My "One chicken/5 meals" experiment

Between the exchange rate, rising food costs, and my normal tightwad nature, I'm always trying to cut my food budget where possible. So several weeks ago, I noticed that my grocery store had whole chickens on sale for 50% off. These weren't the big holiday, head-and-feet-included type of chickens...just plain whole fryers. I bought two of the largest chickens and decided to try a little experiment to see how many meals I could get out of those chickens. I routinely get 3 meals or so from a whole fryer, but I decided to push my limit and see if I could get 5 meals from one chicken. My husband laughed when I told him. Note to self...next time, don't tell him; just cook and he'll never know.

When I got home I put one chicken into the freezer and the other immediately into the pressure cooker. When it was done, I deboned it and divided the meat into four pint-sized ziploc bags. (I hear you already...just wait, and I'll explain meal number 5.)

After the chicken was in the freezer, I took the carcass (isn't that a gross word?..."carcass"...anyway), I took the carcass, broke some of the bones to release the calcium, and put it all back into my crock pot. I filled the crock pot 3/4 full with water, 1 T. vinegar, a carrot, an onion that was peeled and cut in half, and some fresh rosemary, and cooked the chicken on low for about 10 hours. The yield was some incredible chicken broth and even more incredibly tender little pieces of chicken that came off the bone. (I was really surprised how much meat was still left.) And it was the perfect amount for a pot of chicken noodle soup. There's meal number 5!

So I sat down and jotted down a list of possible meals with pre-cooked chicken. Here's my list that I came up with in that sitting:


Chicken noodle soup (or chicken and rice soup)
Chicken and dumplings
Chicken pot pie
Pasta with chicken
Chicken fried rice
Waffles and chicken gravy
Brusnwick stew
BBQ chicken pockets
Chicken enchiladas
Chicken & bean burritos
Chicken tacos
White chicken chili
Chicken tetrazini
Mandarin Chicken casserole
Chicken broccoli quiche
BBQ chicken subs
Chicken fajitas
Baked potatoes with chicken, broccoli, & cheese
Chicken tortilla soup
Quesadillas with corn, blackbeans, etc.

This specific time I made Chicken Tetrazini, a quiche, chicken & bean burritos, and chicken fried rice. Okay, so depending on the size of the chicken, I may not always be able to manage 5 meals, but I think I can get four pretty regularly.