On Monday I made a large roast dinner for 6. I used a large chicken, 2.2kilos in weight.
Were on a mission to work down the freezer and downsize to a smaller chest freezer, so I'm taking joints out of the freezer (they take up the most room). I'm not wanting to freeze any leftover if I can help it, but I can't afford to waste anything.
The pot on the right is the leftover cooked chicken. Half a handful went into the pie.
Today was leftover pie. Basically any leftovers from the roast dinner stuffed into pastry. It depends on the leftovers, but today was leftover roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, mixed veg, chicken and gravy. I added 1/4 onion and a mushroom, a bit of home-made chicken stock.
There was enough leftover mash and veg from Monday for the kids to have with the pie.
I really didn't fancy pie so instead decided to make a chicken soup.
I used 1/4 onion, 1 clove of garlic and 1 mushroom. Fried in a bit of chicken fat from the top of the stock.
After the stock went in I added half a carrot, a handful of frozen green beans and half a red pepper.
That tub on the left is home-made chicken stock. I already drained off the chicken juice from roasting, that's not this stock. This is the result of the chicken carcass/bones being stuck in the slow cooker for 8 hours. Its been reduced down so turn into jelly.
Because its concentrated I only needed about 3-4 tablespoons. Topped up with water, added seasoning.
Just before serving I added a handful of cooked chicken and a handful of spinach.
The pot on the right is how much cooked chicken I have left after a roast dinner, pie, soup and 2 pasties.
Its going to go into a risotto with the rest of the stock for another dinner tomorrow.
the two patsies on the right are lunch for the kids tomorrow with some pastry leftover from the pie.
Stretching your most expensive ingredient (usually meat) is a fantastic way to reduce grocery shopping bill. 1 large chicken will have stretched over 4 large main meals and a lunch without wasting a scrap.