So you’ve got a whole chicken, now what?
I’m so glad you asked!
Long long ago, grocery stores used to sell whole chickens for $.99 a pound. A dear precious woman at our church to teach anyone who wanted to know how to meal plan and grocery shop. What a unique way to use your gifting in the kitchen & home to bless others! I used to always watch for the $.99/lb chicken sales and stock up because I knew what to actually do with it. Now, rarely will you find such a steal on chicken and even if you did, the likelihood of it being flavorful and NOT drenched in a bleach solution during the packaging process is pretty unusual. But, should you find yourself with a whole chicken on your hands, here are ways I would use a whole chicken to feed our family for more than one meal.
- Boil the whole thing to pick & shred the meat off the bones, and save the broth for a casserole & a soup.
- One whole chicken can usually yield 4 cups of deliciously shredded or chopped chicken meat, and the broth is easy to scale. Simply put your chicken in a pot, fill with water, throw in some onions & celery, season generously with salt, a bit of pepper and some thyme or poultry seasoning.
- Once your chicken is cooked all the way through, remove from pot to let it cool. Strain your broth into another bowl or jars using a fine sieve. You’ll want to do this a few times. Refrigerate the broth and once chilled, skim the fat off the top and give to your pets as an extra delicious and nutrient dense treat! Store the remaining broth in an air tight container in the refrigerator up to one week or in the freezer for up to several months (you do you; my grandmother used to freeze whole gallons of milk).
- Once your chicken is cooled enough to handle, peel off the skin (save for your furry friends!) and shred. You can either portion out now, freeze some in bags for recipes down the road, or put it all in one big container and use throughout the week as needed.
- Our favorite tried and true recipes for whole chicken weeks are green sauce chicken enchiladas, chicken tetrazzini, taco soup & chicken noodle soup. Click here to download some of our four favorite recipes!
**For our family of 6, we might cook this chicken and use the meat for two tetrazzini recipes, one to eat and one to freeze/give; then I’d choose between enchiladas or a soup recipe to make OR freeze the remaining shredded chicken for another week when I need a quick protein.
Ok, so you’re not interested in using the shredded chicken but want to use the whole thing as a meal? We’ve never gone wrong with cooking it according to 100 Days of Real Food using her Whole Chicken in a Crockpot recipe. Serve it with a side of potatoes, your favorite greens and use the leftovers for chicken salad lunches.
