3 meals from 1 chicken is a classic way to pick a good bit of meat and have it go a long way!
MEAL 1 – Super simple roast chicken
Take a 1.5-2kg prepared chicken, rub it all over with melted butter, season with salt and pepper and place in your roasting dish with a couple of garlic bulbs cut in half crossways and a lemon cut into 2.
Bake at 200C for 45 mins, perhaps a bit longer if needed until juices run clear.
Serve along side some tasty accompaniments, roasties, carrots, sprouts, what ever takes your fancy. Serve all the garlic and chicken juices over me meal 👌🏼
MEAL 2 – chicken quesadillas
Firstly you want to remove as much meat from the carcass of your roast chicken as possible. Plan to use half in this recipe and half in the next…
To make your chicken mixture finely dice an onion, fry for 5 minutes, then add 1/2tsp ground cumin, smoked paprika and oregano and fry for a couple of minutes. Add your shredded chicken, a squeeze of ketchup and give it a final mix.
To construct your quesadilla, whether your cooking in a frying pan or on a griddle, start with your wrap, then add half a handful of cheddar and mozzarella mixed, then a layer of the chicken mixture, a few jalapeños, the other half handful of cheese and another wrap. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes a side until charred and delicious!
Serve with wedges with guacamole, salsa and sour cream 👌🏼
MEAL 3 – chicken soup
To make your chicken stock, break your chicken carcass into as many pieces as you need to so you can fry each piece on all sides and get a good colour, this is where all the flavour in the finished stock comes from!
Once browned, put your fried carcass in a large pot along with any spare bits of veg you have in the fridge, cover with 2L of water and cook, uncovered for 3 hours. Strain and put aside. You may need to skim some fat off the top of the stock.
In a separate pan, fry a diced onion for 5 minutes then add a medium diced potato and a couple of diced carrots with a herb of your choice, in my case thyme and continue to fry for another 5 minutes. Add 1L of your chicken stock, a glug of water from the kettle and cook for another 10 minutes.
Hand blend your soup to a nice, smooth consistency.
Add the other half of your shredded, cooked chicken, perhaps a couple of handfuls of frozen peas, a few slices of thinly sliced cabbage and cook for 5 minutes. Serve hot with a drizzle of runny yogurt and some crusty bread!
