wOULD YOU BUY TESCO VALUE WHOLE CHICKEN OR FROZEN CHICKEN PIECES?

valk_scot

As has been said, it depends. I usually buy three or four chickens at a time, put one aside for roasting and get the sharp knife and kitchen scissors out for the other three.

From a roasted chicken I'll have a traditional roast dinner type meal and then the meat left over can be used for recipes like stir fries, chicken pie, in a sauce to go over pasta, sandwiches or in a salad.

The raw chickens will get divided into chicken breasts, chicken fillets (that's the smaller skinny piece just under the breast fillet), boned thighs, drumsticks and a pile of diced scrappy pieces. These get frozen into portions suitable for the numbers/recipes you're cooking for which in my case is two breasts per pack, or six thighs or drumsticks, or 400g or so of diced meat. (There are four of us in the family.) I'd use the thigh meat and scraps for longer cooking recipes like curries.

Both cooked and raw carcasses are great to make stock for soup.

Stephen_Leak

As Spike says, big bags of chicken pieces (what's the chance of getting two pieces from the same chicken that fit together? :think: ) can be good value - if you've got space in the freezer.

If you want a chicken soup recipe, specifically designed to use a cooked chicken carcass, let me know.

PS. I reckon that I can get 10 meals out of one chicken, but you do have to like soup (500ml of Chinese chicken and sweetcorn soup from a breast and a litre of the above soup from the carcass).

bellamonkey

If you want a chicken soup recipe, specifically designed to use a cooked chicken carcass, let me know.


Yes please, can you print the chicken soup recipe

meritaten

I tend to roast the chicken whole then use part for a roast dinner and portion the rest up to freeze.
although I often batch cook and the whole chicken gets used (I may make a huge batch of chicken curry in my massive stockpot) - then it gets frozen into meal sized portions and I know I have an emergency supper in the freezer.

Linda32

miss_emmajane wrote: »

My question is, do you cook the whole chicken and then use it cooked in the meals (and how does this work, for chicken curry would you just add it in to the sauce to heat it up?) or do you make the sections when raw and freeze them yourself?

Yes.

It is very much cheaper to buy a whole chicken, check out the two prices per kg next time you go to the supermarket

I cook the whole chicken then either have some then, or portion up the whole lot, by pulling off pieces and putting in plastic food boxes . ( £1 land) label and freeze.

I don't bother with making stock. Mainly as the ingredients for herbs and veg needed to make stock, are more than I use for a complete roast dinner anyway :rotfl: A box of stock cubes costs about 80p and I'd never be able to tell the difference.

So to using the chicken, at the moment we have said portion of Turkey (from xmas but would be the same if it was chicken) defrosting in the fridge. We will have this tomorrow night. Now I doubt this method will be very popular for reheating (quite safe but not correct taste wise but we like it) but I simply put in casserole, make up bisto and pour over. The reheat for 30 mins at gas mark 6

If I'm doing curry. I open jar (I do cook from scratch but havn't managed curry to actually taste of curry so I leave it to the jars) I cut the chicken into bite size pieces, pour jar over and re-heat same as bisto method above. Serve with rice and naan bread.

jackyann

Really you have to find out what works for you - I can tell the difference and always make real stock from a chicken carcass! But I usually have the odd lurking soft-ish carrot and I love celery, so am happy to put one of the outside sticks in the stock-pot.
If I do buy pieces then I buy thighs - cheaper, tastier & more robust than breast meat.
You should really only re-heat once, and some people think that curry is much tastier if done from scratch with raw meat.
These are some of the things I do:
cold chicken:
sandwiches ( can be a main meal sandwich if served pub-style with chips & salad) salads, and a fave is Coronation chicken - not exactly cheap, but a lovely luxury cold meal
re-heated:
pie, curry, pasta sauce, pilaff, and my favourite - for whole pieces like wings or thighs - is devilled.
I always shred the last bits to go in a caesar salad or stir fry with noodles & veg, then finally I make stock.

