Getting the Most from a Whole Chicken

How To Stretch the Meat

It’s hard to explain exactly how we stretch two chickens to last an entire month, but here are a few meal match-ups and real-life examples to give you a better idea.
Using the Breast Meat
We’ll use one breast, either rib in or rib out, for all of these meals:

• stir-fry
• tacos
• main meal salads
• buffalo chicken wraps
• greek pitas
• fajitas
• asian chicken dishes (sweet & sour, general tso, orange chicken, etc.)
• creole (if it’s mostly chicken)
• chicken tenders/nuggets

If Mr. Crumbs is craving a chicken sandwich, I try to use just half of a breast, or leftover chicken from previous meals.  A little bit of chicken goes a long way on a sandwich that’s stuffed with veggies, so keep that in mind.
Using the Dark Meat
When the kids were younger, I was able to serve two thighs and just one drumstick at dinner.  As they’re getting bigger, we’re cooking up all four pieces of dark meat at one time.  Here are a few meals where this happens:

• slow cooker salsa chicken
• baked chicken (any variety)
• bbq chicken on the grill
• homemade fried chicken

Using the Shredded Meat
Mr. Crumbs is not a fan of the texture of shredded chicken, so in order to use it to its full potential, I’m very careful when both picking it off the bones and chopping it into pieces.  Depending on how non-shredded the chicken is, it ends up in a variety of meals.  Most of these meals can be made with 1-2 cups of shredded chicken.  Less if there are other fillers like rice or beans, more if it’s a heavy meat dish.  Since this chicken is packaged in 1 cup servings in the freezer, it’s easy to pull out just what I need for each recipe:

• stuffed peppers
• enchiladas
• mixed veggie dish over pasta
• pizza
• tacos
• creole (if it’s a mixed meat dish)

 





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