How many meals can YOU make from a whole chicken?

[Birth Junky]

Whole chickens are on sale this week, and I'm trying to figure out just how many meals I can manage from one bird. Should I roast the whole thing, use the meat for two dinners, and then throw the bones into the soup pot?

Any other creative suggestions would be much appreciated; I'm planning on going grocery shopping tomorrow and am trying to make a plan.

[Benji'sMom]

I can roast it, take meat off bone and throw bones with small amount of meat stuck on them in a soup pot.
Take the meat that was removed and make probably 3 dinners from it:
chicken quesadillas, chicken caesar wraps, chicken spaghetti, stuff like that

[pampered_mom]

That's what I did! We had a 6lb chicken. We had roasted chicken, rice and squash last night. For lunch today we had chicken salad. I've got the bones and other remnants in a pot now making chicken stock which we'll use the majority of it to make chicken and rice soup and the other part of it to make chicken and dumplings. So...that's four meals? We're a family of three, two adults and a toddler.

You know, if I were you, I'd probably buy at least a couple of birds just to make chicken stock with. It'd be nice to have some in the freezer for later!

[7kiddosmom]

Usually just one, but you also have to consider the size of my family.

I used to could get 2 or 3 when we weren't so many

[Birth Junky]

Okay, I am going to see if I can free up some space in our freezer to make room for some frozen stock later on in the week. I'll pick up two chickens, roast 'em both, and make a BIIIIG pot of stock. (One of my favorite things about fall/winter is making soups and stews all the time.)

Unfortunately I won't be able to do our favorite green-salad-with-meat recipe because it is made with spinach . . . but chicken enchiladas and chicken caesar wraps sound great.

Oh, and there are only two of us (DD is still on breastmilk only), so the chicken should last awhile.

Thanks for the suggestions, mamas!

[MsElle07]

Birth Junky, spinach is back on the shelves and "safe" again. Just make sure to wash.

I just did this on Sunday. I roasted two chickens at the same time. We had roasted chicken and potatoes for dinner that night. The next night I made chicken tortilla soup. The next night chicken quesadillas, and with what was left, I made chicken salad for sandwiches.

[Birth Junky]

Ooh, chicken tortilla soup! They make a fantastic version at the alehouse near here, where we often meet friends for dinner. We are trying to curb expenses, though, since we are closing on a house in November (hence, my desire to stretch my food budget as far as possible). Would you be willing to share your recipe?

And thanks for the heads-up on spinach; didn't realize the threat had passed. We were out at the aforementioned alehouse a week ago and they were making all their spinach salads with arugula!

[PumpkinSeeds]

YOu can make a lot of enchiladas with one chicken. Just mix the meat with a lot of onion, vegetables, etc and it stretches it. And enchiladas freeze beautifully.

[MsElle07]

I got my tortilla soup recipe here: http://soup.allrecipes.com/az/ChickenTortillaSoup.asp

I didn't use the hominy, and fried my own tortilla strips from corn tortillas, which are super yummy.

[tboroson]

Depends on how many people you're feeding on it, and how big it is.

We're feeding four: two adults and two kids, one of whom is a chicken fanatic. As a PP described, I typically roast the bird first. We eat roasted chicken that night. I throw the carcass with the meat on and a few chicken feet or backs, or maybe carcass pieces saved from another dinner, and make stock. That's enough for a pot of soup plus some extra for cooking rice or noodles or whatever. For chicken soup, I'll add back in the meat I saved; otherwise, I use that meat for another meal. So, at best I'll get:
Roasted chicken
Soup with the stock but not the meat
Something done for one meal with the leftover meat
Rice or veggies or something cooked in the remaining stock

[Pandora114]

With just me DD n DH, I can make 3 mabe 4 meals (streching it)

First the chicken itself...roasted..then I pick the carcass and stock the bones/skin.

I make some Jamblaya with some of the leftover meat, hot chicken sammiches with another, and the stock lasts for a bit for soups and wahtnot.

[courtenay_e]

Originally Posted by Birth Junky

Okay, I am going to see if I can free up some space in our freezer to make room for some frozen stock later on in the week. I'll pick up two chickens, roast 'em both, and make a BIIIIG pot of stock. (One of my favorite things about fall/winter is making soups and stews all the time.)

Unfortunately I won't be able to do our favorite green-salad-with-meat recipe because it is made with spinach . . . but chicken enchiladas and chicken caesar wraps sound great.

Oh, and there are only two of us (DD is still on breastmilk only), so the chicken should last awhile.

Thanks for the suggestions, mamas!

Unless you're in Central CA, I'd just check out your local farmer's market...spinach is WAY in season, along with all the other greens you can't get safely from store shelves right now. We're covered by our CSA for one more week, anyway, but then we'll be hitting the markets!

We can get three or four meals out of one chicken, but there's one adult and two kids eating it (I'm allergic to it). Usually we roast it, then take the meat off the bones and make soup. That's two. Then we take the meat and make hot chicken sandwiches, chicken salad, and/or cold chicken pasta salad. Occaisionally I"ll make stew rather than soup.