how to finish a chicken...

[chrisfoll577]

I don't follow. Whole chickens are one of the cheapest and healthiest ways to eat meat.

Exactly, you can get a whole chicken for 99 cents a pound versus cut up pieces that cost three, four times that much. And If you choose to roast the chickens whole, you can make soup out of the carcasses, getting another meal out of them.

[erika]

Yup I keep chicken bones and bits of raw veggies (tops of celery, parsley stems, ends of carrots) in a plastic bag in the fridge and make soup once a month or so.

[Trembling Eagle]

well, I stand corrected.
I'm a fan of the poultry myself, a "breast man" as it were.

[Sarah]

TE, consider your knuckles rapped.

[buffcoat]

I often prepare an entire chicken, slice off one succulent bite, then throw the rest in the trash can, just to be wasteful.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

well, I stand corrected.
I'm a fan of the poultry myself, a "breast man" as it were.

i wish i could punch you.





before, if we bought whole chicken, we would make chicken adobo- my favorite chicken dish.

[Sarah]

Yup I keep chicken bones and bits of raw veggies (tops of celery, parsley stems, ends of carrots) in a plastic bag in the fridge and make soup once a month or so.

Yeah, I throw all bones into the freezer and boil 'em up when I accumulate enough to make it worth my while. 

[erika]

I like to refer to it as the "carcass bag"

[franks.]

I have a bag full of mushroom stems and things for vegetable stock too. It is not as exciting as a carcass bag.

So what happened with the chickens?

[Jack from Arkansas]

I haven't seen a clearer indicator of the depth of the recession than this thread.  A bag of celery tops, carrot butts and chicken bones just makes me want to cry.  Maybe every couple generations the banks fail so we can forget about Criterion movies and think about making resources stretch as far as possible. Someday our grandkids will be amused by our ribbon and foil saving and our freezers full of frozen vegetables. 

[iAmBaronVonTito]

little more makes you aware of dire straits than garbage stew.

[erika]

My garbage stew tastes SO much better than canned or boxed chicken stock. I strain it, freeze it in ice cube trays and then pop out a few whenever I need them for recipes. And if you add onions with the skin on, you get a nice golden-brown stock. SO GOOD.

[Sarah]

Absolutely.  Packaged stock is mere salty water by comparison. 

For me and, I'm sure, for erika, making stock from scratch isn't a new habit acquired since the economy went south.  I've been doing it all my cooking life (which began at age 7, when I made a blueberry cake with streusel topping).  Of course, my mother grew up during the first Great Depression, so I learned such frugality at her knee.

[Martin]

I often have chicken stock ice cubes in my martinis. It's quite sublime.

[Jack from Arkansas]

You all are obviously skilled and practical.  Erika has inspired me to start a bag.