# Whole Chicken Ideas



## erehweslefox (May 27, 2016)

So my friends, for some reason, I am not judging, my local grocery had to unload a lot of chickens very quickly. .68 a pound. my cooking friends, that is sixty eight cents a pound. I will bathe in chicken at that level. 

It comes to pass that I have a ton of chicken. 

Usually I would stuff it with lemons, put it in the pressure cooker. 

I am of course gonna get bored with that. So give me you best recipes for a whole young chicken, that has been frozen. 

I am right with you with a mince meat pie, already working on that.

Cheers,
TBS


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## Andy M. (May 27, 2016)

Smoked chicken
Roast chicken
Fried chicken

Break down the chickens for wings, thighs and breasts. That way you can make just about any chicken dish imaginable.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (May 28, 2016)

*1. Bacon-Wrapped Chicken*
One great whole, great roasted chicken dish is to first,Preheat oven to 375' F. then wash the chicken inside and out.  Stuff the bird with aromatics, such as chopped onion, garlic, rosemary, carrots, etc.  Dry the chicken outside with paper towels.  season by lightly sprinkling the whole outside of the  bird with onion powder, garlic powder, sage, thyme, S&P.

Separate ten strips of bacon.  place the chicken on a rack, inside your roasting pan.  Lay the bacon from front to back on the chicken so that you completely cover the top and sides with the bacon.  Insert a thermometer that can stay in the bird into the thickest part of the breast, pushing down to, but not touching the leg joint.  Place the bird into the hot oven and roast without a cover for 12 minutes per pound.

When the time is up, remove the bacon from the chicken skin and allow to sit in the roasting pan.  Place the bird back into the oven and roast until the thermometer reads 160' F.  This will give the skin time to brown and crispy up.

When the bird is done, remove it, rack and all to a serving platter and let rest for ten minutes.  While it rests, make gravy.  Add 1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms into a heavy frying-pan with 3 tbs. butter.  Stir-fry until softened.  Add tree tbs. flour and stir to form a roux.  Cook the roux until it turns blonde.  Pour off the drippings and fond into a heavy frying pan. Slowly add chicken stock while stirring until the gravy is as thick as you want.  Serve with baked sweet potato, a little honey-butter, and your favorite, leafy-green veggie.

*2. Spatchcoked Chicken*
This chicken is butterflied, and then can be perfectly cooked on the grill, or in the oven.  The technique for opening up the chicken is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeccgI74Kuc

Once you have spatchcocked the chicken, season it inside and out with S&lemon-pepper, and bake or barbecue as normal.  Slather with your favorite bbq sauce 5 minutes before it's done.  As this chicken already tastes of lemon-pepper, might I suggest a honey-lemon sauce?

Of course you can season with any sauce, or mop that your prefer.  You can brine this bird as well.

*3. Deep Fried Chicken*
Use a turkey fryer for this one, outdoors.  I have never deep fried a whole chicken.  I am sure that there is someone on DC who has and can give you a great recipe, with instructions.

*4. Lardooned Chicken*
Lardoons are pieces of pork fat, usually bacon, that are inserted into small slits in the chicken breasts, or whatever protein you are using.  As the bird roasts, the fat melts and serves to both flavor and add moisture to the meat, but bastes the skin with molten fat, which helps crisp it up nicely.

Simple cut bacon into small pieces.  Use a pointed, thin knife (like a fillet knife) to poke slits all over the top and sides of the chicken.  With a butter knife, push the pices of fat into the slits.  Season with S&P, garlic, sage, and whatever suits you fancy, and roast until the meat thermometer reads 160.  Remove, let rest, and serve.

Whenever I carve a whole bird after cooking, I do it on a cutting board in the kitchen.  I carve both breasts from the bird, and cut out the legs and wings at the body joints.  I bone the thighs, remove the meat from the back, and slice the breasts accross the grain so that everyone gets some of the yummy skin.  I also do that with cooked turkeys.

The back meat in those little pockets at the leg and wing joints is choice.  Save those for someone special.

Lastly, should you decide to debone one or more of those birds, brown the carcass in the oven, then break the bones and throw them into a pot of water to cover.  Add a couple carrots, cut into chunks, rough-cut onion, and a stalk of celery.  Simmer for an hour or so to make a great broth for soups, sauces, and gravies.  The chicken meat can be then used for anything involving chicken.

Hope this gives you a couple of good ideas you can use and expand upon.

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North


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## Aunt Bea (May 28, 2016)

I agree with the others, cut em up and toss them in the freezer!

Use the trimmings to make some stock and the parts for various recipes.

