Ought Six
Membership Revoked
You can find whole fryer chickens pretty cheaply, under a buck a pound. Throw the chicken in your stock pot with enough water to cover and add a little salt and a couple bay leaves. Bring to a brisk full boil, then cover and turn off the heat. Let it sit on the range and cool for a couple hours. Remove the chicken and skim the white stuff off the top of the liquid. Strip all the meat off the chicken carcass. Throw the carcass, bones, neck and skin back into the stock pot. Slice up a couple carrots, a large onion and a few ribs of celery and add to the stock pot, cover and bring to a slow boil. Cook for at least four hours, strain into a big container, chill, and skim off the chicken fat. And while the stock is cooking, brown the giblets in butter for you, your pets (if you hate liver), or to dice up & add to chicken gravy.
You now have a couple pounds of low-fat chicken meat, over a gallon of home-made chicken stock, and if you're into traditional Jewish cooking, some schmaltz (rendered chicken fat).
The meat is cooked quite rare, and perfect for pot pies, soups, stews, enchiladas, chicken & dumplings and casseroles, as it can be cooked more without drying out and turning tough. You can soften some large flour tortillas, wrap up some chicken, beans, spanish rice, cheese, shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes, salsa, whatever, nuke it in the microwave, and you've got great chicken burritos. Lightly brown the chicken in an oiled skillet with a little chili powder and garlic salt, and you've got truly tasty taco meat. There's endless uses for chicken.
The stock is great for making chicken gravy, sauce for stews & pot pies, rice dishes, and of course, homemade chicken soup. My favorite uses for this homemade stock as a base for jambalaya or my green chile pork stew.
This method of preparing a whole chicken is very easy, it removes almost all the fat, there is very little waste and it will provide the basic ingredients to feed a lot of people for well under $5. In these lean times, we can all use a little help with the food budget.
You now have a couple pounds of low-fat chicken meat, over a gallon of home-made chicken stock, and if you're into traditional Jewish cooking, some schmaltz (rendered chicken fat).
The meat is cooked quite rare, and perfect for pot pies, soups, stews, enchiladas, chicken & dumplings and casseroles, as it can be cooked more without drying out and turning tough. You can soften some large flour tortillas, wrap up some chicken, beans, spanish rice, cheese, shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes, salsa, whatever, nuke it in the microwave, and you've got great chicken burritos. Lightly brown the chicken in an oiled skillet with a little chili powder and garlic salt, and you've got truly tasty taco meat. There's endless uses for chicken.
The stock is great for making chicken gravy, sauce for stews & pot pies, rice dishes, and of course, homemade chicken soup. My favorite uses for this homemade stock as a base for jambalaya or my green chile pork stew.
This method of preparing a whole chicken is very easy, it removes almost all the fat, there is very little waste and it will provide the basic ingredients to feed a lot of people for well under $5. In these lean times, we can all use a little help with the food budget.
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