How to make common recipes for less £££

outtawork

l make pork casserole using 1 stock cube,tomato puree, 1/2 pint water,1/2 tin toms, carrots, onions,celery, potatoes, lentils & a splodge of red & white wine. I never precook, but always stick it in the oven for a good couple of hours on gas 2.
For some reason chicken casserole done this way does not taste right, what am i doing wrong.

aliama

unixgirluk wrote: »

If you want a cheap roast buy chicken legs or thighs. I've done this a few times.

Hmm, see unless there's a special deal on the thighs, I'm not convinced this is necessarily a cheaper way of doing it. For example, Sainsbury's TTD free range whole chickens cost less per kilo than the same range's thighs and drumsticks (5.39 a kg vs 6.00). There's not much in it, but you'll likely be getting a higher ratio of meat to bone with the whole chicken, as you get the breasts as well.

Mind you, some people prefer the dark meat ( I don't blame them), and it may well work out cheaper to buy thighs if there's a 3 for £x deal on.

But value is about more than the straight cost of the ingredients. I'm a great believer in using leftovers and I find there's more scope for that with a whole chicken, than there would be with thighs and drumsticks, which I tend to find just get eaten.

I also suspect you'd get away with serving less meat per portion with a whole chicken than you would with thighs, making it easier to stretch further.

For example, we had a pack of eight chicken thighs recently, which lasted the two of us 2 meals. A whole chicken would last us far, far longer than that. Depending on how large the chicken is (I usually pick larger chickens), I might be able to get enough meat off it for two totally separate meals, let's say one serving 4 and the other serving 2. So that's 8 servings, rather than the 4 for the equivalent weight in chicken thighs, possibly more if the second leftovers recipe actually serves 4, which it usually does.