps from your bag/container into a large pot and fill with water. Add some herbs/spices of your choice (recommend rosemary, bay leaf, basil, parsley, pepper, salt or bouillon if you would like, and garlic (fresh or granulated)) and a few tablespoons of vinegar (any kind you have is fine- it’s just to put a little acid in there to get some extra minerals out of the bones).

Turn on the stove until just boiling and simmer for several hours. Alternatively, you can put this in an electric pressure cooker (like an instapot) for 1-2 hours or a slow-cooker for 4-8 hours.

Once everything has boiled long enough that the tendons are clear and gooey (or when you’re starting to get anxious about the gas/electric bill), pour everything through a strainer set over a large bowl.

What comes out the other side is your stock. Pour into containers and freeze for later. This can be used for a nice soup base, instead of water when making rice or pasta, or you can drink a mug of it plain. It’s particularly great for getting calories, salt, vitamins and minerals in when sick- you can hide a surprising amount of butter, lard, coconut oil, or other fat in a mug of broth!

*I recommend not using bits from cruciferous veg like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, etc... It will be overpowering flavor-wise and not in a good way.