But What Do You DO With A Whole Chicken? (Part 1)

Oven Roasted Chicken

We have come a long way from Grandma’s Sunday Chicken Dinner:  we buy meat in parts and pieces, preferably boneless skinless.  But, oh, what we lose when we do that!  We gain convenience; there’s no doubt about it.  And we lose nutrition, and we lose flavor, and we lose a whole lot of good eating.  My grandma used to say all the flavor was in the fat and the bones!  Don’t like fat and/or skin?  No problem; just cook with skin attached and pull it off before eating.  That’s what my husband does:  he hates skin and fatty meat, and I love it.  I often say we’re like Jack Sprat and his wife from the old Mother Goose nursery rhyme book:

Jack Sprat could eat no fat;

His wife could eat no lean.

And so between them both, you see,

They licked the platter clean. 

(Click the link here for the recipes mentioned below)

Roast Chicken and Gravy:  This week we’ll start basic.  Our main recipe is so easy; you don’t have to cut up the chicken until after it’s roasted, when it is much easier to separate.  Honestly, the extra seasonings in it are completely optional.  If I’m in a hurry, I just drizzle it with olive oil, salt, and pepper, rub it all over, and put it in the oven; it’s so good.

Crispy Chicken Skins: A snack for the kiddoes 

Chicken Salad:  As soon as supper is over, pull any leftover meat off the bones.  It’s easiest while the chicken is still hot from the oven, so sometimes I go ahead and steal one of the breasts or a leg/thigh combo and pull off the meat.  Don’t forget the little “niblets” on the back.  People overlook the chicken back, because it isn’t very meaty, but there are about four nice, tender pieces, literally the “tenderloin” of the chicken.  This recipe takes care of a second supper later in the week OR solves the everlasting lunchbox quandary (at least for one day 😉).

Sauteed Heart and Liver:  a treat for the chef!  Or, if you just “don’t do” organ meats, put the heart and liver into a Ziploc in the freezer for Dirty Rice (recipe to follow in our last week of recipes).

Chicken Stock:  We’ll make some stock next week.  For now, put bones in the freezer in preparation.  Into the same freezer bag throughout the week throw any clean carrot ends and peelings, extra bits of onions and celery and garlic, and herbs like parsley and thyme.  Because everything will be cooked up (for hours) into stock and will be in the freezer until then, you can put cooked and uncooked meat bits and veges into the same bag; I sometimes don’t cook the neck when I’m roasting  my chicken, so I put it raw into the freezer bag, and then add the bones after we’ve eaten.

Chicken Fat:  Finally, if you have any “extra big” bits of fat; what we call the “fat pad” right there at the opening of the chicken cavity, put it in the freezer in a separate baggie.   You can also add to it any extra-fatty pieces of skin you just will not otherwise use, such as the skin from around the neck.  We’ll render it down after we’ve collected a few chickens’ worth.

Let me know what you think of this and if you have any questions!  Otherwise, I’ll hope to catch you again next week with tender Instant Pot Stewing Hen, with just about the quickest, easiest stock you can make.  This will be a good one for those of you who got some of my Stewing Hens last year!  Of course, it can be modified for our already-tender broilers, too.