Because of all of your fabulous input on the post about healthy (or not) grains, I’ve been re-inspired to increase the amount of protein in our diet. You guys are very informed and some of your comments really challenged me. I hope you were inspired as well!
Now I’m challenging myself to do this without increasing our grocery budget. I did a great job when I was pregnant – and our budget was smaller, coincidentally – but ever since then I’ve slowly slacked off.
Maybe it’s partially because whenever I work in the kitchen now, I have two sticky little hands wrapped around my legs whining singing “mu-mum-mu-mum.”
Little distracting.
But wonderful.
Anyway, right now I only make chicken once a week. Between wanting to streamline my time in the kitchen (see sticky fingers explanation above), and maintaining a lifestyle that doesn’t demand fancy meals, I can cook up one chicken at the beginning of the week and use it in endless varieties of meals over the next few days.
In my 15 Green & Frugal Foodie Tips I mentioned learning to make your own chicken broth, and I think this would be a great time to share why and how I recommend doing this. Homemade chicken broth is a fantastic source of nutrients and healthy fats – one book I read called it a pot o’ penicillin – and believe it or not, it’s very easy to make. Counting the time it takes for me to wash and chop the vegetables, it probably takes me about 10-15 minutes to get it on the stove or in the crockpot. And since homemade broth is made from the bones of the chicken, broth is basically free.
My kind of food.
This is a classic recipe that incorporates cooking the chicken along with the broth – killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. Nothing special, but I’ll break it down for you so you can see how this particular frugal foodie does it.
Crockpot Version
This method is fantastic if you’re working. Simply turn it on around lunch time, and you have dinner when you get home. I may or may not have over-used this recipe before the offspring was born….
INGREDIENTS
- 2 qrt. Crockpot
- 1 Roaster chicken (4-5 lbs) OR a few chicken thighs and drumsticks (bone-in of course)
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1/2 of Medium-sized onion
- 1-2 Cloves garlic
- 1 t. each of any variation of the following spices: thyme, parsley, oregano, or basil
- Any variation of the following vegetables, enough to fill crockpot: carrots, celery, potatoes, or turnips
- 1/2-1 t. Pepper
- Water
- Salt, to taste
DIRECTIONS
- Rinse chicken and remove giblets (if included with the chicken)
- Place chicken and giblets in crockpot
- Chop onion, garlic, and vegetables of choice into large bit-sized pieces, then place around and inside the chicken (yes, I said inside – the flavors will permeate the chicken)
- Add bay leaf to crockpot and sprinkle other spices of choice (excluding the salt) on chicken and vegetables
- Pour water over the whole thing, filling until about 2 inches from the top of the crockpot
- Plug crockpot in and cook on low for 5 1/2 – 7 hours or on high for 3 – 4 hours
- Chicken is done when the breast meat is no longer pink when you cut into it
- Add salt, to taste, to both the chicken and the broth (Note: don’t add the salt until then because the flavor will be absorbed into the broth and you’ll have to keep adding more salt. So save it for last)
- UPDATE: (Forgot to add this originally – Thanks, SusieBee! Your comment reminded me)Remove chicken, giblets. and vegetables from crockpot and place them in another container (maybe to serve up for dinner? See dinner suggestion below)
- Add water to the thick broth left in the crockpot, and voila! You now have a rich base for a soup or sauce
- OR allow broth to cool completely, then store in the freezer. Add water when you’re ready to use it (You can store it in a freezer bag, or try Samuel’s suggestion in the comments below)
Stovetop Version
Lately I’ve been preferring this method, simply because I think the taste of the chicken turns out better, and nowadays I don’t need to run to work.
Follow the above recipe EXCEPT:
- Use a large pan on the stove instead of a crockpot
- I’ve only cooked carrots and celery using this method, so I’m not sure if the potatoes or turnips would cook all the way
- Fill pan with water to about an inch below the rim. Water should almost cover the chicken
- Bring to a boil (you can cover it if you like – speeds up the boiling time) and use a slotted spoon to scoop off the foam that rises to the top
- Then turn burner to low and simmer, covered, for 20-30 minutes
Now What?
There are a couple of meal possibilities in front of you now:
- Roast Chicken & Veggies – If you used the crockpot, you have most of a meal already. Simply serve up some chicken and the vegetables you cooked along with it, then add a salad and garlic bread. Fancy meal, and it only took you about 20 minutes of work.
- Chicken Noodle Soup – If you used the stovetop version, take the chicken and giblets out of the soup, toss in some noodles (egg noodles, rigatoni, bowtie, etc.) or brown rice (my preference) and add some chopped up chicken. After the rice is cooked, you have dinner! You can add a salad to round it out, but remember you already have veggies, protein, healthy fat, and a starch.
After the first meal like this, I usually put the chicken in a different container (like a smaller saucepan), then put both that and the broth (or soup) in the fridge.
The only reason I do that is because by the time I’ve cooked the chicken and made dinner, I’m tired of working with poultry.
The next day, If I didn’t make soup, I pour the broth into a freezer bag, zip it up snuggly, and stack it in my freezer to use later. Meanwhile, the chicken gets deboned (only takes about 10 minutes) and the bones go in another freezer bag (to use for broth again – did you know you can use the bones twice?). Since I bought a batch of fresh parsley to make tabouli, I’ve been tossing a handful of those herbs in with the bones.
