Rotisserie Chicken for Several Meals

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

Answers:

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)

By Kerri