Rubber Chicken...

[Cat]

Well, not really, but it stretches!

 

I had to try and stretch two boneless, skinless chicken breasts to feed 4 or 5 tonight. I had about 3/4 cup “General Tso’s Chicken sauce” in my freezer. (See story below.) I had rice and dry chicken broth powder, both staples in my pantry. And I had fresh veggies.

 

**Story of sauce… I have occasionally bought 20 chicken “wings” at the grocery store deli covered in this “General Tso’s Sauce”. One time they messed up and put on a terribly salty and nasty-to-us teriyaki sauce instead. (It looks almost the same) We couldn’t eat it.

 

So I called them and explained, and they offered to replace it the next time, since we live too far away to go get more *then*. When I later went to get it, I explained, and requested that they put the sauce on the side. They had the right sauce this time, but from then on, I always request it on the side so we can test it first. And I found we had some left over, so I froze it.

 

By the way, the woman in the deli gave me a couple of extra “wings”, because, she said, I was so nice about it. I guess some people REALLY get mean. Sometimes sweetness pays… LOL

 

General Tso’s chicken is a dark, sweet and hot sauce, usually with hot peppers in it. Any kind of favorite Chinese-style sauce would work.

 

...anyway...

 

I made rice from scratch. While it was cooking, I chopped onions, carrots, yellow sweet peppers, broccoli, and mushrooms. I chopped the raw chicken breasts into about half-inch pieces to cook quickly.

 

When the rice was done cooking (but sitting, as it needs to), I started cooking the chicken in oil, and added some garlic powder. (Sets everyone’s mouths watering! When it was nearly done, I added the carrots, cooked them all a bit more, then added the rest of the veggies, mushrooms last. I made almost a cup of chicken broth with hot water, and when everything was cooked, I mixed in the Tso’s sauce and enough chicken broth to taste (for us, about 2/3 cup).

 

Served it all on a bed of rice, and everyone loved it. And there was enough left over for DH’s lunch tomorrow.

 

 

What’s your favorite way to stretch chicken or turkey??

 

 

[mommato3boys]

Chicken and dressing.

 

I make up a big 9x13 pan of corn bread about one inch thick. While it is cooking I boil a leg quarter until it falls apart. While the chicken is cooling I crumble the corn bread in my big mixing bowl add chopped onion, one can each of cream of chicken and cream of celery. I then debone the chicken shredding it as I go. I use the broth from where I cooked the chicken to thin it out. Add salt, pepper and dried sage and you are good to go. Cook until firm. Serve with baked sweet potatoes and peas and you are good to good.

 

Even after feeding 5 people I always have enough for mine and hubby's lunch the next day. It also freezes well.

[dogmom4]

Momma, when you say "cook until firm" do you put it back in the oven to bake or do you do it on the top of the stove?

Stacy

[dogmom4]

Here is a good recipe from the Saving Dinner website...stretching one whole chicken for 3 days. This made me start thinking. I have never had to cook a chicken from "scratch"...you know..kill it and go through the whole process. Is there somewhere on the site that shows how to use a whole chicken without wasting anything..including the head, feet,fat,feathers etc.?

Stacy

 

Chicken, washed and patted dry

1/2 celery rib, cut in pieces

1 onion, quartered

1 carrot, cut in 2-inch pieces

Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

 

Day 1: Make a roasted chicken. If you don't know how, don't fret, I'll help you. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and place your clean chicken in a roasting pan, breast side up, with all the veggies placed in the cavity. Season liberally and cook. Baste it if you like. Depending on the size, it will take an hour or two to roast. While the chicken is cooking,throw the neck in some water to make additional stock for the gravy. Cook it on low.

 

When the chicken is done, the leg should move easily in the socket. Before you make gravy, remove chicken to a cutting board and pour all the cooking juice out from the roaster into a bowl to cool. Put it in the fridge or freezer to encourage the fat to glob up on to the top. Then you can skim off that nasty fat and throw it away. Return the juice — without the fat — to the same pan and deglaze your pan by scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.

 

In a small mixing bowl, take a tablespoon of flour, about 3/4 cup of cool water and make a smooth paste. Heat the cooking juice, add the neck broth (this is really starting to sound gross!) and then add your paste. Using your wire whisk, whisk like a crazy lady over a fairly high heat till your gravy starts to look like gravy. Remove from heat and serve with mashed potatoes and lots of vegetables. Remember, you want leftovers.

 

Day 2: On the menu tonight is — Chicken and Bean Burritos! To make, pick every scrap of chicken off the bones and toss it together in a pan with a can of black beans (or equivalent homemade). Add about a teaspoon each of garlic powder and cumin and warm it up. In the meantime, get out your fixin's: shredded cheese, salsa, chopped cilantro, sour cream, whatever you like. Warm your tortillas and serve buffet style.

 

Day 3: Take the skeletal remains and toss it in a pot with a stick of celery, a carrot or two and a big onion. You don't even need to cut the veggies up. Throw a quart or more of cold water over the top and bring it to a boil. Let it simmer for an hour or so until the veggies are mushy. Strain the whole thing (now you can throw out that chicken with a good conscience!) and make whatever soup your heart desires.

