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Take one whole free range chicken

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Hi! I love a whole roast chicken, but this week I am by myself. if I roast it whole I think I will get fed up with it. so I'm thinking cut the breasts, wings and legs off and use the rest for soup. Make a pukka curry with the legs; stir fry with one and some of the other breast; breadcrumb what's left of the other breast and shallow fry it; freeze the wings until I have more to cook together. I reckon that's five good meals plus the soup, I'll be taking left overs for lunch.

What would you do? 

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You could 'roast' just one breast - will cook very quickly though but at lest that way you get your Sunday Roast!

I made up a dish one day when I couldn't think what to cook for the boys......melted some butter in a dish in the microwave and added cajun seasoning and some smoked paprika (you could add any sort of seasoning or herbs) them marinated strips of raw chicken breast in it for a while. In the meantime I cooked some pasta then tipped the chicken into a wok (could use frying pan) with sliced onion and chunked up pepper and cooked till soft. Sometimes I need to add a little oil....then chuck in the cooked pasta and mix it up and serve. Protein, carbs and veg all in one!

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I might roast it whole, then use some of the left overs in a giant curry, and freeze what I didn't eat, then make a risotto using stock from the carcass.

Or I might joint it and roast myself 2 legs - one to eat as its my favourite and the other one to make into a curry.  Then I might use the breasts in whatever I was feeling like, possibly egg and breadcrumbs for one meal and some sort of lemony spicy thing  to go into a salad with the other.   The carcass would be boiled up and either freeze the stock or use it for risotto which in our house is a posh word for leftovers and rice.

I absolutely love roast chicken!

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Oooh roast the chicken take the rest of the meat off the bone and freeze in portions - you can have chicken pasta, chicken curry, chicken enchiladas anything at a later date.  It doesn't take long when it's already been cooked.  Then you can either freeze the bones to make soup and stock later or do it after the roast.  Oh yummmmmmmmmm!  Oooh chicken so versatile - you can dooooo anythinnnng!  I fancy roast now!  

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29 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

Oooh roast the chicken take the rest of the meat off the bone and freeze in portions - you can have chicken pasta, chicken curry, chicken enchiladas anything at a later date.  It doesn't take long when it's already been cooked.  Then you can either freeze the bones to make soup and stock later or do it after the roast.  Oh yummmmmmmmmm!  Oooh chicken so versatile - you can dooooo anythinnnng!  I fancy roast now!  

Me too - cook it whole, eat what you want there and then, take the rest of the meat off and either keep to eat cold or freeze for later cooked dishes. Use the carcass to make some soup or stock. Nothing goes to waste here - it's the best way to pay homage to the good life the creature has had.

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We had someone here who used to ‘grow’ her own chickens.  She lived near somewhere that produced day old chicks.  Used to rear them and dispatch at 16 weeks.  Can’t remember her name.  Lived in Chelmsford and I bought a red eglu from her.  I remember seeing these chickens grown for meat and thinking they didn’t have much of a life.  Not because of how they were kept but because all they wanted to do was eat.  They sat beside the food all day and grew at an horrendously fast rate.   

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We cook s chicken every week (sorry @AndyRoo! )  We spatchcock it and cook it over vegetables and stock. It is easy to cut the cooked bird into 4 portions.  We usually carve one breast for a roast dinner with lots of veg, the other goes into sandwiches.  One leg portion shredded into a curry with potatoes, chickpeas, lentils or sweet potato depending on what we have available.  The other goes into a jambalaya or risotto.  The veg and stock either become gravy or the basis of a soup.  Our plates are mainly veg for most meals so we are fairly frugal with the bit of meat we do eat

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18 minutes ago, ajm200 said:

We cook s chicken every week (sorry @AndyRoo! )  We spatchcock it and cook it over vegetables and stock. It is easy to cut the cooked bird into 4 portions.  We usually carve one breast for a roast dinner with lots of veg, the other goes into sandwiches.  One leg portion shredded into a curry with potatoes, chickpeas, lentils or sweet potato depending on what we have available.  The other goes into a jambalaya or risotto.  The veg and stock either become gravy or the basis of a soup.  Our plates are mainly veg for most meals so we are fairly frugal with the bit of meat we do eat

It's ok. I'm not one of those veggies who judges. And I've only been veggie for 2 years myself; I was no stranger to KFC either.

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10 hours ago, Patricia W said:

We had someone here who used to ‘grow’ her own chickens.  She lived near somewhere that produced day old chicks.  Used to rear them and dispatch at 16 weeks.  Can’t remember her name.  Lived in Chelmsford and I bought a red eglu from her.  I remember seeing these chickens grown for meat and thinking they didn’t have much of a life.  Not because of how they were kept but because all they wanted to do was eat.  They sat beside the food all day and grew at an horrendously fast rate.   

It's best to get one of the table breeds crossed with (say) an Indian Game bird, that way they grow slower and you get tastier meat. They move around a lot more and have happier lives.

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I must admit that, if we had the room, I'd have 'egg' chickens and 'meat' chickens. Whilst I buy free range everything I'd still far far prefer to know absolutely that what I am consuming has had a good and happy life and quick end.

We had a friend, some years ago, who had a bit of land and bought a weaner piggy every year to raise; although she doted on each animal and treated them brilliantly she had no problem in consuming and said that, if she didn't raise her own then she wouldn't eat pork at all! I think that there is a real honesty in raising your own meat and only wish that we had the land to do it.....I have a feeling that, by the time we can actually afford to buy a small holding, we'll be to old and doddery to run it though!

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I like eating chicken 🐔 and turkey 🦃 but I can't bear dealing with a whole bird anymore. It looks too much like the creature it was. I've always been a bit squeamish about the body parts anyway, it's probably got worse since I started enjoying forensic science crime shows. I buy my meat ready dissected and anonymous. 

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I would also raise my own for meat if I had the space. I only buy free range or organic, farm slaughtered chicken. I don’t buy or eat anything containing chicken that has ‘sad chickens’ in it - makes eating out a bit difficult and disappointing sometimes. Like you AndyRoo I ate (loved) KFC until reasonably recently, but wouldn’t any more.

Anyway - issue at hand. If i was on my own I would take the breasts off and freeze them (2 meals) roast the legs and wings on the carcass, eat one leg for my roast and keep the other for something for a lunch or two (1 meal, 2 lunches). Soup the carcass (2 meals). I make that probably 5 main meals and a couple of lunches. Doesn’t make the £10ish outlay per bird seem so bad.

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I'm reminded of a colleague who had to go to India on business. At the restaurant he ordered a half tandoori chicken because, even though he was very hungry, he was certain he couldn't eat the whole chicken on the menu. What arrived was something akin to half a pigeon!

We used to eat a lot of pheasants as the local shoot just couldn't sell them and so we could have as many as we wanted. Avoiding the lead shot was tedious though.

Fortunately we have sufficient room for 'pet' chickens, 'laying' chickens and 'meat' chickens, but whether we ever do the meat chickens I don't know, as I will find the process difficult. However chickens here are very expensive, typically 12€ a piece as they are all labelled 'farmyard' reared, which basically means they get outside for grass, sunshine, exercise and fresh air. How much grass they get varies as some fields are just bare earth and mud in Winter, but people are jumping on the bandwagon to make potentially big money and these 'farms' are now springing up all over the place. I'm sure we could save a lot of money, but more importantly, ensure even better standards of welfare. The local Cou-Nu are slaughtered at 12 weeks and are a very different taste and texture to chicken we used to buy in England. Some of these chickens are labeled 'antibiotic free' which implies the others are loaded with antibiotics; another major cause for concern.

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