1 Chicken, 3 meals

[madelyn]

I can buy a cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and use it to feed myself and 3 kids (14, 11 and 6). They don't eat a whole bunch of meat. Then I can take what meat is left on the bones and the kids like me to make a chicken pot pie out of it. It is a smaller sized pot pie (loaf pan sized). I also like to shred the chicken and add it to green salads for myself. I sometimes will use the bones and make chicken soup. The chicken I got this week was tiny though! It was in the same sized deli container and I didn't notice how small it was!

 

[disney1990]

I can't do it with a pre-cooked grocery store chicken, but I can with Sam's Club. They advertise that their chickens are a full 3 pounds.

 

[MinnieForMe]

I also don't see how you could feed 6 ppl with one Chicken let alone have leftovers. A whole Chicken only has 4 quarters. Unless ppl are just getting a few bites of Chicken I can't see a 5 pound Chicken feeding 6 ppl in the universe I live in.

One 5 pound Chicken will feed 4 ppl ONE TIME in my house.

Same thing here. The only way I get two meals out of one five pound chicken is to use half the meat for a chicken pot pie and half the meat for chicken noodle casserole. Just a 5 lb chicken as the main meat source is one meal for my family of five.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

Our grocery store chickens are so tiny that I need 2 to feed my family 1 meal! We are not big eaters, but only eat the white meat.

 

[trinchick]

For us, a rotisserie chicken, even the big ones from BJs, will only last a single meal.

I made a nice Perdue roaster earlier this week - maybe 6 or 7 pounds. I swear the Perdue chickens are meatier than the store brand chickens, BTW. Anyhow, it made dinner for 3 adults, 2 kids, plus lots leftover for a couple of sandwiches and a chicken salad. I normally would have used the carcass for stock but didn't have any celery or carrots and didn't want to stick the bones in the fridge.

 

[kellia]

Wow, I always get the Sam's club chickens and I'm lucky if I have enough left for my salad the next day after feeding 2 adults and 3 kids!

So, when you make stock, is that just like broth? Or do you have meat in there, too? Do you strain it after you cook it to keep the "junk" out?

Pork loin is my big stretcher in the crock pot. Buy when it's on sale for $1.60 and make roasts, bbq pork and shredded Mexican pork. That will last us a week, yummy!

 

[DebMcDonald]

We're family a 5 and often get multiple meals out of our roasted chicken. My favorites after the fact are BBQ chicken pizza, chicken enchilades, and chichken quesadilla's.

 

[disney1990]

Wow, I always get the Sam's club chickens and I'm lucky if I have enough left for my salad the next day after feeding 2 adults and 3 kids!

So, when you make stock, is that just like broth? Or do you have meat in there, too? Do you strain it after you cook it to keep the "junk" out?

Pork loin is my big stretcher in the crock pot. Buy when it's on sale for $1.60 and make roasts, bbq pork and shredded Mexican pork. That will last us a week, yummy!

Yes, we strain it afterwards.

 

[PurpleLaurie55]

I am laughing reading this thread! Sam's club chickens are a favorite in our house! Instead of pizza on Fridays, we have Rotisserie chicken . We have made the leftover meat into chicken matzo ball soup, chicken salad, chicken pot pie, buffalo chicken wraps.... There are so many things you can do with it!

 

[mhsjax]

We are a family of 6 and I get about 3 meals out a 7 pound chicken. A breast feeds my teenage daughter, her 2 younger brothers and me. Oldest ds eats a leg as does DH. That leaves another breast. If I turn it into pot pie that can last 2 meals alone if add enough veggies.

While I Love that Costco chicken I don't use it often for stock because it's loaded with sodium.

Your DH eats a leg only? Ok, I have to ask, what else does he eat. This jsut doesn't sound right. In my area and when and how I grew up, this would be starving people, and no one in family was over weight, that is just insane for a grown man to eat only a leg.

And one breast feeds 4 people. Sorry, that is just strange.

 

[Anne34]

Another person who can use 1 chicken for 1 meal. I have a 17 year old boy who would eat the whole thing if I let him!!!! I have used a SAMs, chicken for two casserole type things like a previous poster, but its not a ton of meat for two meals.

 

[Marionnette]

Yep! One chicken = 1 meal in my house. And not those shriveled rotisserie chickens from under the heat lamp at the grocer but a plump roasting chicken done on the spit here at home. My guys can pick the bones clean!

I do use the carcass to make broth, but the broth itself is not a meal. Rather, I use it to flavor sauces for boneless chicken breasts or to use as a base for a stew which includes using more chicken. I make the broth myself, not so much because I'm being frugal, but because I can control the ingredients. So many of those canned broths are full of salt and fat.

 

[cheer25mom]

I am another one who doesn't see how it is possible to get 3 meals for that many people out of 1 chicken and actually feed everyone adequately. It is me, DH and DD9 who is a light eater in our house. We can get dinner and sandwiches for mine and DH's lunch the next day out of a grocery store rotisserie chicken, and 2 meals out of one I do myself. If I was feeding 3 adults and 2 kids, I wouldn't be getting more than 1 meal. The only way we would get 3 meals is giving everone a tiny sliver of meat.