Save the livers to make some chopped liver spread or saute and add them to a jar of your favorite marinara sauce, serve over long pasta for a quick Spaghetti Alla Caruso. 

Spaghetti Caruso Recipe - NYT Cooking

You will get a lot of mileage and cost savings by preparing your own chicken wings, boneless breasts, chicken tenders, soup stock, etc...

Save any of the rendered chicken fat, skimmed from the chilled stock, to use when frying potatoes. 

As far as the best way to cook a whole chicken I either roast them plain, on a beer can, or cover them in water and barely simmer until tender.  Because I cook for one the plain chicken gives me more possibilities to use the leftovers in various dishes.  If you go with the poached chicken, remove the cooked chicken from the liquid and break it down, return the bones skin, etc... to the pot and continue simmering to make a richer stock for soup.


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## CraigC (May 28, 2016)

Our local Penn Dutch has them for .69 #, but they have this price so often, that it isn't necessary to stock up. If we wanted to get it cheaper, we could buy it in case quantities at Restaurant Depot. As for uses:

Keeping with Chief's spatchcocked idea, Chicken Under a Brick
On the rotisserie
Real BBQed whole bird
Beer can chicken

For cut up:
Arroz con Pollo
Chicken Cacciatore
Paella
Chicken Mole (scratch made sauce)
Marinated in Mojo Criollo and grilled with typical Cuban sides
Collect a bunch of wings, leftover carcasses and make a great stock

Just a few ways we have used whole and cut up chicken.


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## Katie H (May 28, 2016)

One of our favorite ways to prepare whole chicken is something my husband calls chicken on the merry-go-round (rotisserie).

I remove any/all giblets inside the cavity, clean the bird and pat it dry.  Now it's ready for it's closeup.  I loosen the breast skin and insert a sprig of fresh rosemary on each side, along with a pat of butter and a sliver of garlic.  Inside, I put more rosemary, garlic and half a lemon that has been cut into about 4 pieces.  If I feel like it, sometimes I'll add some small quarters of onion.

Truss the bird up and give it a nice massage all over with olive oil, place on rotisserie rod and roast until golden and done.  I don't remember the temp or time but, at least, the time depends on the weight of the chicken.  Any cookbook should give a temperature.

This produces a tasty and juicy bird and the leftovers are great by themselves or incorporated into a chicken salad, which would be great this time of the year.  In warmer months, I include it in a "saucy" dish and serve over noodles or rice.


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (May 28, 2016)

99 bucks American at Walmart







*JUST SET IT AND FORGET IT!*​


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## Whiskadoodle (May 28, 2016)

Oven Roast Stuffed chicken.  With stuffing or just cut up lemon and onion and some whole sprigs of fresh herbs and stuff the cavity.  

Fried chicken in a cast iron skillet.  Make chicken gravy. 

Here's a fun recipe I found on the National Chicken Council website sometime ago.  Based on a recipe  overheard between two old ladies riding the bus. 

Old Ladies On A Bus

1 cut-up chicken  
2 tablespoons lemon juice  
1/3 cup orange marmalade  ( sometimes I use whole berry cranberry sauce)
 salt and pepper to taste   ( smashed garlic or garlic powder) 
1/3 cup hot barbecue sauce  
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine marmalade, barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice, mixing well. Place chicken, skin side up, in 9 x 13 pan lined with aluminum foil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over chicken and bake 1 hour, basting occasionally. Increase temperature to 400°F. and bake 15 minutes longer.


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## Steve Kroll (May 28, 2016)

I'm very simple when it comes to chicken. I brine the whole bird, stick a lemon in the cavity, and, just like the song "Scarborough Fair" give them a good coating inside and out of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Then they go on the grill rotisserie, two at a time, until the thigh meat reads 160F. Best chicken ever.


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (May 28, 2016)

Beer can chicken?


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## yourtaskbunny (May 29, 2016)

Chief Longwind Of The North said:


> *1. Bacon-Wrapped Chicken*
> One great whole, great roasted chicken dish is to first,Preheat oven to 375' F. then wash the chicken inside and out.  Stuff the bird with aromatics, such as chopped onion, garlic, rosemary, carrots, etc.  Dry the chicken outside with paper towels.  season by lightly sprinkling the whole outside of the  bird with onion powder, garlic powder, sage, thyme, S&P.
> 
> Separate ten strips of bacon.  place the chicken on a rack, inside your roasting pan.  Lay the bacon from front to back on the chicken so that you completely cover the top and sides with the bacon.  Insert a thermometer that can stay in the bird into the thickest part of the breast, pushing down to, but not touching the leg joint.  Place the bird into the hot oven and roast without a cover for 12 minutes per pound.
> ...


