Jan 9, 2022
What can you do with one chicken?
This week my hubby went to the local store. He asked that question that brings the deer in the headlights for me - do I need anything? I can never remember when he asks. I typically do have something but its gone out of my head when he is about to get whatever it is. Dumb brain.
I'd ordered chicken in my Kroger Click list, but for some reason they were out of chicken! This rarely happens. I remembered as he was about to leave that I needed chicken breast, but would take any form.
He came back with a whole chicken.
I grabbed my boning knife and began cutting down the breast bone.
The breast comes off in what we consider boneless chicken breast with a layer called the chicken tender, smaller piece.
With both sides breasts removed, I flipped over the bird and looked at the leg quarters
I cut along the thigh, bending the leg and thigh to find the right place.
The leg quarter then bends back and pops the hip joint, You can easily cut the ligament and you have freed the quarter.
All the useable pieces to fry up were ready, salted and peppered.
These were set aside and the remaining back and wings were good for stock.
The carcass goes into a big pot
Here big chunks of onion, carrot, and celery for flavor, along with a generous amount of poultry seasoning.
One of the breasts were cut into chunks and saved for a later dish ( Sweet Fire Chicken ).
The breast and two quarters were cooked then by frying then braising in water. This was paired with some rice a roni and garlic green beans.
Here is the sweet fire chicken a few days later. This involves dipping the chicken bits in flour, egg wash, and flour again before frying. This chicken plus cooked peppers, onions, and pineapple are mixed with Sweet Fire sauce from Panda Express. Served over rice.
Back to the stock, once the chicken was totally cooked, i strained it into a large bowl and refrigerated it. The chicken bones, carrots, etc are tossed at that point, having given up their usefulness
We got quite a lot out of one chicken, several meals, for just under 10 dollars.
It's worh it, having a boning knife and some skills. I recommend it. Chickens aren't hard to deal with and pretty forgiving if you dont cut them perfectly.
Lest you think all i did was wrangle a chicken all week, I can tell you I did plenty including taking down the Christmas decorations and tree. I'm pretty tired now, so I will say good bye here.
Talk to you next week!
Vicky
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