# Chicken stew



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I can't believe I didn't start making these earlier... it's incredibly cheap.

I bought a cheap cut of chicken, whatever I could find on discount at the grocery store (I ended up getting a bunch of drumsticks at under $2/lb). I threw them into a pot with

onions
celery
garlic
ginger
salsa leftovers
misc spices

I boiled it an hour, then started eating it. I boiled it another hour and it got even nicer, as the meat starts coming off the bone and I presume the bone's minerals start getting into the broth.

The whole thing didn't take much effort and I think it was under $5 of materials to produce maybe 4 meals !!


----------



## Moneytoo (Mar 26, 2014)

We discovered domlyama a few years ago: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hrundel/3113451058 Modified the original recipe to cook it with chicken and a variety of vegetables. The secret is to let it simmer for 1.5-2 hrs in vegetable juices (no stirring and not adding any water - the easiest thing I ever cooked )


----------



## brad (May 22, 2009)

You can also buy a whole chicken (even cheaper than buying parts!) and use frozen veggies in this great meal:

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/7213-chicken-in-a-pot

I've made it quite a few times and it's popular. You'll have leftovers for several days unless it's a really small chicken or you're very hungry or there are lots of you.


----------



## mrPPincer (Nov 21, 2011)

Latest way I've been doing it.

cheapest cut of chicken, leg, with back attatched maybe,
makes intitial for an eternal soup-pot,
requires miniature colander.

chop up some leek, some outside leaves of some belgian endive, or whatever is on hand, some celery or whatever was on sale, with tomato I like to cut a couple time hoizontally and then dissect across the ribs to keep the stucture intact, then if not using the whole tomato I'll fit the top and bottom parts together and put back inthe fridge; they keep pretty good that way.

Put the chopped up veggies into the colander plus a little whole grain rice (red rice / wild rice or what you have on hand), put miniature collander into the chicken-broth pot, adjusting the colander to be sitting on the bottom, moving the cihcken pieces out of the way.

Add water in the cookpot until the colander is almost submerged

While that stuff heats up, chop up some of whatever else you have on hand, spinach maybe, or maybe you have some precooked kidney beans, add that stuff to your eating vessel, maybe some leftover cottage cheese, japanese instant noodles maybe, then set the vessel on top of the cooking pot to warm it up (if it balances).

When the veggies are done, add the contents of the miniature colander to the container that had the fresh greens or leftover stuff, plus spices, noodles or whatever, then add broth and however much of the chicken you want to add to the meal.

Meanwhile, everything that was boiled in the mix added to the broth for next time; when it cools set it out on the front porch to cool (and freeze) while you contemplate how to to do the next round.

Chicken in the pot just keeps giving, one could just eat the meat in one go, but this is one way to make many meals; even the bones give up their gelatin over time, then, after they turn to mush one can basically be assured the dogs won't choke over them or they are even edible for human.


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

My dad is a big fan of the leg with back attached. I think I could use more veggies in mine; thanks for the ideas!


----------



## mrPPincer (Nov 21, 2011)

^I used to be biased against anything with spinal when I understood where prion disease was coming from, but since the birds live less thn 6 weeks and since Canadian producers have gone to not including any meat byproducts at all in their diet I feel fairly safe atm.

Wouldn't feel quite the same if I knew american products were coming across the border that were fed meat by-products (containing say, any nerve or brain tissue) that came from longer living mammals such as cattle or swine.


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

mrPPincer, does that mean for example that a full skeleton or "back attached" may carry that risk, whereas drumsticks don't have the risk? Am I interpreting that right?


----------



## mrPPincer (Nov 21, 2011)

I don't think it's a risk in poulltry, but I avoid anything with back attatched from cattle or sheep, (or headcheese).
Also I try to only buy dog food that has poultry only, no beef or other mammal by-products.

(The wikipedia page says that a form of spongiform encephalopathy has been found in ostrich, but it has not been shown to be transmissible).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion#Prion_diseases_and_their_transmission_properties


----------



## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

Yes, home made chicken soup, or stew, if you toss a few other things in.

I was doing a quick grocery run early on Saturday morning, and stumbled on bagged whole fresh chickens, about 2.5kg, priced $7.80, and with a trio with 30% off stickers on them.

One of those times you seize the opportunity. I got them home, and roasted all three together, un stuffed, in a big turkey roasting pan. 

Poured off a lot of broth and separated oil off. Now in fridge to form basis of next Saturday lunch soup. 

Picked the bones once cooled. Yield was 1L of broth and 4 750mL's worth of old yogurt containers worth of meat. 

Discounted chicken....ah the basis of countless meal variations in our house.


----------



## Brian K (Jan 29, 2011)

We buy our chicken and other meat when it goes on sale for about 30-50% off as it approaches the 'Best Before' date. It has always been very good and a good way to cut costs. Gotta love that expiry date. The kids have been programmed to think that we will die if we eat anything after that date and think of it as a 
'Bad After' date. Milk past the date? - smell and taste it - and we use it if it passes those tests. Same with yogurt and cheese. Never had any problems or noticed any quality reduction.


----------



## Tom Dl (Feb 15, 2011)

This is $1.49 a pound frozen Turkey time, or Walmart has turkey in price brackets, buy the ones where the weight is highest for a given price. So we got 4.6 KG turkeys for 10 bucks yesterday. Great meat, great soup. Interestingly the Walmart turkeys actually seem fairly plain, not some frankenfood for Xmas deal.

I like the fact that it is warm, but on a cold Xmas, you can buy as many of these babies as you can stand, and put them under lock and key in the garden shed, rather than having a deep freeze.


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Tom Dl said:


> This is $1.49 a pound frozen Turkey time, or Walmart has turkey in price brackets, buy the ones where the weight is highest for a given price. So we got 4.6 KG turkeys for 10 bucks yesterday. Great meat, great soup. Interestingly the Walmart turkeys actually seem fairly plain, not some frankenfood for Xmas deal.
> 
> I like the fact that it is warm, but on a cold Xmas, you can buy as many of these babies as you can stand, and put them under lock and key in the garden shed, rather than having a deep freeze.


Maybe keep them in a cooler in your shed, so you don't have to worry so much about thawing if we have the odd warm day.


----------



## Brian K (Jan 29, 2011)

We always are a turkey ahead and keep them in the freezer. You never know when the prices will go up a lot more. We don't bother with the brand name ones either - utility turkeys are as good as the Grand A IMO. I like to use Look bags to cook them in.


----------

