The Chicken Challenge

[2ndTimer]

I have long wanted to do the Chicken Challenge, that is how many meals can you get out of one bird.  This week I found myself thawing out a tray of chicken parts that I bought for 99 cents/lb. during grilling season and I thought "Bingo!"  This is slightly unfair since this chicken included an extra leg quarter and there are only two of us but life is like that some times:

First meal:  Bourbon Chicken, using the meat from the three leg quarters, on rice.  The only problem is that is was SO good we really wanted to eat way too much.  However, there is enough left for another meal for one person. 

Second meal:  Chicken pad thai using half a breast and a pad thai kit that I found at the salvage store for 50 cents.  We are having this tonight

Third meal: BBQ chicken pizza using the other half breast and my own crust.  This will happen tomorrow and is in the nature of an experiment.  I have made lots of pizza before but never BBQ chicken pizza.  Anyone who has made it, please give advice.

Fourth meal:   I don't know yet.  Something using the broth I am making from the skin and bones and a handful of garden parsley.

So bring it on, what can you do with one chicken?  Extra points for providing lots of variety in flavors and textures so your family doesn't realize that they are eating the same chicken all week.

[sheepstache]

Yes! I would be delighted to share my 3-day chicken plan!

Take whole chicken, cut out spine with a pair of strong scissors.  Spread out on a broiler pan.  (These are usually in the bottom drawer of the oven and no one knows what they are for.)  Rub inside and out with oil, salt and pepper.  Bonus: Cover the bottom of the broiler pan with aluminum foil for easy clean up.  Slice up some potatoes and onions and lay them in there.  Rub with oil, salt, pepper.  They will cook with the drippings. 

Meanwhile, take the spine and anything else that came in the neck/giblets packet (minus the liver), simmer in a pot with some onions and carrots or whatever.  When the whole chicken is done in the oven, pour the drippings in this pot for extra flavor.

End of day 1: Eat as much chicken as you want. And potatoes.

Day 2: Cook some pasta in the stock.  Add however much chicken you want.  Eat soup. (optional: put beans on to soak if you don't want to use canned beans tomorrow.)

Day 3: Cook some rice.  Throw in a can of black beans and some frozen corn.  Add some oil and the rest of the chicken and any spices you want  Add cheese on top if desired.  Eat casserole.

Options:
Depending what sides you have on day 1 and how many people this is for, you will likely have more chicken than needed for this.
Further days:
Day 4: Chicken stir-fry. I usually keep a tub in the freezer of leftover bits of veggies that I finely chopped and saved right before they went bad. Just add some mushrooms or whatever, sesame oil, and fry.  Alternately, you can add the chicken to this tub, saving it for a 'nobody feels like cooking' night.

Day 5: Chicken salad sandwiches.

At various points you have been saving the carcass and you can make stock from that at any point. You can do it the first night but I find that's a lot of cooking time. I just freeze the stock in cup increments for other stuff.

[gt7152b]

Chicken ceasar salad
Chicken tacos
Shred or pull some chicken meat, heat up in sauce pan with a little bbq sauce, use in sandwiches or tacos

[Gone Fishing]

We have 4 to feed so I usually BBQ 2 chickens at a time as long as I have the grill going.  I've never charted the exact number of servings but we have several second/third day meals as long as there is meat on the bone.  We have a meal of BBQ chicken, then comes sandwiches for lunch then chicken fajitas or chicken curry.  Occasionally I'll make chicken and dumplings.  That usually about does it.  I've never been much of one to boil the bones, but if you BBQ a chicken for 2-3 hours the meat pretty much falls off the bones.   

[Hannah]

I call this challenge the five buck cluck! We do it almost every week since I can get a five pound bird+/- for $5 at Aldi. 2 adults plus one toddler, but I can never get more than 5 meals out of it (well, I guess we always make enough food for 4 adults per meal, so the toddler gets to eat, plus lunch leftovers for one).

