Rubber Chicken

WillpowerFree

Thanks everyone, I'm going to be brave and buy a whole chicken with my next shop

I know I sound totally clueless but I've only just started cooking from scratch really, partly for financial reasons and partly because I'm now cooking for my 1 yr old son so like to know what he's getting. Before having him my idea of cooking from scratch was adding a jar of curry sauce to come chicken!

BTW, my family have always called that bit of the chicken 'oysters' too. I'm one of three sisters so there was always a fight over who got them :rotfl:

Bombchelle

Learn how to cut a chicken into pieces. There are tonnes of tutorials on them. Here's just one:

Chicken Cutting Tutorial

I tend to use chicken fillets for stirfries and bake the legs in the oven or use them in a stew.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken
Coq au Vin

The wings and carcasses I use for making homemade stock. It tastes much better than the cubes!

How to make Stock

Good luck!

Stephen_Leak

For us singletons, I reckon that I could, using my existing recipes, get 10 portions/meals out of your average "rubber" chicken. 8 of which can be frozen for later.

Sunday: Roast the chicken, and have a leg & a wing with roast potatoes & mixed veg’.

Monday: Have the remaining leg & wing with a salad.

Use one of the breasts to make 2 portions of chicken korma.

Use the other breast to make 2 x 250ml bowls of chicken & sweet corn soup.

Use the carcass to make 4 x 250ml bowls of chicken soup.

focus888

first time i brought a whole chicken the other day and i dont think i did too badly but of course i can always learn something from this thread

1 half chicken breast - made chicken dippers - dipped in egg and rolled in breading

other half chicken breast - used to make stir fry

2 chicken legs - roasted

and chicken carcass - boiled to make soup

duncan303

I have gradually noticed, that the shelves in the supermarket have dramatically reduced the number of whole chickens on the shelves, you are lucky if you can find one!

Also it is much much cheaper (lb for lb) to buy chicken pieces and recreate them into the resemblence of a traditional looking chicken in the roasting dish.
Hmmm I wonder why? :rolleyes:

Or......

Confuse your guests with a four legged bird....get out those suture needles folks and get creative!!

___

nest_egg

I did my first rubber chicken yesterday. I shoved half a lemon and garlic into the cavity, rubbed the skin with butter and shoved it in the oven. Very impressed with the results. Not bad for £2 in Tesco. But was wondering: are you supposed to keep the string on that keeps the chicken trussed? Wasn't sure, so I took it off as was worried it would catch fire. I probably sound really stupid..

I used some breast meat to make a fajita yesterday. Will make a curry today, use the wings for quick snacks. Stir-fry tomorrow and then a soup and a casserole with the legs. I have so much chicken that I'm worried I won't finish the whole thing!

Could it stretch to four/five days or is that skanky?

PolishBigSpender

Personally, I don't bother with such a concept. Why would I, when I can buy a kilo of chicken breasts for less than 2 pounds 50?

kittyscarlett

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

Personally, I don't bother with such a concept. Why would I, when I can buy a kilo of chicken breasts for less than 2 pounds 50?

Because that cheap kilo of chicken breasts are not exactly going to be great quality meat ? Also you are not getting much variety in flavour/texture/use that way. I would far rather buy a whole decent quality chicken and stretch it. Far better flavour, texture, ethics wise and making use of the whole animal too.:T

PolishBigSpender

kittyscarlett wrote: »

Because that cheap kilo of chicken breasts are not exactly going to be great quality meat ?

Oh, it is perfectly good quality meat, fresh and juicy, just as it should be!

loobyloo2

Each to their own isn't it.
Though I personally couldn't do the rubber chicken thing to the extreme, I can make the chicken completely disappear, bones and all. DOGS.

kittyscarlett I don't as yet see how buying breasts alone is not making use of the whole bird, where do you imagine the rest goes?

If I go to my butcher, he will gladly give me the chicken carcasses for my dogs. The wings, thighs, drumsticks and breasts are all displayed for sale,rather nicely in the cabinet, so nothing has gone to waste.

As I say, each to their own.:D