Organic Meat is not cheap. At more than $10 or $15 for a small (whole)
chicken, you're looking at some fairly high prices compared with regular
ol' factory farmed chicken. But, as you may know, organic chicken tends
to be better for the environment because it uses less antibiotics
(although, with modern "organic" and "free range" farming methods, it
may simply mean fewer antibiotics going into the soil and waterways and
not much else - for more information, read "the Omnivore's Dilemma" by
Michael Pollan). Local meat likely has a smaller carbon footprint, but
may have a higher price tag. The cost being what it is, it's helpful to
stretch the chicken into several meals. There's a
show on the Food Network that focuses on making multiple meals using the same few ingredients which may be helpful for this.
I
want to recommend what we usually do, which is to roast the chicken and
then the next night make something with the... uh... leftovers.
To
roast the chicken, just rinse the chicken (make sure to remove the bag
of gizzards, etc, from the inside, if there is one), dry it, stick it in
a roasting pan. What I do is cut up some root veggies like carrots,
potatoes, parsnips, beets, onions, toss with some olive oil, salt and
pepper, put the veggies as a bed in the bottom of a pan and put the
chicken on top. Then you just want to rub some olive oil on the chicken
and I like to sprinkle it with some spice mix - Emeril's Essence is
good, Old Bay seasoning works, or sprinkle on whatever you like, even
lemon pepper would probably be tasty. Then you just put it in the oven
at 375 for 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours. You'll know it's done if
you can wiggle the leg and it sorta comes apart pretty easily. Carve it
up and enjoy!
Ok, so when you're done with dinner, put what's
left of the chicken, covered, in the fridge (or freezer if you can't get
to this for a few days) and the next day you put it in a big pot, cover
it with water and simmer it for several hours to make broth (or as many as 24 for a fuller, more nutrient-dense broth). I like to
add celery salt because I'm not a big fan of celery itself, but if you
have celery on hand, throw that in too, along with some carrots and some
onions. I like to chop them in large chunks, because I expect to
strain them out when I get the chicken out. If you want your broth to
be yellow (and look like broth from the supermarket) add a bit of
turmeric, though if you use a yellow onion and just leave the onion skins on, it colors the broth nicely and doesn't leave a flavor to it . If you're not adding celery salt, you probably want to add
salt to taste, also add pepper. How much of these really depends on how
much broth you're making, obviously. If you're making a lot, you'll
want to add more salt, pepper, and spices. Just taste it and see if you
like it, if not, you can try adding more... just go slow so you don't
end up overdoing it.
Now you'll want to strain this broth and
get the chicken bones, etc, out. I do this by putting my strainer in
another large pot and then pouring it all into the big pot, thereby
straining out big chunks. You can now use this broth for whatever you
might want. I usually do soup. If you spend some time and pick the
rest of the meat off of the chicken, you can usually get a fair amount
for the soup. I also usually chop up any left over meat from the night
before and toss that in the soup. Then I add carrots (you can use the
same ones from before or new ones... or just wait and only put the
carrots in after), egg noodles, and thyme. I let the soup simmer until
the noodles are soft, then I toss in some other veggies, usually peas,
corn, or green beans... use whatever you like or have on hand.
So,
there you go. Two meals from one chicken, twice the bang for your
buck. If you make a lot of broth, you can freeze some and use it for
something else, too!
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