Can I add that if you live in a rural area, this is the season that pheasant get sold cheaply - better value than chicken,

skintmum2012

Sorry don't want to highjack post but as there's a lot of people that make stock on here I wanted to ask I made Stock the other week with my Chicken bones after cooking the chicken in the slow cooker but they really where bones so had to add veg after is there a way to make the stock and have veggies cooking with it?

freyasmum

It completely depends on what you're gonna do with it. Sorry, I know that's not much help but it really is trial and error

Personally, I'm not keen on the taste of reheated chicken - it tastes different to what it does when freshly cooked :undecided - so if I buy a whole chicken, I tend to either butcher it myself and cook when I need it or roast it all and eat the rest cold.

skintmum2012 wrote: »

Sorry don't want to highjack post but as there's a lot of people that make stock on here I wanted to ask I made Stock the other week with my Chicken bones after cooking the chicken in the slow cooker but they really where bones so had to add veg after is there a way to make the stock and have veggies cooking with it?

I would always make the stock and strain to discard any little pieces of bone and then cook into a soup, when I would then add in any vegetables/seasonings/whatever else I was using.

BitterAndTwisted

Well, if you don't want to have to strain the mixture to get shot of all the bones and pick the veggie bits out as well to put them back, I'd suggest that you either put the veg in whole or tie them up in muslin and boil them away in that.

My sister cooked chicken for Christmas Day and I just caught her about to throw the carcass away. That bird had fed only two people. I nearly punched her. Any road, I made a huge vat of chicken stock with so much meat in it. Added some cubed potatoes and carrots and there was loads and loads for the fridge and freezer. My sister is a hopeless cook and I'm a vegetarian. Still, I don't object to being in the same room as a lump of meat, unlike some.

Stephen_Leak

bellamonkey wrote: »

If you want a chicken soup recipe, specifically designed to use a cooked chicken carcass, let me know.

Yes please, can you print the chicken soup recipe

Your wish is my command.

CHICKEN SOUP

Makes 4 x ~250ml servings

INGREDIENTS

1 cooked chicken carcass
1 onion
100g to 125g of at least 2 vegetables (see below)
1 teaspoon of dried sage, dried parsley or dried thyme
2 chicken stock cubes
1 litre of water

METHOD

Remove any skin from the chicken carcass and discard it. Peel the vegetables and chop any tops and/or bottoms off, if required, and then chop them into 2cm (1 inch) pieces. Peel the onion and chop it into 2cm (1 inch) pieces.

Put the chicken, onion and vegetables, herb(s), stock cubes and water into a large saucepan on a medium heat. Stir thoroughly. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering).

Put the lid on and cook for 1 hour. Check the liquid level from time to time and top up if it starts to dry out.

Fish out the bones and put them on a plate. Remove any meat which is still on the bones. Put the meat back into the soup and discard the bones.

If you have a food processor, put the soup in it and blend it to the desired consistency. If you have a hand blender, put it in the soup and blend it to the desired consistency. If you don’t have a food processor or hand blender, use a potato masher, press the soup through a sieve with the back of a spoon, or leave it lumpy. If you used a food processor, rinse out the saucepan and put the soup back into the saucepan.

Put the saucepan on a low heat and reheat the soup gently.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use green vegetables (celery, courgettes, leeks) and mushrooms for a light and delicate soup. Use root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, potatoes, swedes, turnips) and tomatoes for a thick and hearty soup, The so-called “Holy Trinity” of soup base ingredients is carrot, celery and onion.

Use any mix of herbs, or mixed herbs.

For Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup, use green vegetables and add a small pack of noodles after blending. Cook them in the soup, according to the instructions on the packet.

For Scottish [CENSORED]-a-Leekie Soup, use 200g to 250g of leeks and add 4 stoned and thinly sliced prunes after blending.

TIPS

Don’t panic, if you fish out fewer bones than you remember going in. The smaller ones will have dissolved into the soup, adding to the goodness.