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One Chicken and the War on Waste
OCTOBER 2018
It seems that we are wasteful in the kitchen (go figure!) so the kitchen is the biggest focus in the war on waste. Apart from ending the use of plastics and increasing recycling awareness, apparently stopping food waste is the next big thing according to a segment I watched on Sunrise recently.
In this segment, they were able to get 15 serves from one chicken!
Goodness, was someone spying in my kitchen? Snooping through the fridge and freezer? Checking out the pantry shelves?
Zero kitchen waste isn't a new concept. It is rather a very, very old kitchen hack, one that has been practised for hundreds of years and many, many generations. It's only the last 60 years or so that kitchen waste has become normal, and not using everything completely the norm instead of rare.
Anyhow, back to the story. Just how do you stretch a chicken to get 15 serves (or more)?
Easy. You plan to use all the chicken. That's it.
There is nutrition in the bones and even the skin, and there's a lot more meat on a chicken than you might think.
Here's how I stretch a chicken to feed us for at least three meals, sometimes more. That's at least 15 serves.
I stuff and then roast the chicken, with lots of veggies. Potato, pumpkin, sweet potato, onion, zucchini, cauliflower, cabbage wedges, yellow squash, parsnip, carrot, whatever is in the crispers.
I always do more veggies than we need for the roast dinner. Roast veggies keep well and are so versatile. They can be used as is. They can be pureed with a little stock and a dash of cream to make soup. They can be mashed and made into patties. They can be diced, fried and used as a side dish. They can be diced, fried and added to focaccias or pies. So always, always take advantage of the oven and cook more veggies than you need for the one meal. It saves time during the week and adds delicious variety to your meals. The stuffing is pulled out and sliced. Some is served with the roast, the rest is kept for sandwiches or salad plates during the week.
To serve the roast chicken, it is carved up. Now we like our meat and poultry, but it is a condiment to the veggies on our plates and I try to stick to the recommended serving sizes, so the wings and drumsticks are pulled off and used for the roast dinner.
Then the breast meat is pulled off and some is used for the roast dinner (there are five of us), Then the rest of the meat is pulled off the bones and put into a container, cooled and then put into the fridge.
The bones and skin are either then frozen for later or put into the slow cooker with the veggie peelings and cooked overnight to make stock. This usually gives between 4 - 6 litres of stock to use for soup or add to gravy, or to cook rice (it gives the rice a lovely flavour).
To make soup I drain the stock, and return the liquid to the slow cooker. There is usually a lot of meat in amongst the bones, so it is pulled out and put into the slow cooker with the stock. Then carrots, onion, celery, some of the celery leaves and a little dry rice is added and it is set on low to cook for a few hours. This easily gives three meals of soup for us.
Then the bones are removed from the sludge and put into the compost. The leftover veggie sludge may look ugly, but it is full of flavour and nutrients. When it has cooled slightly, I add about 100g salt, some rosemary, parsley and garlic to it and whizz it in the food processor to make a paste. Then I cook it over a low heat for up to 45 minutes, until it is thick and almost the consistency of peanut butter. The idea is to get most of the moisture out of it, but not have it bone dry. It will keep in a clean, air-tight jar in the fridge for up to a month, or it can be frozen. If you freeze it, use ice cube trays - they are much easier to use than a frozen jar of stock paste.
The meat that was put into the fridge is used during the week.
It makes:
One $8 chicken (a No. 20 - minimum 2kg - is around $3.99/kg from my butcher) gives at least 15 serves. That equates to just 53 cents per serve or $2.65 per meal (for my family of five). And no one goes hungry or feels like they're missing out. And nothing - absolutely nothing - is wasted. Best of all, the whole chicken is used to feed us before it is then composted, so we even get all the nutrition we can from it.
Next time you have a chicken, before you bin it, think about how much more you could get from it.
In this segment, they were able to get 15 serves from one chicken!
Goodness, was someone spying in my kitchen? Snooping through the fridge and freezer? Checking out the pantry shelves?
Zero kitchen waste isn't a new concept. It is rather a very, very old kitchen hack, one that has been practised for hundreds of years and many, many generations. It's only the last 60 years or so that kitchen waste has become normal, and not using everything completely the norm instead of rare.
Anyhow, back to the story. Just how do you stretch a chicken to get 15 serves (or more)?
Easy. You plan to use all the chicken. That's it.
There is nutrition in the bones and even the skin, and there's a lot more meat on a chicken than you might think.
Here's how I stretch a chicken to feed us for at least three meals, sometimes more. That's at least 15 serves.
I stuff and then roast the chicken, with lots of veggies. Potato, pumpkin, sweet potato, onion, zucchini, cauliflower, cabbage wedges, yellow squash, parsnip, carrot, whatever is in the crispers.
I always do more veggies than we need for the roast dinner. Roast veggies keep well and are so versatile. They can be used as is. They can be pureed with a little stock and a dash of cream to make soup. They can be mashed and made into patties. They can be diced, fried and used as a side dish. They can be diced, fried and added to focaccias or pies. So always, always take advantage of the oven and cook more veggies than you need for the one meal. It saves time during the week and adds delicious variety to your meals. The stuffing is pulled out and sliced. Some is served with the roast, the rest is kept for sandwiches or salad plates during the week.
To serve the roast chicken, it is carved up. Now we like our meat and poultry, but it is a condiment to the veggies on our plates and I try to stick to the recommended serving sizes, so the wings and drumsticks are pulled off and used for the roast dinner.
Then the breast meat is pulled off and some is used for the roast dinner (there are five of us), Then the rest of the meat is pulled off the bones and put into a container, cooled and then put into the fridge.
The bones and skin are either then frozen for later or put into the slow cooker with the veggie peelings and cooked overnight to make stock. This usually gives between 4 - 6 litres of stock to use for soup or add to gravy, or to cook rice (it gives the rice a lovely flavour).
To make soup I drain the stock, and return the liquid to the slow cooker. There is usually a lot of meat in amongst the bones, so it is pulled out and put into the slow cooker with the stock. Then carrots, onion, celery, some of the celery leaves and a little dry rice is added and it is set on low to cook for a few hours. This easily gives three meals of soup for us.
Then the bones are removed from the sludge and put into the compost. The leftover veggie sludge may look ugly, but it is full of flavour and nutrients. When it has cooled slightly, I add about 100g salt, some rosemary, parsley and garlic to it and whizz it in the food processor to make a paste. Then I cook it over a low heat for up to 45 minutes, until it is thick and almost the consistency of peanut butter. The idea is to get most of the moisture out of it, but not have it bone dry. It will keep in a clean, air-tight jar in the fridge for up to a month, or it can be frozen. If you freeze it, use ice cube trays - they are much easier to use than a frozen jar of stock paste.
The meat that was put into the fridge is used during the week.
It makes:
- sweet'n'sour chicken
- chicken enchiladas
- chicken fried rice
- chicken alfredo
- curried chicken
- chicken risotto
- chicken salad sandwiches - the possibilities are almost endless.
One $8 chicken (a No. 20 - minimum 2kg - is around $3.99/kg from my butcher) gives at least 15 serves. That equates to just 53 cents per serve or $2.65 per meal (for my family of five). And no one goes hungry or feels like they're missing out. And nothing - absolutely nothing - is wasted. Best of all, the whole chicken is used to feed us before it is then composted, so we even get all the nutrition we can from it.
Next time you have a chicken, before you bin it, think about how much more you could get from it.