Cooking a whole chicken

Fusspot

I am weighing up the cost of buying a whole small chicken opposed to buying separate chicken breasts and ready meals in between. My friend cooks a whole chicken for her and her child (her partner is vegetarian) and says it lasts all week, with some for the cat too.


I live alone and have two cats, who would appreciate some of the chicken too. The thing is would it last for the week before it goes off and would it mean having chicken every night? Actually that could suit me as I love chicken and I am always wondering what to have for my tea so that would solve the problem.

Skibunny40

Not sure about it lasting all week, but certainly you'd be fine for 2/3 days and then you could just strip the carcass and put the remaining chicken in the freezer in single portions, for use later on.

Then if you're really keen, you can boil the carcass as a great base for soup!

maman

There are plenty of "rubber chicken ' enthusiasts on here. You wouldn't have to eat it all at once if you have a freezer. You could freeze the cooked meat or make up ready meals and freeze them.

Fusspot

Thanks for your replies. I saw a small chicken in M&S earlier with a use by day of 12 November so that would last six days or does the use by day not count once its cooked?

trailingspouse

We used to do this nearly every week when the kids were little.

Day 1 - roast chicken, with potatoes, veggies, stuffing, gravy. Like a mini Christmas dinner!!
Day 2 - lunch - chicken sandwiches. Dinner - cold chicken. This could just be slices with potatoes and veg, or make a curry, pasta sauce, chicken pie, risotto, whatever you fancy/have time for
Day 3 - boil the bones for soup. Strip all the remaining meat off the bones (get in there!) then put everything (everything!) that's left over into a big pan, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour. There are more complicated ways of making stock, but this is quick and simple. Chicken stock is a good base for lots of different soups - time to get creative!! If you don't want to use it straight away, it will keep for 2-3 days in the fridge.


And the bigger the chicken you get, the more meals you'll be able to get out of it.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Day one. Roast chicken and bits.
Day two. Roast chicken and bits
Day three. The legs and bits.
Day four. Chop up rest of chicken into dish, turn into curry (Sharwoods korma sauce and you add as much fire as you want) add carrots, sweet corn, onion, and fridge bitsers as required. Curry 1 with rice.
Day five. Curry 2 and more rice.
Day six. Curry 3

Day seven.Give it a rest chuck!

Linton

Fusspot wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. I saw a small chicken in M&S earlier with a use by day of 12 November so that would last six days or does the use by day not count once its cooked?

It means the number of days within which you should cook it. Once cooked I suggest you freeze the bits you are not going to use immediately and eat the rest within 3 days (keep in fridge), or possibly make stock/soup on the 3rd day.. Cooked meat can go off reasonably quickly.

sooty&sweep

Hi
You wouldn't need to cook the whole chicken.

You could cut it in half and just cook one half & freeze the other half.

Jen

Fusspot

I'm really paranoid about freezing and reheating chicken which is why I would rather just keep it in the fridge.

comeandgo

Freezing cooked chicken poses no problems. We have whole chickens most weeks. I strip the meat from the bones and freeze them both. The carcass I save until I have enough to make stock, the meat will be used in pie or curries.

Olliebeak1951

If you don't like the idea of freezing the cooked chicken and then thawing for future use - the best way for you would be to 'joint the chicken' yourself into useable portions ie two breasts, two thighs, two drumsticks, two wings and then freeze them into useable amounts while still raw. Then just defrost and use for whatever you want to cook with them.

Lots of videos on You Tube to show you how to joint a chicken -

this is one from BBC Good Food - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOa5gEXSSrs

and another one from Jamie Oliver - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkLrnhlVX4o

Good Luck.