Check your local grocery stores to find when their rotisserie chickens are on sale (our local Harris Teeter discounts them every Sunday). My husband and I get three filling meals from one chicken. Sometimes his mom joins us and there's enough to share.
First Meal: We split the breast, add a baked potato and a can of green beans and have a filling, nutritious meal.
Second Meal: I put the remaining chicken (the whole carcass) in a large pot and cover it with water - adding a sprig of rosemary (optional). Cook it until the meat practically falls off the bone. Save the broth. Cut up the remaining pieces and use them to make a simple, yet delicious chicken pie.
Chicken Pie Recipe: Put the cut-up chicken in a 9x13 inch casserole dish. (Reserve a half to one cup of the smallest bits of chicken to use for the third meal.) Drain a can of mixed vegetables and pour it over the chicken. In a saucepan, mix 2 cups of the chicken broth and 1 can undiluted cream of celery soup and bring to a boil. Pour this mixture over the vegetables and chicken. Mix 1 stick of melted margarine or butter, 1 cup buttermilk or sweet milk, 1 cup of self-rising flour, and one-half teaspoon of salt in a separate bowl. Spoon the dough mixture over top of casserole. Bake at 425 degrees F. for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is done.
Third Meal: Put the remainder of the broth and the small chicken bits left from Meal Two into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add cut up carrots, celery, onions, peas or whatever vegetables you have on hand. I put the carrots in first since they take a little longer to get tender. Add uncooked white rice, season with whatever spices you like (a little salt, pepper, thyme, etc.) and cook for about 20-25 minutes.
The amount of rice you add depends on how thick you want the "soup" to be. My family likes it to be thicker than a true soup, so I use a cup of raw rice to 2 cups of the broth mixture. You now have three deliciously different meals with little effort or expense. Both the chicken pie and the chicken and rice can be cooked and frozen to be brought out later.
Thanks for these great ideas. I am keeping your post in my "goto" file. One of our local stores discounts the chickens a couple times a day - Very economical way to have 3 good meals.
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Tip: Rotisserie Chicken for Several Meals (04/22/2009)
There are only two of us so this usually goes a long way. I will buy a cooked chicken at Sam's Club and use it that evening for our first meal.
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Tip: Rotisserie Chicken for Several Meals
Archived on 04/22/2009
There are only two of us so this usually goes a long way. I will buy a cooked chicken at Sam's Club and use it that evening for our first meal. I will then take all the leftover meat and cut off half of it and cube it for a pot pie.
For Two Pot Pies, use the following ingredients:
1-1/2 cup of cubed chicken
two Pillsbury pie crust packages (the red box in refrigerated section of supermarkets). These come with 2 pie crusts each, one for the top crust and one for the bottom
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (this is enough for 2 pies)
2 medium or 3 small potatoes (scrubbed and cubed),
2 cans of cream soups, flavor of your choice (I use cream of mushroom, cream of celery, sometimes chicken or spicy chicken, depending on my mood)
1 onion (I prefer vidalias)
I usually put the bottom crusts into the pie pans then boil the mixed vegetables and potatoes and onions until just starting to soften. I then pour off most of the water and add in the 2 cans of creamed soups. I then add the chicken and divide into the two pie crusts. (These make two deep crust pies). Put top crusts on. To be a little creative, I will take cookie cutters and cut out shapes around the center and them put the cut out shape back on top of the solid crust area. Bake in a 350 degree F oven until golden brown on top. One can be frozen for future use and one can be eaten right away.
The second half of the leftover rotisserie chicken can either be used in a chicken salad, I like curried with grapes and almonds, or boil the rest (including the bones) to be used in soup/stew. Again, our favorite is more a stew where I boil the chicken till it falls off the bones, add carrots to the chicken while it's boiling (I usually use 3/4's of a small bag of "baby carrots". I also either add fresh onion chunks or will add a jar of boiled onions at the end. Once the bones and fat and skin are all skimmed off and removed and thrown away, I then add the following: celery, frozen or fresh corn, and, depending on whether I want stew or soup, I will either add some chicken bouillon to make the broth richer or I will again use the cream soups to make it thicker and richer. I have also made it with potatoes for one style and cooked rice for another style, again depending on moods. I've also added chopped cabbage to give it another flavoring and filler. As you can see, a rotisserie chicken goes a long way.
By Julia from Richmond VA
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RE: Rotisserie Chicken for Several Meals
Another idea--watch your supermarket's refrigerator or deli shelves. Mine here will put "day old" rotisserie chickens there and mark them down by 1/2--I frequently buy a whole cooked chicken for $2.50! And since we typically refrigerate them anyway, before we eat them, buying it cold is no problem. With our family of 7 it doesn't last long, but for that price...! (07/03/2007)
