Chicken, part 2

Deputy Handsome has made it clear to me on multiple occasions that he could eat chicken and Rice-A-Roni every day of the week and be perfectly happy. As pleased as I am to indulge him every once in a while, my palate craves more variety. But one dish we can both agree on is the Tex Mex Chicken and Rice casserole from the new Better Homes & Garden cookbook (the red and white checkered one. your mom or grandmother probably has one of the early editions. I got my newer one at Costco a few years back). It is a cinch to make with precooked chicken from your crockpot! 


Other favorite make-ahead uses for the chicken I cooked yesterday are Rachel Ray's Buffalo BBQ Casserole with Corn Bread (I leave out the blue cheese) and also chicken pot pie!! I guess if Deputy Handsome wanted some variety, his second choice in life is chicken pot pie so I have experimented with a lot of different variations and our favorite one is based off Kenny Shopsin's version from his book "Eat Me." Here is the recipe as I make it: 
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6 tablespoons of butter

1 chopped onion

2 baked potatoes, skin removed, flesh crumbled

2-4 chopped carrots

2 chopped zucchini (Shopsin's original recipe called for mushrooms, but we are anti)

2 tbsp flour

2 cups chicken stock (more or less, depending on how large your vegetables are)

2 cups mixed frozen veggies (I usually use a corn and peas)

2 cups shredded or cubed cooked chicken

1/2 cup milk

pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

melt butter in a large saute pan over medium high heat. add onion, potato, carrot and zucchini and cook until onion is soft. add flour and cook until it disappears into the butter. Add the chicken stock gradually. Stir in frozen veggies, chicken, milk and nutmeg. If it looks to thin, cook for a few minutes to reduce liquid, if it looks too thick, add more stock. Season with salt and pepper to taste and pour into an 8x8 casserole dish. (to make ahead, transfer filling to something that fits in your fridge. on the day you want to eat it, transfer to the casserole before adding the topping. cook time remains the same.)

topping:

stir together 1 cup Bisquick, 1/2 cup milk and one egg. pour over chicken mixture and bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. 

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I use the Bisquick toping because it is cheap and fast. You could also use puff pastry sheets if you are feeling fancy! To use an actual pie crust, I've found that this recipe needs two in order to fit all the filling. 

So you could easily make all three of these recipes using the meat from two whole chickens (and the stock! coincidence that each recipe calls for chicken stock?) and since each is a completely different flavor, it wouldn't be boring to eat chicken every night. This is a totally make-ahead weeks worth of food for a family with one or two small children because there are bound to be leftovers, especially if you make the meals a little healthier with a side of veggies or fruit salad. 

Chicken, part 1

when whole fryers go on sale (never pay more than 97 cents a pound!), I usually buy two or three. This week at Vons they are only 69 cents a pound and I bought two. The easiest way to cook a whole chicken if you're going to use the meat for something else (not a straight chicken dinner, where you would want to add a little more flavor as you cook) is to poach it in the crock-pot. The hardest part about this is cleaning the chicken (usually I ask Deputy Handsome to help with this, but he is working!!) and pulling out all the guts (save these for later!). Once the chicken is empty, season if you like with salt, pepper, paprika, or whatever you want (or nothing at all!) and place it in an empty, dry crockpot. Don't be scared by the lack of liquid! I promise it will turn out ok. Cook on high for 3-5 hours depending on how big the chicken is. You can tell it's done when the skin is all browned and crispy looking. Then just pull it out to cool and after a bit pull all the meat off the bone. Done! I add the meat to all sorts of things and I'll share some of my favorite recipes with you tomorrow.

Once the chicken is out of the pot, I strain the juices that are left in the bottom of the crockpot and put them in the fridge overnight. The next morning, skim off whatever fat has collected on the top and you have free chicken flavoring for soup or any recipe that calls for broth (I usually mix a 2-to-1 ratio of drippings with warm water to make broth). The drippings can be frozen if you won't use them within a few days.

Don't forget about the yucky insides you saved and also any bones and skin leftover from carving the chicken. Throw these in a large stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for an hour or two, uncovered, until the liquid is slightly reduced and has some color. Strain the stock and discard the solids. Broth will keep in the fridge for a few days, or freeze until you need it in one or two-cup portions. If you are crunched for time, you could totally make stock with just the yucky insides at the same time that the chicken is cooking in the crockpot. That is what I am doing today.

mmm ... my house smells soooooo good right now

Extra Credit: You can also throw in any vegetables you have in the fridge into the stock pot. I have a container in my freezer where I throw the rooty ends of onions and carrots, tops of celery, garlic paper and any other pieces of vegetables that I cut off and don't serve to my family. Whenever I make chickens, I pull out this container of vegetables and add it to the stock pot for more flavor.

how I store my veggie odds & ends ...
also the yucky insides if I don't plan on making
stock right away.

I used to go through a box or two of chicken stock a week ($2.99 at Trader Joe's ... that's more than I paid for one whole chicken at the current sale price!) but since I started cooking whole chickens and making my own stock, I have not used any purchased stock. This is a great way to save on your grocery bill!

Disclaimer: I understand that these are not real recipes and are actually sort of vague descriptions of how to prepare chicken, but this is how I do it and I got my techniques from a few different sources, including: "Miserly Moms" by Joni McCoy and "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger. You could also type "homemade chicken stock" or "slow-cooker poached chicken" into Google and get a ton more suggestions. That's what I did, but I didn't save the links.