Chicken Stretching Challenge!

Hmmmm...sounds a little strange doesn't it? Well...I'm not going to be actually stretching a chicken, but I gave myself the challenge of being frugal and seeing how many meals I could get out of one whole chicken! I got the idea after seeing this article. I had a chicken in the freezer, and thought, "Why not give it a try?" I'm not finished with the challenge yet, but this is what I've done so far...

Here is my chicken! It's kind of a small chicken (I think four pounds), so I'm not expecting to get much out of this little guy. It will be interesting to see what happens though! Well yesterday afternoon, I just baked it in the oven with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Looking good!

  

 This is all of the meat that I could get off of the chicken. Not much but we'll see. I put all of the meat in the freezer to be used later, leaving a little out for last night's dinner. I also put the bones in another bag and in the fridge to be used to make chicken broth. Waste not want not!

 

Monday: Chicken Enchiladas

Last night at dinner time, I wanted something extremely easy for dinner so I used my reserved chicken in chicken enchiladas (one of Eli's favorite meals :)) We had these with sour cream, green onions, and some fresh cilantro sprinkled on top. There was even enough leftover for him to take some to work today! Does that count for two meals then? :) 

  

 

Tuesday: Black Bean Chowder

Tonight, we are having this for dinner! This soup is also really easy to whip up in a jiffy! This morning, I boiled the chicken bones in enough water to cover and cooked it until the broth reduced a bit. Then, I drained the broth with a colander and started throwing this soup together. There was enough chicken left on the bones to put into the soup, but I kind of picked it all off and ate it for breakfast. :) Plus this soup normally doesn't even have chicken in it. You can find this recipe here. 

So that's where I am today! Two meals...or three if we're counting leftovers. I wonder what I'm going to make tomorrow...

   

Comments

[Julie]

Well, I can testify that the soup was delicious!...Thanks for lunch today. I always enjoy eating your cookin.~love mom

[Mrs G]

Hi Alli ~ it's great to know that the Black Bean Chowder recipe is a favorite at your house! We just had it last week, too! We love it! And....it's so good to see that you're posting again. Everyone here enjoys reading your blog and missed it while you were getting in the routine of being a new Momma! :)

[Meredith]

This is inspiring! I try to do this often too since chicken is the only meat we tend to have a lot of. I am so happy every time I see another post of yours lately~~ I have been thinking about you a lot today and am realllly hoping we can get together soon. I feel like I have an overwhelming amount of things to talk about and an email just won't suffice.