Make the most of your Chicken

4 dinners, 4 – 5 lunches and some chicken stock.

That’s what I can get out of just one chicken, you could too all you need is a chicken and a few of your favourite vegetables.

I’m not going to tell you what to use that’s up to you, so there will be no ingredients list.

Make the most of your Chicken

First of all roast your chicken as you normally would, I like to do mine low and slow.

For instance:- with a chicken that would normally be roasted at 180°c for 1 ½ hours I would roast for 2 ½ hours at about 110°c turning up the heat uncovered for the last 30 minutes, I find this method makes for more succulent tender meat.

Now once I have roasted my chicken and it has cooled I cut the four pieces off that I need for my 4 dinners, 2 legs and 2 breasts.

I am now left with the carcass complete with wings.

This goes into a pan and covered with water and brought to the boil.

While that’s happening onions and celery go in.

Once it is boiling turn the heat down and simmer on a low heat for about 1 ½ hours.

Now gather up a selection of your favourite vegetables and chop them to a suitable size.

Take the chicken complete with bones out of the stock and place into a separate bowl.

Pour the stock into another pan then melt some butter and add some herbs then simmer for a couple of minutes.

Now add the vegetables and sweat them off for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes add a little of the stock.

Then simmer for another 10 minutes.

Add the rest of the stock and bring to the boil.

While that’s coming to the boil the carcass should be cool enough to separate the chicken from the bones, discard the carcass a drop the chicken into the stock and don't forget to season in fact at this point I normally drop in a couple of veg stock cubes

 Simmer for about an hour and then with a slotted spoon divide the vegetables and chicken into cartons for the freezer.

Now cover with stock.

You should have some stock left over so strain it through a sieve into cartons for the freezer.

The stew has no thickener in it so therefore is in a very versatile state, I normally thaw it out a carton at a time and have it for lunch with some crusty bread but you could also add some corn flour to thicken, make some herby dumplings and put it in the oven for 20 minutes.