Whole Chicken Ideas

The advantages to buying a whole chicken other then the price is that amount of meals you can make from one chicken.  Here are some easy ideas.  First, how do you cook it???  Well, the easiest and most moist way of cooking your chicken is in the crock pot.

Crock Pot Chicken:

•  Take out your crock pot and put your whole chicken (make sure the giblets and guts are gone) inside as well as enough water to come up about 3 inches along the side.  Add in some thyme, a bay leaf, and some poultry seasoning.  You could also add in some cut up carrots, potatoes, celery, and onion to make it into a meal for that night.  Cook on high for 8 hours, making sure it really has time to let out all the flavors.

When your chicken is done in the crock pot, take it out and cut off all the meat.  There is a lot of meat that can come off a chicken.  Make sure you even get the meat on the bottom of the chicken.  Divide chicken into meals.  SAVE your chicken stock that has been made by the juices, you can use this for a soup.  Strain your chicken stock with cheese cloth or a strainer and store in a glass container in the fridge for 3-5 days or freeze in a plastic container for 6 months.

More Chicken Stock:

• Take the left over chicken bones after you have cleaned it of all possible meat.  Make sure you don't throw out any fat while cleaning the chicken as this is great to add in when making a stock.  Add all bones into a crock pot.  Add in some onion, celery, carrots, a bay leaf, some salt and pepper and cover the bones with water (or at least 3/4 of the bones).  Cook on low for 8 hours, then on high for 8 hours, really letting everything simmer and drain themselves of all the tastes.  Strain your stock with a cheese cloth or fine strainer.  To get rid of any fat you can place all of your stock in a large container or pot in the fridge and once the stock has cooled, scrap the fat off of the top.  Then you can pour your stock into containers to freeze or refrigerate. 

Chicken Fajitas:

• Just take some chicken and shred it.  Put it in the crock pot with a can of salsa and a bit of water.   Let cook on high for 4 hours.  Serve with fajita toppings (and rice to make the meal stretch even more).

Chicken Noodle Soup:

• Cut up some of the chicken into chunks.  Take the stock that was made and place in a pot.  Cut up onions, carrots, celery, and any other desired veggies and let them simmer in the stock.  Also add a bay leaf and seasonings to taste.  Once you feel your stock is at a good taste, add in desired noodles (I usually take fettuccine noodles and break 3 times to get about 2 inches long of noodles).  When noodles are soft, serve with crackers and buns....

Other Chicken Meal Ideas:

• Curry Chicken...... I add lots of veggies to my curry chicken to make the meal look bigger.  It's served on rice anyways.  I use 2 breasts when I make my curry chicken in an 8x12 pan (this amount is good for 2 servings each and leftovers the next day for both my husband and myself).

• Chicken Casserole..... add white beans or a stuffing mix to your casserole to make up for the amount of chicken used.

• Chicken on a Bun...... serve with lots of veggies and salad so when making the bun, you aren't using a large amount of chicken.

• Chicken Salad...... serve with lots of fresh fruit that is in season.  Cut fruit to the same size as the chicken, this way your meal looks nice and full, also serve with lots of lettuce and add in some beans or potatoes to make it even more filling.