For clarity: the two have to be young children, not hungry teenagers. And only one of the daily meals is chicken, your meat protein. There are endless chicken recipes. Some suggestions that touch on how to use different parts of the chicken will follow in the next post.
Nowadays everyone is talking about high prices and food shortages. In reality, you might not always get exactly what you want, but there is plenty of food and although the prices have gone north, one can easily make affordable meals without compromising on quality. This brought me back to years ago, when we lived on rationed food and had to use whatever we had at hand.
Once in a conversation, I mentioned that I used to feed a family of 4 with one chicken for a week. I meant a 5-day work week. They stared at me, laughed and asked how big was the chicken. I didn’t elaborate that at the time and place I then lived, the chickens were much smaller (free run and organic) than the ones we buy here in Canada. Hard to convince someone who would go through half a chicken at lunch.
Sure, if you just barbecue or rotisserie it, your family of 4 will have it for dinner; leftovers and bones still with meat on thrown in the garbage.
I can understand this. But I am also sure that there are many people outside of North America and Europe who can come up with creative ways to stretch a chicken for as long as possible. You don’t just eat chicken! It is one of the ingredients in your meals. Do you have flour, rice, dry beans and perhaps potatoes? Then you are well set up for the week.
When I was growing up, chicken, plus fish on Fridays where available, were the most popular meat protein. Beef wasn’t much in use and pork was a rarity. Lamb in the spring and mutton later in the year were also used. Food was seasonal as imports weren’t available to us yet. Meat during the season was different, as were the legumes, the vegetables and the fruits.
Chickens in the summer, supplemented by lamb in May and early June and mutton later, pork in the winter (aside from preserves). At the end of the summer there would be hens and a rooster that would be cared for in the winter. Occasionally we could have a hen in the winter months but in general they had to be kept for eggs and thus breeding chickens for the next summer.
My granny, when she was still capable of running her small farm alone, was our main supplier of food. Most of the city dwellers had a connection with a village and a granny who would provide at least some of their food. We lived in a city about 35 km away from her village. During the weekend my parents would drive to the village and help out with the garden. Potatoes, beans, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, cucumbers, melons, watermelons, pumpkins, corn and more, were growing in her garden, which was lined with fruit trees and vines. Her chickens running in the yards, so no huge fatty chickens; a pig every year slaughtered around Xmas, feasted on, preserves, sausages and prosciutto made; a few sheep were also around, to add to the meat menu during the year and wool for warm sweaters and socks too.
As kids we’d spend the summers free-run in the village. Once a week it was slaughter-a-chicken time (occasionally other fowl). I was allowed to watch the process after the chicken was dead. She’d dip it in hot water, pull it out and pluck the feathers. Then it was cooking time. She used all parts of the chicken, the parts that are not even sold here unless you shop in an ethnic store. So did my mom. She’d buy a live chicken from the market. It was before chickens came from the butcher or the grocery store all cleaned and well washed. She’d make soup from the wings, drumettes, legs, neck, head, rump and giblets. Rice with the thighs and drumsticks, fricassee with the breast, etc.
As an adult with my own 2 kids, I’d use the same approach. Food, excluding staples like oil, bread, milk and feta cheese, dry beans and lentils, wasn’t readily available. When something showed on the butcher’s shelves the neighbourhood would be buzzing and we’d rush to buy it before it was all gone. One could find chicken one day and ground meat another, but usually not both. So, when I’d get my hands on a chicken, I’d partition it before cooking and make a variety of dishes throughout the week. Aside from soup, fricassee, rice in the oven or risotto (takes more of your time stirring), sometimes I’d roast part of it with potatoes, make stew with frozen or canned peas and tomatoes, chilli with beans (cooked from dry, not canned) and many more. To make it last, I’d make more dishes with sauce.
We didn’t have a rotisserie, so for a special occasion I’d roast the whole chicken over potatoes, serve the thighs and the drumsticks with the potatoes and salad or veggies as one of the meals and reserve the rest for later. So here it is one of your dinners for four.
These days, for the two of us, we usually rotisserie the chicken, have the thighs with sides of veggies or salad and use the rest of it later in a variety of dishes.
I freeze some of the dishes I make. Next post (coming soon) will have some recipes, but there is a list of ideas that yield most for the buck.
Chicken soup: use wings, drumettes, legs, neck, head, rump and giblets – yields about 12 servings
Chicken black beans chilli: use 1 chicken breast – yields 10 to 12 servings
Chicken broccoli casserole: use 1 chicken breast – yields 8 servings
Chicken fricassee – use 1 thigh and 1 drumstick – yields 4 servings
Pasta with shredded chicken thigh and drumstick – yield 4 servings
In the above list I used all parts on 1 chicken, assuming it was boiled and the bouillon was partially used for the soup and partially for some of the other recipes. The total number of servings comes to 40. For 5 days one meal a day for the family with 2 small kids you need 20 servings. Thus, all of you can have 2 chicken dish servings a day – at dinner or lunch and dinner if you’d like.
You can make rice or risotto with one of the breasts, peas and tomatoes stew with the other and roast potatoes with the 2 thighs and 2 drumsticks, and you still have the soup.
As I mentioned at the beginning one has endless way to cook a chicken. But it you are in dire straits you can fire up your survival instincts and make it work with the basics.
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