Chicken Three Ways

My son mentioned that he would like more pantry cooking blogs. When he was still living at home we used to do a big grocery shop the Saturday after I would get paid (I only get paid once a month). I used to love these shopping trips as it was fun way to spend time with my son. His ultimate goal was to try to get me to spend at least $100 on groceries, which, back then, would get you a whole cart full of groceries. It was during these shopping trips that we would indulge ourselves and not be as budget conscious as we were during other times of the month. After all, at this point before I paid the bills, the checkbook had lots of money in it. On the other weeks it was more of a pick-up-only-what-you-need to make supper kind of shopping.

On those other weeks, one of my favorite go-to's was a rotisserie chicken. It's quick, cheap, and the two of us could get three or more meals out of that one chicken. Here's how I did it.

First meal: roast chicken. Roast chicken is one of my favorite dishes. Served with Rice-A-Roni and steamed broccoli it made a great, quick meal. You can keep the chicken warm in a 200 degree oven while you cook the rice and veg. The secret to my steamed broccoli? In addition to salt and pepper before steaming, I add grated nutmeg. You can't really taste the nutmeg but it sure adds tons of flavor to the broccoli. For a spicier twist you can also add crushed red pepper flakes.

Second meal: chicken sandwiches. Just good old-fashioned chicken sandwiches made from toast, lettuce, cheese, sliced chicken breast and mayo. Yummy! Serve with an apple or carrot sticks and some chips.

Another option: chicken salad. I make mine with diced chicken breast, diced apple (Gala or Braeburn are my favorite), celery, walnuts, mayo, ground brown mustard seed, and celery seed (add salt and pepper to taste). Either serve on lettuce or, even better, on a croissant. Seriously good!

Third meal: chicken dumpling soup. Technically this could count as a couple more meals because this soup would feed us for a couple days or more. Here's how I make mine.

For the soup stock, take all the chicken meat off the bones. Dice or shred the chicken meat into whatever size you like. Place carcass in a large soup pot and make sure to add in bones from the wings, drumstick and thigh. Roughly chop two to three celery stalks (or better yet, the end couple of inches from a bunch of celery including the leaves), one medium onion, and three carrots (no need to peel, just clean them up) and throw them in the pot with the chicken carcass. Also add two bay leaves and a teaspoon of peppercorns. Fill pot with cold water, cover and bring to boil over medium high heat. As soon as it starts to boil, turn down the temperature so it just simmers. Simmer for about one hour.

A little hint about making stock. If you boil it too vigorously the stock will be cloudy. A slow, gentle simmer will produce a clearer stock. You can also do this step in the crock pot, but it takes much longer. Add everything to the crock pot, turn it on high. Once it starts to boil, turn the crock pot to low and let it simmer away all day.

While the stock is cooking you can prep for the soup. Dice up one small onion (about a cup), three celery ribs, and two carrots. Rule of thumb for making soup is equal parts celery, carrot and onions (also called a mirepoix), but I like my soups heavier on the onions. Remember, the leaves of the celery are the best part, so add them into your soup.

Heat up a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a pot and add celery, onions, carrots and a few pinches of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 5-8 minutes on medium low until the onions are clear and the veggies are tender. If you want to, you can stir in a tablespoon or so of flour after the veggies are cooked and cook for a minute or two. This will produce a cloudy soup. Omit if you want a clear soup.

Now you can add the stock. Place a fine mesh strainer over the cooked veggies and ladle about a cup of the stock through the strainer into your pot. Stir up all the cooked bits on the bottom of the pan, and then add the rest of the stock (poured through the strainer). Any leftover stock can be put into freezer zip bags. Make sure you label the bags and freeze them flat on a cookie sheet. Throw out the bones and veggies from the stock -- they've done their duty.

Add the cut up chicken meat to the soup pot, and season with salt, pepper and some dried parsley (a bit of thyme and/or sage is good too--or just add poultry seasoning). Bring soup to a rolling boil to prepare to cook the dumplings.

Dumplings recipe: in a small bowl, mix together one egg, 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 1/4 cup milk and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Once the soup is at a rolling boil, and using a small teaspoon (dip your spoon into the soup to get it hot and the dumpling dough won't stick to it), drop the dumpling dough into the soup in small spoonfuls until you've added all of it. As the dumplings cook they will triple in size so make sure your spoonfuls of the dough are small, unless you like big dumplings. The dumplings will take about five minutes to cook. You can tell they are done when they are floating.

Last thing to do -- enjoy! This soup freezes really well so go ahead and make a big pot full. Serve alone or with some baking powder biscuits (just grab your favorite cookbook for a recipe -- you can't really mess these up). If you want my recipe, just drop me a line in the comments section.

Some other options for the soup. Add a 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes, juice and all, and it adds a nice richness to the soup. Don't want to make the dumplings? Just add some uncooked rotini pasta to the soup and boil until tender. 

For a sort of French country chicken soup, you can add a bit of white wine after you add the flour before you add the stock. A quarter of a cup will do, then let it simmer for a minute or two. Then when seasoning add Herbs de Provence instead of the parsley, etc.

One last note, if you don't have time to make the soup right away, separate the meat from the carcass and freeze the meat in a Ziploc bag, all chopped up. Wrap the carcass in aluminum foil or in a large baggie and freeze that as well. Then when you have more time, just throw the frozen carcass in the pot and start your stock from there. You can thaw out the chopped chicken as the stock cooks.

There you have it -- three meals from one rotisserie chicken and a few other staples you should have in your pantry and fridge. Pantry cooking at it's finest.