Fall/Winter Example:
1. Roast Chicken + Sweet Potato Spears and Chipotle Mayo Dipping Sauce
2. Butternut Squash Soup with fried chicken skin
3. Giblet Gravy (on egg noodles, biscuits, in shepherd's pie, or on mashed potatoes)- usually I have to cheat here and use some other meat, or I won't make it through the rest of the week with my chicken
4. Chicken Pad Thai
5. White Chicken Chili (really heavy on beans)

Summer Example (I don't do stock or gravy as much):
1. Beer Can Chicken on the Grill w/ generous produce sides
2. Pad Thai
3. Kale and Pasta Chicken Salad
4. Chicken Salad Sandwiches
5. Maybe lentils made with stock.

My favorite example:
1. Adobo Chicken on Rice
2. Adobo Chicken lettuce Wraps
3. Adobo chicken spring rolls
4. Adobo chicken egg rolls

[swick]

I try and crock pot a whole chicken every week or two and can make it go quite a ways, just Hubby and myself but we also get at least two lunches out of each chicken dish.

Day one - cook and shred the chicken. Put carcass back into the crokpot with escaped juices to make chicken stock overnight. Makes a couple of liters of stock. Can reuse the bones a second time for a weaker stock, good for cooking rice/beans. Leftover skin gets rendered into cracklings and cooking fat.

Day 1 - Use a bit of meat in sandwiches - usually panninis and for lunch the next day.
Day 2 - Chicken meat and some stock and veggies for a pot pie. I have been trying to use up my supply of organic cornmeal so have been making a bisquite topping the last few times.
Day 3 - Chicken fried rice with rice cooked in a bit of stock and some chopped up chicken and assorted veggies. The crackling are great in fried rice!
Day 4 - Chicken soup - usually barley, noodles or rice added.
Day 5 - Leftover chicken added to salads, soup, whatever we happen to be making as a flavor accent - Sometimes we pan fry the chicken in something saucy and make lettuce wraps, or add to ramen, stir-fry what have you.

[2ndTimer]

I call this challenge the five buck cluck! We do it almost every week since I can get a five pound bird+/- for $5 at Aldi. 2 adults plus one toddler, but I can never get more than 5 meals out of it (well, I guess we always make enough food for 4 adults per meal, so the toddler gets to eat, plus lunch leftovers for one).

Fall/Winter Example:
1. Roast Chicken + Sweet Potato Spears and Chipotle Mayo Dipping Sauce
2. Butternut Squash Soup with fried chicken skin
3. Giblet Gravy (on egg noodles, biscuits, in shepherd's pie, or on mashed potatoes)- usually I have to cheat here and use some other meat, or I won't make it through the rest of the week with my chicken
4. Chicken Pad Thai
5. White Chicken Chili (really heavy on beans)

Summer Example (I don't do stock or gravy as much):
1. Beer Can Chicken on the Grill w/ generous produce sides
2. Pad Thai
3. Kale and Pasta Chicken Salad
4. Chicken Salad Sandwiches
5. Maybe lentils made with stock.

My favorite example:
1. Adobo Chicken on Rice
2. Adobo Chicken lettuce Wraps
3. Adobo chicken spring rolls
4. Adobo chicken egg rolls

So far you are ahead both in variety of presentations and for the great name.  I love the Five Buck Cluck

[Little Nell]

One chicken, three people:

1. Roast chicken
2. chicken enchiladas (using meat from one side of breast)
3. Chicken w/biscuits and gravy
4. Risotto (w/stock and small bits)
5. Chicken soup (w/stock)

[tracylayton]

I bought a 5 lb whole chicken for $4.95. Because I try to eat pretty healthy, I skinned it first. Then I sliced carrots and onions and placed them in the bottom of the crock pot. I placed the whole chicken (innards removed and rinsed off) on top. I added water to an inch below the chicken and cooked on high for 4.5 hours. If you work, just cook it on low all day. I checked the internal temp to make sure it had reached 165 degrees. Then, I removed the chicken and cut it into pieces. The liquid left in the crockpot with bits of chicken, carrots and onions was soup to eat right away. From the meat that I carved, I made chicken quesadillas one night, a large salad topped with chicken one night, and chicken fajitas for another night. Four meals from a $5 chicken. These recipes came from a "Clean Eating on a Budget" challenge that one of my friends coordinated. Before that, I had never cooked a whole chicken, much less skinned one!