Now I have most of a chicken to either freeze or use over the next few days in a myriad of meals.
Some of which I will share with you later….
One of which I’ve already shared.
Question of the day:
Have you ever tried making your own chicken broth? If you haven’t, what has stopped you from trying?
I’d also love to hear from those of you who regularly make your own broth – Do you have any tips or tricks to make even better (or easier) broth?
Well, do you?
Cheers,
Steph
This post is participating in Frugal Friday on LifeasMOM – go there today to find out how to get great deals on high quality cookbooks…. My kind of frugal tip!
12 comments
9 pings
SusieBee
09/17/2010 at 11:10 AM (UTC -6)
Steph,
Great post. I’ve been toying with the idea of making my own chicken broth, but haven’t taken the leap yet. The crockpot method might be the impetus I need.
I too subscribe to the cook once eat twice (or more) school!
SusieBee
Samuel
09/17/2010 at 11:28 AM (UTC -6)
Wonderful post, and a great idea. I try to alternate doing a chicken one week and a roast the next, and then use the meat all week.
One of the better things I’ve done with chicken was recently was oven roasting it with a lemon, fresh thyme, and fresh garlic in the body cavity. I then squeezed the lemon juice out all over the chicken afterwards. Delicious.
I eat a lot of vegetables, and I throw my vegetable scraps (including onion skins and carrot tops!) in a large bag in the fridge. When it comes time to cook my chicken, I toss all of these scraps in and come up with an amazing tasting broth.
If I don’t plan on using the broth in a few days, I reduce it by 3/4 and then freeze it in ice cube trays. After frozen, I can store the individual cubes in a zipper bag long term. When I need stock for a recipe, I just have to grab one cube and reconstitute with 1 cup of boiling water—presto, nearly-as-good-as-fresh homemade stock. Adds so much depth to sauces, glazes, and soups.
Looking forward to post 2!
Steph
09/17/2010 at 11:59 AM (UTC -6)
Samuel – What fantastic ideas! I just might start trying that – any way we can stretch the veggies, right? I have this thing against dry chicken (probably why I prefer dark meat to white), so when you roast it like that, does it come out moist?
Samuel
09/17/2010 at 2:12 PM (UTC -6)
When done right, the roast chicken is amazing. I use Mark Bittman’s recipe…if you don’t have his book (“How to Cook Everything”) you are missing out! Hands down the most essential cookbook in the world (in fact, it is good enough that I’m getting rid of almost all of my other cookbooks). (as a note: Bittman is an earnest healthy foodie, and you should check out his blog “Bitten” on NYTimes.com and also his column “The Minimalist” on the same site).
Rebecca Burgener
09/17/2010 at 6:39 PM (UTC -6)
I haven’t made chicken broth. I’m lazy about chicken and usually only buy the boneless breasts. I have, however, made turkey broth from leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
I know just what you mean about having little ones at your feet. I have three. The positive of that is that older ones can entertain the toddler for short amounts of time.
Steph
09/17/2010 at 9:38 PM (UTC -6)
Rebecca – maybe someday we’ll get there, eh? Right now I’m trying to coordinate cooking with his meal times and nap
Jane
09/18/2010 at 2:02 AM (UTC -6)
Thanks for the recipe!!! Love it
btw, bird nest is made up of about 58% soluable proteins…the highest amoung all food and even synetic protein powders
it greatly increase tissue regeneration
sources taken from the internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_nest_soup
hongkong-bird-nest.50webs.com/index_e.htm
http://www.euyansang.com/
Nancy
09/20/2010 at 6:37 AM (UTC -6)
I do make my own broth. Here’s my method.
1) I roast a whole chicken in the oven. Serve the breast meat for dinner with potatoes and carrots.
2) After dinner I take the remaining meat off the bones to use for a casserole, soup, etc.
3) Next day, make broth. Place bones in the crockpot with an onion (quartered), a couple carrots and celery sticks and garlic. Add 6 c. of water and let it simmer all day. Cool and store in freezer bag for later use.
Steph
09/20/2010 at 11:26 AM (UTC -6)
Sounds fantastic; now I’m thinking roast chicken for dinner would be great….
Do you strain the broth to take all of the vegeatables out? Or do you leave them in there?
Nancy
09/21/2010 at 4:55 AM (UTC -6)
Yes, I do strain the vegetables out.
Robin Stucky
10/06/2010 at 8:47 AM (UTC -6)
I do this almost every week! Basically the same method as Nancy for oven roasting the chicken, works great for Sunday mornings, come home from church and dinner is done! Then I make chicken stock on Monday with the chicken carcass after picking off most of the meat. I have a number of soup recipes I like to make with the stock, Chicken & Wild Rice, Chicken Noodle with Veggies, Chicken Tortilla, Creamy Spinach & Mushroom with Chicken, and White Lightning Chili. I usually have enough leftover soup to eat for lunch for several days as well.
Linda Myers
11/04/2010 at 5:23 AM (UTC -6)
Another tip is for anyone who has the deep covered baker from pampered chef, you can cook a 4lb chicken with cut up veggies (i usually do carrots/pototoes) in 30 minutes in the microwave and it is as crisp as if it came out of the oven. I serve for dinner then through the “leftovers” (not usually any meat) into the crock pot over night for broth/soup.(usually soup and salad or rolls the next night) This allows me to get home at 4:30 have dinner on table by 5ish and another dinner well on it way by morning
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