First, a plea. On the very off chance the CEO or other key decision maker in Costco is a loyal reader of this blog, would you please, please put a Costco in Savannah? It's just a weird form of cruelty to not have one.
Since we don't have a Costco here, I have to beg visiting friends and family members to pack coolers in their cars and bring me long lists of items from their own local Costco. (My sweet grandmother is my usual victim, and she could probably recite my list from heart.) One thing I always request - the Goldkist Farms whole chickens, which come 2 per pack.
I'm continuing to clean out my freezer before we depart on vacation, so yesterday's challenge was making 4 (or more!) meals for 4 people out of 2 chickens and only things I had in the fridge/pantry (no more grocery trips this week!). Want to play along?
1) Make chicken stock out of one of them. Place in large pot, toss in onion, carrots, and celery (bonus points awarded for finding a way to use up the last of the celery in the fridge). Lots of salt and pepper. Throw in a handful of herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary). Bring to a boil and then simmer for 3 hours. Remove chicken, strain broth and cool in fridge overnight. Remove fat and freeze broth. Voila, homemade chicken stock is ready to go for fall soups.
2) Make chicken casserole out of chicken that was used for the stock. Allow chicken to cool after removing it from the stock, and then pick as much chicken as possible off the bones (you'll end up with roughly 3-4 cups of chicken). Cook 160z whole wheat angel hair pasta according to directions. Strain, and then put back in pot. Add chicken, 10 oz package of frozen peas (bonus points for using up frozen peas from the freezer), 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can cream of chicken soup, and 1 can cream of celery. Add 1/2 cup of your chicken stock and mix well. Put in 2 freezer-safe 9x9 pans, sprinkle liberally with shredded cheddar cheese, cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and freeze. Voila, 2 casseroles ready and waiting for a couple of crazy busy fall days when nice hot comfort food would really hit the spot. (Note: each one of these casseroles will feed 4-6 people).
3) Roast the other chicken. Wash and dry it, sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper. Stuff chicken with lemon, onion (this used the last onion in the house, double bonus points), thyme, rosemary, parsley. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 425 for 1 hour (for my 4.5 pound bird). Eat for dinner that night.
4) Get all the leftover chicken off the roasted chicken, and make chicken and black bean quesadillas for dinner the next night.
Whew. That was a lot of chicken cooking. But there you go - just a couple hours and a couple of chickens yielded me 2 meals for this week, 2 casseroles for a later dinner, and homemade stock.
Happy eating!
