I try to be frugal, I try to cook homemade as much as possible. I’ve cooked up several Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey frames to make soup. I think once, years ago, I tried making my own chicken broth, but it didn’t turn out very well. Then on Wednesday one of the blogs I read, Money Saving Mom, had an article linking to another article from Heavenly Homemakers whom I was previously unfamiliar with about using one chicken to make 6 meals.
I thought, WOW, I wonder if I can really stretch one chicken into 6 meals? So today I bought myself a 5 lb chicken for $0.88/lb. Using her recipe for making homemade chicken broth, I stuck it in a pot with half an onion, 2 stalks of celery and a dozen mini carrots. A few hours later my whole house smelled heavenly. 
Oh how I love the smell of homemade soup! That reminds me…I should make some bread too!
Once it was obvious that the chicken was done (ie falling off the bone) which took about 3 hours, I took my chicken out so I could pull the meat off the bone. I let it cool first and burned my tongue eating some of the carrots I had put in to begin with. I have no will power!
I ended up getting 6 cups of chopped chicken.
Most of my chicken recipes call for 1-2 cups of chicken. But the recipes that use this great chicken broth I’m making I’ll probably put less chicken in since the broth is so rich and good. 
So let me think of what recipes I can make in the next few weeks or so with this 6 cups of chicken. Chicken Noodle Soup today (3/4 c), Chicken Manicotti (1 1/2 c), Chicken Enchiladas (1 1/2 c), Chicken A La King (3/4 c), Chicken Quesadillas (1/2 c), Garlic Chicken Pasta (1 c). That comes out to 6 meals!
I put the meat into freezer bags and continued making more broth by putting the bones and skin back in the water to get all the good stuff out of them. A few more hours of simmering and I ended up with 8 cups of broth. (some for todays soup and some for later recipes) I cried when I accidentally spilled a cup of it down the sink!
Homemade broth, homemade soup, homemade noodles, homemade bread. I bet some great-great grandmother is in heaven all proud of me right now! I felt like quite the Homemaker today!
Now if only I had finished picking up the house or folding Monday’s laundry instead of playing online today!
So my question to those of you who make this kinda stuff…what would you have done differently?
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4 comments:
Very awesome Jen. I think you inspired me to buy a whole chicken and try out what you just did.
Travis doesn't usually make his own chicken broth, but when he makes it or buys it, he freezes any extra in ice cube trays. one cube = one ounce, recipe ready. When they are frozen, he pops them out and stores them in a big ziplock, ready to toss into whatever he's making. He does this with beef broth, consume, and vegetable stock too.
I did a chicken this week as well. I had chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles. I also have a chicken pot pie recipe that uses both cooked chicken and some broth...it is an Emerial Lagassee recipe. I also use my cooked chicken in Chicken Alfredo. Other than that I do the same recipes as you.
I would love a copy of your garlic pasta chicken recipe.
YES! Cooking with whole chickens is AWESOME! I can't even eat the canned soup anymore!
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