Whole chicken for more than 1 meal?

[mommyofhjm]

How do you do it? I mean I get HOW you do it, but my family is meat eaters. So when I cook an entire chicken the whole thing gets used in that one recipe. Like in chicken noodles, chicken & dumplings, gumbo....whatever I make. I don't know if I know how to make things without using alot of meat, or if they will be good if I used so much less?

[Heather8183]

Yesterday, before we left for church, I put a chicken in the crockpot. After church, my dad, brother, DH and I and the kids all had chicken, potatoes, green beans, and fruit for lunch. We're all pretty big eaters. I have enough left to boil the bones and pick off pieces of meat for chicken and dumplings tonight or tomorrow, which will be a great filling dinner for us with mashed potatoes and broccoli. So, that's what we do...eat the chicken the first night and use the rest the next night in soup or chicken and dumplings. If you need just a bit more chicken the next night, boil a single frozen chicken breast.

[jbug_4]

We usually get 3 meals out of ours. First usually being roasted chicken. Our list of meals that we can make- chicken pot pie, chicken and dumplings, enchiladas, shredded barb chicken sandwiches. We have lots of sides/veggies with the roasted chicken so that we eat an actual recommended portion size of chicken. For pot pie and dumplings we use the same base. So all the left over chicken gets chunked and thrown in. So its the chicken, thickened broth and tons of veggies (whole bag of soup veggies and usually half a bag of green beans) and sometimes potatoes. Then we make the dumplings. Eat chicken and dumplings. Left over soup goes in the fridge. Next day gets heated, dumped into a pie crust and baked for pot pie. The key to making it stretch is adding other ingredients. If we didn't use a whole bag of veggies the chicken wouldn't stretch. Add beans and rice to the enchiladas etc. We do the same for chicken noodle soup- its loaded with soup veggies and I usually put in a can of tomatoes as well.

[mommyofhjm]

I dont think bf and the kids would like the chicken & noodles or chicken and dumplings without a ton of chicken. Maybe I just need to try it and see?

[ulawolf]

We only get about 2 meals out of a chicken with a family.of 7 (two little eaters)

[Nickel+3]

Originally Posted by mommyofhjm How do you do it? I mean I get HOW you do it, but my family is meat eaters. So when I cook an entire chicken the whole thing gets used in that one recipe. Like in chicken noodles, chicken & dumplings, gumbo....whatever I make. I don't know if I know how to make things without using alot of meat, or if they will be good if I used so much less?

Try looking up vegetarian recipes and just toss some meat in there at the end.

[kimb96]

I only get 1 meal of a chicken with maybe enough leftovers for me to have lunch the next day and there are only 3 of us. My husband and son LOVE roast chicken and they can eat a lot. Ds will eat both of the legs, dh will eat the thighs and wings. I eat one breast for dinner and I pick off whatever is left and eat it for lunch the next day. It amazes me that people can get 2+ meals out of a whole chicken. How big of a chicken are you using? I use smaller chickens, around 4 lbs.

[madebymommy]

I usually buy the biggest chicken I can find, the last one I cooked in the crock pot was 8.5lbs and we had the inital chicken dinner for the 5 of us, and then I had enough meat left over to make 6 quarts of chicken soup (with A LOT of chicken). So that's another 2 meals for all 5 of us... 3 meals total. I pick any meat I can find, off the chicken - the back has a LOT of meat!

[RJ6Mommy]

We are a family of eight who are big meat eaters. My 4older kids eat a lot. lately feeding them is becoming a lot more expensive with all the meat we want to eat. I stopped making meat the center of our meal. Now we roast a chicken maybe 5 or 6 pound one and eat it one night and make soup the next. I limit the meat so no seconds on the meat unless it is mixed in someting.

[Rdesonia]

I use a "normal" size chicken. 1st meal is roast chicken or I cut it up and bake the pieces. I offer 2 side dishes or more with each meal. Each person gets 1 piece of meat (1 leg, 1 thigh, or 1/2 a breast) and a serving of each side. They do not get 2nds on anything till after they everything on their plate.
If it is a roasted chicken I wait till after dinner. I pick all the meat off the bones. I cook the bones overnight for a nice broth. The leftover meat is sometimes used for a different meal than the soup.
If I chop up the chicken to bake it, then rib bones and extras are started to cook while I'm baking the other dish. (I just throw it into a big pot of water, bring to a boil, then simmer. Before I make the soup, I strain out the bones. Then add onion, celery, carrot, and potato (or noodles/rice/whatever I got).