Three ways to use one whole chicken.
When times are tough, food prices have increased and you still have the family to feed plus paying the bills, making your food bill stretch further with the ingredients you buy becomes essential. We all often buy the convenient packs of meat, whether that’s chicken breasts or thighs and then use them for a few meals. These packs cost more than a whole chicken, gram for gram. So how can you make that Sunday roast more economical, but still engaging for the family dinners and lunches?
Tasty, crispy, roast chicken with potatoes, sweet potatoes and homemade gravy
Click here for the full recipe.
When purchasing your chicken, make sure you buy a quality bird, one that’s at least free range. Because your chicken will cover three recipes, you need it to be a decent size too. However the cost saving vs buying each part of the chicken individually should offset the extra expense in quality and size.
This first recipe for your chicken is to roast it, creating that crispy, tasty skin and providing for the whole family. Making sure you serve plenty of vegetables, roasted alongside the chicken to absorb the most flavour, is another cost effective way to fill everyone up. It’s comforting, homely and for some - the perfect Sunday roast! Find the recipe here.
Chicken, Bacon and Cheese Sandwich Pies - perfect for weekday lunches. Really filling and really easy to make!
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So everyone enjoyed their Sunday roast and now you have the leftovers, maybe some of that succulent thigh meat has been missed? Or perhaps the meat on the wings. Great! Take all the meat off the bone and use it for everyone’s lunch that week.
What better way to do this than create delicious light pillows of pie goodness! These mini sandwich pies have a super tasty filling of bacon, cream cheese, cheddar and your leftover roast chicken. This is a longer recipe, but it uses very cheap ingredients. You can batch make them so you have plenty for everyone and despite the length of time needed, it’s a really easy recipe to make. Just look at the photo - don’t they look too good not to make?? You can find the recipe here
Cheap and easy homemade chicken stock - better than a cube and cheaper than a bag!
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I’ve never been a fan of stock cubes. They tend to be over salty, not always particularly healthy and their flavour is usually quite artificial. So the alternative for stock is usually the liquid stock bags or cans, these are better quality but a lot less in quantity and much more expensive. So why not make your own?
You have made your roast chicken, you’ve taken all the remaining meat off the bone for the sandwich pies and you’re left with the carcass. Most people throw this away, but it’s packed with flavour and makes for a very good quality and very cheap stock.
Simply simmer the bones in water, perhaps with carrots, onion and mustard seeds for additional flavouring and you will produce a large quantity of tasty stock that can be frozen and used as and when the recipe calls for it.
Best of all, you won’t have wasted a thing from the chicken you bought and hopefully saved money in the process!
You can find the Easy Homemade Chicken Stock recipe here.
So there we are - one whole chicken costing around £5 just made three recipes covering a family roast, 12 sandwich pies in one batch and at least a litre of stock! That’s a bargain.