1 Roasted Chicken, 3 Tasty Meals

A few friends and I were talking about good recipes and we happened to discuss cooking whole chickens. I'd never really given it much thought before. I liked buying rotisserie chickens from Costco ($6) and using the meat for enchiladas or chicken tortilla soup. I'd never really thought of roasting my own chicken and making not one, but THREE meals from it. I think that's pretty resourceful, if I do say so myself :) I thought I'd pass along a great recipe, that I've tried and loved, so that you can ENJOY too!

I am LOVING this new recipe, from the blog 100 Days of Real Food,  found on pinterest. How to cook a whole chicken...in a crock pot. It was amazing! The recipe was easy to follow, simple, and delicious! There weren't any complications or delay in times and the end result...tender chicken full of flavor that just falls off the bone.

Here's how it worked out for us:
I searched pinterest and found a recipe for the crock pot (think: quick, easy, and NO oven heating up the house). I purchased a whole chicken (approx. 5  1/2 lbs.) from Henry's Sprout's for $1.49/lb (great deal!). We already had all of the spices on hand (also purchased in bulk, from Sprout's). Got home, mixed the spices, pulled the whole chicken out of the bag (yuck-definitely the worst part of the whole deal, in my opinion), and rubbed the chicken with the spices. Placed it in the crock pot and put the lid on. I forgot to buy an extra onion to chop and place under the chicken...oh well! The timer was set for 4 hours and I checked the meat 3 1/2 hours in...it was fully cooked and so tasty! There were no added oils or fats, just chicken and spices.

Meal #1: Chicken, wild rice and steamed zucchini

Meal #2: Homemade Chicken Tortilla Soup
The next day I pulled the remaining chicken from the bone and added it to a homemade (chicken) tortilla soup from the Pioneer Woman...I love her recipes! Mmmm! We made some fresh tortilla chips, by slicing tortillas and baking in the oven at 400 degrees for about 7 minutes. Yum! I told Ryan that I'll probably make our own chips from now on...they were so good (and simple)! And another bonus?...We have a HUGE pot of soup leftover for lunches and dinner tonight.

Meal #3: Homemade Chicken stock for soup/meals
The chicken carcass (eww) was used with this recipe (also from 100 Days of Real Food blog) to make chicken broth for another large soup or additional meals. I followed the simple recipe and let it sit overnight in the crock pot. Our house smells like chicken broth this morning, but I now have the base for another complete meal (saving us approx. $4...$2/box of chicken broth). Woohoo!

For $8 we were able to make 2 solid meals, plus leftovers, and broth for another meal! I am definitely doing this again (maybe even this week...too soon? haha!). I hope you'll try it out! Stay tuned...I'm working on more blog posts like these, with recipes worth sharing :)

with love,
Meg