 

[Cat]

Oh, Stacy, that is SO FUNNY...

 

 

Here I thought I was being clever with the title, and she's already used it for stretching a chicken into meals!

 

The link:

 

http://savingdinner.com/

(No longer links to correct info, just site.)

 

 

Looks like a good site... never saw it before now.

 

 

(WAYBACK MACHINE LINK TO RECIPES)

http://web.archive.org/web/20090408062203/http://www.savingdinner.com/archives/recipes/rubber_chicken.html

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20090316064643/http://www.savingdinner.com/

[dogmom4]

She's associated with the Flylady website..

Stacy

[mommato3boys]

Originally Posted By: dogmom4

Momma, when you say "cook until firm" do you put it back in the oven to bake or do you do it on the top of the stove?
Stacy

Bake in the oven on 350 degrees until lightly brown and doesn't jiggle when you shake the pan. Usually about 45 mins.

[Leah]

Don't toss those bones out after 1 hour!

 

Drain and use the broth as she says, but refill that pot with water! You can keep making broth, just let it boil longer. Once you get to the point where the liquid looks whitish, that will be the end. The whitish, cloudy stuff is the calcium releasing from the bones, and the gelatin. You can encourage that with a Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. This is not the delicate broth for chicken noodle soup, but will make excellent gravy, stew, etc...

[Cat]

~BUMP~ to the top!

[Annarchy]

Thanks Cat for the bump, we have several ways to 'rubber chicken'.

 

Cooking for 2;

 

Cooked~boiled or roasted:

 

Remove Legs for dinner with potatoes~mashed/baked and your choice of veggies. *Meal ¹

Remove breast, dice and store *^2-3

Remove thighs, dice and store *^4-5

Bones and back, put in pot and boil with 1 stick of celery, 2 carrots and a few thick slices of onion diced, salt and pepper, remove bones and store *^6-8

 

² Casserole

Mix 1/2 diced breast, egg noodles, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup or cream of celery, diced onion, salt & pepper. Pour into baking dish and sprinkle with a few crushed crackers. Bake 15 min @ 350.

 

³ Chicken salad sandwiches

Mix 1/2 diced breast, 2 tbs mayo, 1 tbs of finely diced onion, 1 tbs of dill relish. Spread on toast, serve with your choice of raw veggies or chips.

 

⁴ Stir Fry

1 thigh, diced or sliced. Chopped veggies. Heat pan with 1 tbs of oil, toss chicken to warm, drop in veggies and stir until hot. Serve with white rice, stir fried rice or egg drop soup.

Stir fried rice: Brown rice in tbs of oil. Beat 1 egg, drizzle with a fork 1/2 egg over hot rice, mix a little chicken and a hand full of mixed veggies, stir until hot and serve.

Egg drop soup: Drizzle other 1/2 of beaten egg into a boiling cup of bullion or chicken broth.

(Soy sauce is optional.)

 

⁵American Stir Fry

Brown rice in 1 tbs of oil. Add diced chicken, 2 sticks of celery, 2 slices of onion diced and water. Add bullion or broth. Simmer until rice is soft.

 

⁶Chicken soup

Add a stick of celery, carrot and onion, diced, salt, pepper and a bay leaf. Serve with biscuits.

 

⁷Taco soup

Same as #5, add 1 cup of tomato sauce. Serve over tortilla chips, sprinkled with cheddar, Colby, or longhorn cheese.

 

⁸Broth

Used in gravy, or as a spice in other recipes.

 

Any of these can be tailored to taste, white meat or dark.

[kappydell]

Even (especially) the bones from KFC chicken make nicely flavored broth. Now don't get all squeamish on me, you are going to BOIL those bones, so have the family save them when you have some carry-out. Then put them in a pot with water and boil at a rolling boil for 10 min (like sterilizing water, you know...) to kill the germs. Then if you want you can put them in the crock pot with the veggies and make broth. The KFC seasoning goes into the broth, and for those that like their herbs & spices, well, its tasty.

 

Next, Leah is right, boil 'dem bones more than once. A civil war era Army cookbook said to make broth daily, and save ALL the bones. Then put them in net bags (separating chickn & beef, of course, and using a separate bag for each day) and boil for broth. Remove the bags and let the bones dry (you use the broth in daily cooking). Repeat the boiling up to 5 days, but the recommendation was to repeat a mere 3 times for stronger broth. Since you were rotating each day's bag of bones into rotation, (ie, boiling day 1-2-3 bones, next day boiling day 2-3-4 bones, etc, the broth in theory stayed consistent.

 

Adding a shot of lemon juice or vinegar to the boiling water helps dissolve extra calcium into the broth.

 

Doggone, now I want chicken soup, and the crock is boiling up a hambone for split pea!

[mimi]

don't forget to crack those chicken bones to take advantage of the goodies inside the center of the bones.