I am always trying to come up with ways to stretch a dollar with food. Three meal ideas from one whole chicken is a good way to eat well and save money. Money is tight for our family right now. I’m sure many people across our country are in the same boat. One of the shortages we are experiencing in our area of the country is meat. There is a limited selection of meat available at the grocery stores near me and what is left seems more expensive.
We have been doing grocery pick up since March. Last week I decided to run into the store to check for markdowns. Kroger is known for their generous markdowns if you happen to arrive at the right time. Last week I was able to purchase on markdown a whole chicken for less than $3.00.
3 Meal Ideas
Chicken is not my husband’s favorite, but he is aware of the meat shortages we have noticed at the grocery. I was grateful to find what I did and immediately started thinking of how I could make three meal ideas from that one chicken.
It is hot in Indiana right now, so I decided to use my instant pot to cook my whole chicken. Previously I have roasted a whole chicken in the oven. In the instant pot the chicken cooked in less than 30 minutes to falling off the bone tenderness. I was able to use fresh herbs and onions from our garden to stuff and season the chicken. I talk about the importance of a garden in this blog post : 4 Reasons Why We Love Our Garden. This resulted in a fragrant rich broth. It smelled so good and tasted even better.
I was able to save the extra broth. I used ice cube trays to freeze the broth then popped them out and put in a freezer bag. That way I can have broth anytime. Which comes in handy when I have forgot to buy broth at the grocery.
Barbecue Chicken
The first night we had slices of the chicken with barbecue sauce. We added a couple of easy side dishes. When I have less of the meat portion of the meal, have learned to have varied and generous side dishes and sometimes homemade bread. It was delicious. The herbs and vegetable it had been cooked with went a long way to give it flavor. We each had a good portion and there was still a significant amount of chicken left in the pot.
Chicken and Noodle Soup
The second way I used some of the left-over chicken was to make homemade chicken noodle soup. I used carrots and onions from the garden and some of the leftover rich broth. I was generous with the vegetables and chicken to make it hardy and filling. It was so good. I use soups less frequently in the summer but this one was light enough for hot weather. I made homemade bread to share with the soup (picture above). I do not know about your house but at our house homemade bread makes everyone happy!
Chicken Quesadillas
The third meal I created from this chicken was chicken quesadillas. I sautéed fresh vegetables with pieces of shredded chicken, homemade fajita seasoning and shredded cheese. I used cheddar cheese because that was what I had but any cheese would work. Quesadillas are a great way to use up leftover vegetables. You can really stuff your quesadillas with almost anything.
This is how I used one chicken to create three different meals. It saved me time because I only cooked the chicken one time. I saved money because I used the chicken in three different meals. I also had the bonus of rich fragrant chicken broth that I froze and will re-use at a later date.
There are a number of different meal ideas you could come up with besides the three I have listed. This would work for other protein sources as well, such as a roast. What are some ways you can stretch your dollar with multiple meal ideas from one whole chicken?
Leave a Reply