Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Last week I bought a chicken for $6.99 and noticed a sign that said whole rotisserie chickens are $3.99 on Sundays. DOH!

I also noticed that they have a packaged time on them, so I made a point on Sunday of buying a $3.99 chicken that had been packaged within a 2 hour window.

A few weeks ago, J.D.’s wife, Kris, had a great post about making stock from a rotisserie chicken. Even though it’s summertime, I LOVE chicken soup! So I’ve been making stock and soup like a fiend.

This is lesson how to make a series of meals around a chicken. This assumes you are like me, single or perhaps in a couple with no extra mouths to feed.

First, how to pick a whole chicken apart:

1) Take the chicken home and let it cool to the touch. Set out a bowl for bones/stock pot and bowl for meat.
2) Pick the chicken apart with your bare hands. Don’t be squeamish. Learning basic chicken anatomy will help you do this.
3) Pull the wings and legs off. If you are lucky, the whole drumstick, thigh, and ‘oyster’ will come off in one piece.
4) Put the first two wing sections in to the bowl for bones. There’s hardly any decent meat on them so don’t bother.
5) Scrape the drumstick and thigh bones with a fork to take the meat off. Toss the bones *and skin* into the bowl for bones.
6) Take your thumbs and wedge them near the center of the chicken breast. Your thumbs should naturally find the breastbone and use your thumb to break it open and tear the breast meat away from the rest of the carcass. Peel the skin off and toss into the bowl for bones. Put the meat into the bowl for meat.
7) Pick as much of the meat off the rest of the carcass as you want. Don’t forget to flip it over as there is meat on the back of the chicken, just not a lot.

After that, toss your bones and carcass into a stock pot and follow Kris’ recipe. Personally, I like mine with dill, parsley, and thyme, with a lot of garlic. No need to peel the garlic either. I like to yield about 6 quarts from one chicken.

Since I had two chickens this week I made two stocks. One very plain, and one very savory. The first one was plain because I didn’t have the other ingredients, which was good as it allowed me to make something later that needed a plainer broth.

BIG CAVEAT - I don’t really measure stuff, so the amounts are mostly guidelines for spices and dressings. Experiment and make it your own!

Chicken Pasta Salad with Lemony Vinaigrette:

1 bell pepper, diced
1 medium tomato, diced
1 box Farfalle (bowtie) pasta
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cloves of garlic (or more if you like that)
1 teaspoon of mustard
~1/2 cup of good quality extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Make the pasta al dente. Cut up the bell pepper and the tomato into small bite sized pieces, but not too tiny, about 1/2″ dice. Toss the chicken, pasta, and veggies together in a large bowl. Into a blender, crush some garlic, add mustard and lemon juice. Start blending and slowly pour in the olive oil till it get creamy. Pour over your pasta mixture and serve warm or chilled. Approximately 4-6 servings.

Personally, I don’t add the chicken to it. I put the pasta into tupperware boxes first, then toss a fistful of chicken on top. I can see exactly how much I’m eating and that works better for me.

I actually made this and I ate it three times before throwing out the rest.

Chicken Egg Scramble:

3 small eggs
1/2 medium tomato, diced finely
1 cup of chopped cooked chicken
1-2 teaspoons of pesto
salt and pepper to taste

Dice your tomato and get rid of the extra moisture/seeds. Heat your pan and scramble your eggs in the skillet with the pesto. Throw in the tomato to let that cook and toss in your chicken. Approximately 1-2 servings. I like it with toast on the side.

Corn and Pea Soup:

I made this after reading a recipe by Teresa Heinz [Kerry, she was listed as Senator Heinz’s wife] in an old Washington Opera fundraiser cookbook at a friend’s house. I don’t remember her recipe exactly except that she called for frozen peas and corn and purees it. She says to serve this hot or cold.

1/2 10 oz pkg of frozen peas, or about 5 ozs of freshly shelled peas if you can get them.
2 cobs of fresh sweet corn
a little onion finely minced
2-3 cups of PLAIN chicken broth
cooked chicken - optional
salt

Peel your corn and remove all the silk you can. Rinse them off and slice off the kernels with a sharp knife. Stand the cob up in a bowl and slice downward. They might go everywhere on the counter, but most of them will land in the bowl. Thaw the peas till you get half the package and re-freeze the rest. Boil your broth and toss in the onion, corn and peas.

The trick to this is have a very plain broth. Fresh corn and peas have a lot of sweetness and so that’s what you’re bringing out in this soup.

More recipes later this week.