Chicken Recipe – How to stretch 1 chicken into 8 meals in 7 easy steps

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Yesterday I lucked up on an unbelievable sale! An 8 lb Perdue Whole Roaster Chicken was on sale for $1.08 a pound! This is a vegetarian fed, cage free, antibiotic and hormone free bird. So of course I grabbed one. Instead of oven roasting it, eating what we could hold and freeze the rest, I decided to do this:

1.  I put the chicken in my largest crock pot along with the organs, neck etc and added 3 carrots {no need to peel} 1 large onion and 4 stalks of celery {I used the tougher outer ribs for this} then add water to cover chicken. The more water you can use, the more broth you will have later. Let this cook on low for 10 hours or 5 hours on high. I recommend cooking it on low.
2. When the bird is finished cooking, let everything cool down enough to handle. Remove veggies and set aside. Remove broth {I used a ladle} and put in a container- mason jar, bowl with lid etc. After I removed the broth, I put the bird in the fridge till the next day. It makes it easier to handle. Place veggies and broth in the fridge as well.
3. Now its time to get down and dirty {or is that greasy?} The chicken will be very tender. I took mine out in pieces- legs, wings, breast. I tried to keep the breast together as much as possible. Then I sliced half of the breast. This is dinner #1. The other half of breast I added to the shredded chicken.
4. Remove as much of the rest of chicken and shred it as you go. Place the shredded chicken on a plate. Put your cast offs- skin, organ meats etc on another plate. I feed that to my animals. *Please note- do not feed animals chicken bones. I had an outside doggie who got into someones leftover chicken bones and almost died. The bones splinter and are hard for doggies to pass. Keep all bones and put these back into your crockpot {except for tiny bones such as neck and backbones, discard these}
5. I use only gallon freezer bags. In order for my shredded chicken to be measured into 1 cup amounts, I take a cup measuring 1 cup, pack the shredded chicken into it, add it to the gallon freezer bag and shape it like a patty. I can get 4 {1 cup} patties in a gallon freezer bag without them touching. Most recipes call for 1 cup shredded chicken, so this step makes it easier later. Freeze shredded chicken. Mine yielded 7 cups of shredded chicken.
6. Time to work on that homemade broth. When you take the broth out of the fridge it will have all the fat on top. Remove and discard. I frozen my chicken broth in one cup portions. Again making it easier later to use. Broth will keep for 2 days in the refrigerator or 2 months in the freezer. I ended up with 6 cups of broth.
7. The leftover bones in the crock pot {remember no tiny ones} are used to make bone broth. Add 5 cups of water, 2 carrots, 2 stalks celery and 1 small onion. Cook for another 5 to 10 hours. The bone should become soft. After time is up, remove and discard bones, cool down broth and package to freeze. Bone broth is very good for you. You can do this with any leftover bones.

Now you have enough chicken for 8 meals. Remember use meats more like a side item. Most Americans eat too much protein already. The body doesn’t know what to do with all that protein and it could turn to fat. 

With mine I will be making:

1. Sliced chicken breast with dressing and sautéed garden veggies
2. Chicken Pies In A Pocket
3. Spinach and Chicken Alfredo Pizza
4. Modern Chicken Croquette Sandwiches
5. Chicken Salad Sandwiches
6. Honey Ginger Stir Fry
7. Added to Chef Salad
8. Cure-All Chicken Soup- where I’ll use up some of those leftover veggies