Thrifty Chicken

Well, waddya know?  A food post!!  :-)

Every so often, my local grocery store offers whole roasting chickens Buy One, Get One Free.  I usually take advantage of these sales.  It makes a nice, plump whole chicken cost less than $1.00 a pound.  I cook one fresh and freeze the second one for future dinners.

For Easter this year, I roasted the frozen one.  It was delicious!  We had mashed potatoes, green peas and homemade yeast rolls with it.

The left over half chicken I put in Ziploc bags and refrigerated. 

The second half of the chicken became Chicken Enchiladas. 

 

1 or 2 recipes of Enchilada sauce (below)

1 – 2 cooked chicken breasts

8 corn tortillas

8 ozs. Queso Fresco

Shredded cheddar

Make enchilada sauce.  Allow to cool slightly.

Shred chicken.  Add 1 – 2 ladles sauce to chicken and stir.

Heat tortillas in a damp paper towel in microwave for 30 seconds. 

Using smaller rectangular Pyrex pan, spray liberally with Pam.  Spread bottom of pan with 2 ladles of sauce. 

Per tortilla:  chicken and a strip of cheese.  Roll and place pan.  Make up all 8 tortillas.  Fold a strip of aluminum foil to serve as a separator between the servings, if desired. 

Cover pan with foil and cook at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Uncover and cover with sliced queso fresco and shredded cheddar.  Return to oven and bake until cheese is melty and slightly browned. 

Enchilada Sauce

2 T vegetable oil

2 T AP flour

2 T chili powder

½ tsp ground cumin

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

2 C water

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp garlic powder

Heat oil in large 2-quart saucepan; stir in flour and chili powder; cook for 1 minute.

Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Simmer for about 10 minutes. 

 

The remaining meat and bones go into the soup pot. 

            Chicken and Noodles

            Bones, skin and remaining meat from 1 roasted chicken

            1 large onion, cut into pieces

            3 – 4 cloves garlic, crushed

            6 cups water

 

Simmer chicken bones in water with onions and garlic until it falls apart.  Allow to cool.

            Strain out solids, reserving broth. 

Carefully pick through bones and skin for meat and edible goodies.  Throw away skin, bones and gookie parts.  Maybe give some chicken skin, chopped, to the cat?

Cook 6 to 8 ounces of egg noodles in the reserved broth.  Add 1 T sherry, 1 T soy sauce, 1 tsp savory, 1 tsp oregano and 1/8 tsp ground ginger to broth.  Don’t forget the salt and pepper. 

If you made gravy for the roast chicken, reheat it in the microwave for about 1 minute to soften.  When noodles are done, add meat and gravy to pan.  Cook until everything is hot.

Serve with leftover rolls and butter.  A salad would go nice as well.

 

I don’t have pictures of any of this as it didn’t occur to me to blog about this until it was all eaten! 

Utilizing a chicken this way appeals to the frugal housewife in me.  I’ve spent so much of my life never knowing if or when I would have money for food again that I cannot bring myself to waste perfectly good food.  This way, I get three yummy dinners out of 1 chicken! 

You could use baked chicken in either of the above recipes, too.  Or buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.  They’re still only $5.00.  Not too bad a cost for 3 meals for 2 to 3 people!!