Stretching One Rotisserie Chicken Into Three Dinners

Owen can smell a rotisserie chicken from the parking lot. The second I set the hot bag on the passenger seat, there's a voice from the back asking if he can have a drumstick in the car. The answer is always no, because that chicken has a job to do. It's feeding us three times this week.

At $4.99 for a whole cooked bird at our Kroger (Costco's is a little bigger for the same price, when my sister and I make the trip), a rotisserie chicken is one of the best deals in the store. Buying a raw one and roasting it myself barely saves anything once I count the oven time. So here's how one chicken becomes three dinners for five people, with a bonus pot of broth.

Step one: pick it clean the same night

This is the part that makes or breaks the plan. If the chicken goes in the fridge whole, it gets picked at, and by Wednesday there's a sad carcass with no meat left. So when I get home, while it's still warm, I strip the whole thing.

A typical bird gives me about 4 to 5 cups of meat. I divide it right away into three containers:

• Container 1: the drumsticks, thighs, and wings, about 1.5 cups of dark meat, for tonight
• Container 2: about 1.5 cups of breast meat, shredded, for enchiladas
• Container 3: the rest, roughly 1 to 1.5 cups of mixed scraps, for soup

The carcass, skin, and any bits I don't want go into a gallon freezer bag for broth.

Dinner 1: Chicken and rice skillet

This is the night we eat the pieces that still look like chicken, because the kids like recognizable food.

Ingredients (about $3.40 plus the chicken)

• Dark meat from container 1
• 1.5 cups long-grain rice ($0.45)
• 1 bag frozen peas and carrots ($1.25)
• 1 onion, diced ($0.40)
• 3 cups water or broth
• 2 tbsp butter, garlic powder, salt, pepper ($0.40)
• Shredded cheese on top ($0.90)

Steps

1. Melt butter in a large skillet with a lid. Cook onion 4 minutes.
2. Add rice, stir for 1 minute, then add water and seasonings.
3. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer on low for 18 minutes.
4. Stir in peas and carrots and the chicken pieces, cover again for 5 minutes.
5. Sprinkle cheese on top, cover until melted, and serve.

Note: I pull the meat off the drumsticks for Rosie but leave one whole for Owen, since he'll have been dreaming about it since the parking lot.

Dinner 2: Sheet-pan chicken enchiladas

Ingredients (about $6.10 plus the chicken)

• Breast meat from container 2
• 10 flour tortillas ($1.50)
• 1 can black beans, drained ($0.85)
• 1 can red enchilada sauce, 19 oz ($1.85)
• 2 cups shredded cheese ($1.50)
• Half a block of cream cheese, softened ($0.40)

Steps

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Mix chicken, beans, cream cheese, half the cheese, and 1/2 cup of the sauce in a bowl.
3. Spread a little sauce in a greased 9x13 pan.
4. Fill and roll each tortilla, placing seam-side down.
5. Pour the remaining sauce over top, add the rest of the cheese, and bake 20 minutes.

Note: The cream cheese is what makes these work with dry breast meat. It keeps the filling creamy. Mike eats three, so I make ten.

Dinner 3: Chicken noodle soup from the bones

This one requires a little planning, but it's mostly waiting.

The broth

Put the carcass in a big pot, cover with about 12 cups of water, and add onion ends, carrot peels, and celery tops if you've been saving them in the freezer (I keep a scrap bag). Simmer 3 to 4 hours, or set it in the slow cooker overnight on low. Strain. You'll get around 10 cups of broth. I use about 8 for soup and freeze the rest in 2-cup containers.

Ingredients for soup (about $3.20)

• 8 cups homemade broth
• Scraps from container 3
• 3 carrots, sliced, and 2 celery ribs ($0.90)
• 1 onion ($0.40)
• 8 oz egg noodles ($1.40)
• Salt, pepper, thyme, a bay leaf, and a spoonful of bouillon if the broth is weak ($0.50)

Steps

1. Sauté onion, carrot, and celery in a splash of oil for 6 minutes.
2. Add broth and seasonings and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Add noodles and cook until tender, about 7 minutes.
4. Stir in chicken and taste for salt. Homemade broth usually needs more than you think.

The math

Chicken $4.99, plus roughly $12.70 in other ingredients, comes to about $17.70 for three dinners for five, or around $1.18 per serving. Some weeks there's even a bowl of soup left for my lunch.

The only time this plan fails is when I skip step one. So now I pick the chicken before I even put the rest of the groceries away. Owen gets a little piece of skin as his "helper fee," and everybody's happy.