How to Make Many Meals from One Chicken

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Many Meals from One Chicken

How often have you bought a chicken and ate the whole thing in one meal? And that was that. The bones went into the trash. Done.

What if you could make many meals with that one chicken? Are you interested? Well, I am here to tell you that it can be done, and is good for your health and your pocketbook.

The Chicken

The chicken, the main ingredient for all these meals might be the most difficult to obtain. At least the ideal chicken. Yes, there is such a thing.

So, what makes a chicken ideal?

Here are the attributes of the ideal chicken:

You or your family raised the chicken.
It was fed organic exclusively.
It had a happy life scratching for bugs and harvesting greens.
It had plenty of room to explore and move around.
It was a heritage breed bird.*
It was harvested in a humane way experiencing no pain.

If you can't raise your own chickens, the next best choice is to buy one from a Permaculture farm you can visit or is recommended by a person your trust. If you are in the US, the most famous chicken farmer is Joel Salatin who I had the honor to interview on our podcast

Preparing a Homegrown Chicken

Most of the Heritage Chickens take at least 6 months to grow to weigh a few pounds. The commercial meat chickens, on the other hand, are at full size when they are 5 to 6 weeks old. Since backyard chickens get to walk and run and play, their meat is a bit gamier than the white, soft kind most people are used to it now.

We often make soup from our chickens. First, I put the whole chicken into a pot filled with water. I add some fresh bay leaves, carrots, parsley, celery, onions, garlic, and salt.

Lid the pot and let it simmer until the chicken is done. An easy way to find out is to pull on a leg. If it comes loose, the chicken is done and it is time to lift it from the pot and place it in a colander over a bowl to catch any liquid.

Now, add the head, neck, giblets and the feet to the pot. Top it off with water, bring it to a boil and let simmer on low heat for at least 24 hours or longer. If you are worried to leave the flame on overnight, turn it off before going to bed and take off the lid.

Put it back on the flame in the morning and bring the pot to a rolling boil. Then reduce the heat and allow the broth to simmer again.

After 24 hours, pour the broth into a container, using a colander to catch the bones and veggies. Freeze or refrigerate the broth for later use. Add the veggies to your worm compost or feed them to the chickens.

Put the bones, feet and so forth back into the pot (clean it first) and fill with water and fresh veggies. Simmer again for 24 hours or more.

Drain the broth and store the broth in the appropriate way. Check the bones and see if you can crash them with your fingers. If they are very soft, you have two options.

Either discard the bones. Or, if you have a strong blender, blend them all up and add them to your last broth. This makes a very rich taste but might need some getting used to.

Congratulations, you just made yourself some bone broth!

Just the broth will give you several meals, either turned into soups or drank as consume.

The meat tends to be very flavorful and a small amount is often enough for a meal. I typically use some for the several soups I prepare from the bone broth.

Chicken salad, chicken enchilada, or tomato/onion stew are some of my other favorites to make - and all out of one chicken.