 

[cheer25mom]

Your DH eats a leg only? Ok, I have to ask, what else does he eat. This jsut doesn't sound right. In my area and when and how I grew up, this would be starving people, and no one in family was over weight, that is just insane for a grown man to eat only a leg.

And one breast feeds 4 people. Sorry, that is just strange.

ITA. Just not enough food, even for my 9 year old who is not a big eater and definitely not overweight.

 

[lurkernj]

yeah, 1 sams club chicken - 1 meal in my house.

My dh eats both thighs, ds18 eats both legs and wings, and ds15 eats a whole breast. I will usually eat most of a breast and leave a slice or two for a sandwich. I've tried cooking the carcass for stock and it ends up very watered down since its already been cooked once.

 

[angierae]

I think for a lot of the stretching things, you are using the meat IN a dish, not as the main dish itself. Also, keep in mind a "serving" of meat is four ounces. If I'm making a meal, I've got other dishes being served with that chicken, so eating one piece of chicken is not unreasonable if we also have a salad, and a starch, and a vegetable. If you make a chicken pot pie that has eight servings, you aren't using eight whole servings of chicken in it, because there are other things in it bulking it up. When I make chicken tenders out of two chicken breasts, there is enough for my family of three to eat dinner and then have enough for both DH and I to have some for lunch the next day, so we get five servings of chicken out of two breast-halves.

 

[cheer25mom]

I think for a lot of the stretching things, you are using the meat IN a dish, not as the main dish itself. Also, keep in mind a "serving" of meat is four ounces. If I'm making a meal, I've got other dishes being served with that chicken, so eating one piece of chicken is not unreasonable if we also have a salad, and a starch, and a vegetable. If you make a chicken pot pie that has eight servings, you aren't using eight whole servings of chicken in it, because there are other things in it bulking it up. When I make chicken tenders out of two chicken breasts, there is enough for my family of three to eat dinner and then have enough for both DH and I to have some for lunch the next day, so we get five servings of chicken out of two breast-halves.

if we are going with 4 ounce servings, which I don't think is realistic given the way tweens and teens ACTUALLY eat, then I still cannot get 5 servings out of 2 of the chicken breasts I buy. They come 2 butterfly breasts, or 4 single breasts to a 24oz pack, so 4 breasts are supposed to be 6 servings. We get 4 servings out of 4 breasts. 3 for our dinner and 1 for lunch for someone the next day with everyone feeling like they got enough to eat. I cannot imagine trying to half them, even if I am serving sides. There is no way that is enough protien for my growing, active child. She averages 2 hours of dance or cheer a day and wouldn't make it on half a chicken breast at dinner, cereal for breakfast, a sandwich and fruit at lunch and a granola bar for snack.

 

[emilik]

You do realize that people eat more than JUST meat at meals, correct? A 4oz serving of meat can be sufficient for anyone, including growing teens, as long as it's paired with enough healthy plant-based sides, good fat, and/or high-protein grains. Perhaps your individual family wouldn't enjoy eating that type of diet, but that doesn't make it "strange" or wrong or "starving people" at all!

 

[mhsjax]

I think for a lot of the stretching things, you are using the meat IN a dish, not as the main dish itself. Also, keep in mind a "serving" of meat is four ounces. If I'm making a meal, I've got other dishes being served with that chicken, so eating one piece of chicken is not unreasonable if we also have a salad, and a starch, and a vegetable. If you make a chicken pot pie that has eight servings, you aren't using eight whole servings of chicken in it, because there are other things in it bulking it up. When I make chicken tenders out of two chicken breasts, there is enough for my family of three to eat dinner and then have enough for both DH and I to have some for lunch the next day, so we get five servings of chicken out of two breast-halves.

Well according to my pediatrician, my son needs way more protein than he is eating, and he is eating way more than 4 ounces. Teen boys need more than this, no ifs ands or buts. He would literally be starving and I won't fill him up on junky carbohydrates. Even with one piece of chicken a salad a starch and a veggie, he would be in the kitchen an hour later eating 2 pb& j sandwiches, oh and by the way, he has a 31 inch waste and is 5"10" He would literally be starving and would lose muscle mass with this amount of food.

 

[mhsjax]

You do realize that people eat more than JUST meat at meals, correct? A 4oz serving of meat can be sufficient for anyone, including growing teens, as long as it's paired with enough healthy plant-based sides, good fat, and/or high-protein grains. Perhaps your individual family wouldn't enjoy eating that type of diet, but that doesn't make it "strange" or wrong or "starving people" at all!

See below, according to my pediatrician and DS trainer, ( and he had the degrees to back his knowledge up) he needs way more protein that what he is getting and he his getting way more than 4 ounces.