Yes, that’s right – I’ll show you how to get THREE meals from an already cooked rotisserie chicken you can pick up at the grocery store.
The meals are designed to feed 4 people (or 3 if you have a hungry teenage football player like I do). They are really QUICK, HEALTHY and E-Z!
Meal #1 – Chicken Dinner
Preparation time: 30 Minutes
Make a double batch of REAL mashed potatoes (click HERE for the recipe). DON'T even think about instant potatoes, you can make your own in just 30 minutes and they are much tastier, cheaper AND healthier! Save ½ of the prepared mashed potatoes and put in the frig for tomorrow night’s meal. While your potatoes are boiling, get the rest of dinner ready.
Fix some veggies – I buy mostly frozen veggies from Sam’s or GFS because they’re generally healthier for you than canned, taste better and you can get a great price when you buy a big bag and just use what you need.
Heat the Gravy – If you’d like gravy for you potatoes, just use a jar of gravy from the grocery store.
Plate the Chicken – Take the chicken out of the plastic packaging, cut off enough meat for one meal and put on a nice platter. I like to arrange my whole meal on an oversized platter and bring the thing to the center of the table. It looks very impressive AND saves on washing dishes.
Prepare chicken for tomorrow – While you’re family is cleaning up from dinner, go ahead and prepare the chicken for tomorrow. You’re going to boil it to get chicken broth and then debone it to get ALL of the meat off the bone. (If you’ve never done that before, I have instructions at the bottom). Put ¾ of the chicken meat you’ve taken off the bones in a bag or container for the chicken and noodles for tomorrow night’s dinner. Put the remainder in a bowl for the chicken salad for lunch. I like to just go ahead and make mine right away so it’s all done and ready for lunch tomorrow!
Meal #2 – Chicken Salad for Lunch
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Use the smaller amount of chicken that you picked off the bone last night to make chicken salad for lunch. Click HERE for a traditional chicken salad recipe
If you’d like to make it a little healthier like I do, substitute some of the mayo with plain yogurt (you can’t tell the difference, I swear!). I also like to add a few more veggies in for a lot of crunch in my salad (green or red pepper, carrots, almonds, pecans, pineapple is good too!).
Meal #3 – Chicken and Noodle Dinner
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Noodles – I know you can make your own noodles, but even as domestic as I am I haven’t tried that yet. I buy the amish noodles at the store and they are delicious! Take your chicken broth out from last night (make sure you take the fat off the top with a spatula) and heat to boiling in a large pan. Add in some celery and onion if you have it (I also like to put a little sage in mine).
Dump the package of noodles into the boiling broth and let simmer for at least 30 minutes (maybe a little longer if you like them kind of mushy). I like to cook mine early in the day and let them sit for quite a few hours to soak up the broth. When I get ready to serve them I put a jar of gravy in to add more sauce to it.
Salad – DON'T even think about buying the precut lettuce – do you know how old that stuff is and how expensive it is? Click HERE or a super easy, quick and economical salad you can fix in no time!
Heat Mashed Potatoes – Take out the mashed potatoes from last night, add some garlic powder and sour cream into them, stir em up and heat on the stove or in the microwave. These are so yummy with the noodles and the juice dumped right on top of them!
There you have it – 3 home cooked, healthy, easy, yummy meals from a grocery store rotisserie chicken.
Here’s a run down of the cost:
Chicken – 5.00
1 5 lb bag of potatoes – 3.00
1 bag frozen veggies – 2.00
2 jars Gravy – 3.00
Chicken Salad fixins – 1.00
1 bag dried Amish noodles – 3.00
Lettuce Salad fixins – 3.00
Grand Total for 3 meals – approx $20
How to Prepare Chicken for Chicken and Noodles:
- Fill a medium size soup pot with water
- Place the entire chicken carcass in the water
- Place onion, carrots, celery and 2 bay leaves (if you have them) in the water.
- Bring to a boil and simmer on low for 2 – 4 hours.
- Put a strainer over a large pot (the one you’re going to cook the noodles in)
- Pour the broth into the strainer, straining out the carcass and veggies.
- Put a lid on the pot of broth and put in the frig until tomorrow.
- When you get it out tomorrow, there will be a wax like layer of fat on the top – just use a slotted spoon to scoop it out and throw it away BEFORE you heat it.
- Let the chicken and veggies in the strainer cool down some.
- Pick through and retrieve ALL of the meat (make sure you don’t throw any of it away).
- Put the meat in the frig and throw the rest of the stuff away.
That’s all there is to it! Now you have your own yummy, healthy and inexpensive chicken broth. This broth is handy to put in freezer containers and keep in the freezer for future meals. It will keep 3 – 6 months.
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