Thank you so much. Love the detail here. Making this tonight!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## Mad Cook (May 31, 2016)

erehweslefox said:


> So my friends, for some reason, I am not judging, my local grocery had to unload a lot of chickens very quickly. .68 a pound. my cooking friends, that is sixty eight cents a pound. I will bathe in chicken at that level.
> 
> It comes to pass that I have a ton of chicken.
> 
> ...


68 cents a pound seems very cheap even allowing for the difference in food prices between the US and UK and if it's very young it probably doesn't taste of much so I'd probably make a curry with it or a Moroccan tagine.

Delia Smith's chicken basque is pretty good too - 
Chicken Basque | Recipes | Delia Online


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## medtran49 (Jun 1, 2016)

Mad Cook said:


> 68 cents a pound seems very cheap even allowing for the difference in food prices between the US and UK and if it's very young it probably doesn't taste of much


 
Really?  We just got the ad for Penn Dutch and they have Perdue (which is a large brand name company in the States) for 69 cents a pound for whole chickens.  It just depends on what kind of a deal was made and what the supplier needed to get rid of.  I think you'd be surprised if you knew how cheap things really are if you know and/or have access to buy them from places other than end-retail sellers.


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## Andy M. (Jun 1, 2016)

I don't see prices as low as $0.69/Lb for Perdue or any other whole chickens around here.  The last sale I saw was $0.99/Lb.


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## medtran49 (Jun 1, 2016)

Andy M. said:


> I don't see prices as low as $0.69/Lb for Perdue or any other whole chickens around here.  The last sale I saw was $0.99/Lb.



They always have good prices on things.  On Wednesdays, they always have a cheap chicken day and it happens to be whole Perdues this week.  Red bells will be 1.29 or so while they're 2.99 at publix.  Those big red royal shrimp are usually 7.99 per lb, maybe 18ish count.  Restaurant Depot prices are even better, but you have to buy everything in quantity.  Craig went there to get lemons for the crawfish boil.  They were 4.99 for 25, penn dutch was 50 cents each and publix was 66 cents each.


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## skilletlicker (Jun 1, 2016)

When whole chickens go on sale for 79 to 99 cents per pound I usually buy 2 or more and break them down. I use all the backs and some of the dark pieces to make a broth/stock. After simmering for 45 minutes or so I'll take the meat off the legs and thighs and save for use in other stuff like burritos, soups, stews and such. Return the skin & bones to the pot. When the stock is done I'll reduce it by half or more to save space then freeze.


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## erehweslefox (Jun 16, 2016)

At $0.69 a pound I definitely filled the freezer with them. I whole fryer chicken for us (I usually cook for two, wife and myself). First night I generally do the chicken whole in my pressure cooker, harvest the breasts and serve with a vegetable and starch. Save the rest, and harvest all the non-breast meet for a chicken salad or preferably a chicken pot pie. The carcass gets thrown into a ziploc and into the freezer, once I get two or three I make stock. 

Spatchcocking was a good idea, I just didn't get as much leftovers as I am used to. 

Lot of other good ideas here. I found a pressure cooker Tiki Marsala recipe I will post separate for critique. 

Cheers!
TBS


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## rodentraiser (Jun 17, 2016)

The cheapest I ever saw chicken was 88¢/lb and that was a couple of weeks ago.

If you don't care how the chicken looks and aren't set on eating the skin (you wouldn't want to with this method), you could just season the chicken how you like it, stuff it into the crock pot and put it on low for about 8 to 9 hours, depending on how big it is. Don't add any water - the chicken will add its own. Of course, the chicken falls to pieces when you pull it out of the pot (I recommend using two pancake turners or something similar to take it out with), but you seem to get a whole lot more meat. You'll pull the leg bones right out of the meat slick as a whistle. I cook chicken this way when I don't feel like doing anything special for dinner.


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## Addie (Jun 17, 2016)

The last time I went to buy my meats, I went to my favorite butcher shop. I bought three chicken quarters at $.49 a pound. To go there is really out of my way. When I got home, I remembered why I had stopped buying chicken quarters there. They leave the backbone on along with a bit of the rib cage. It has been more than a year since I shopped there. I took one look at the legs and was going to separate them. No thanks. They will go into the oven just like they are. What a hack job they did. But even without the backbone and rib cage, the legs are huge. At first I thought they had been labeled wrong. Looking at them at a glance, they looked like turkey legs.


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## RPCookin (Jun 17, 2016)

Addie said:


> The last time I went to buy my meats, I went to my favorite butcher shop. I bought three chicken quarters at $.49 a pound. To go there is really out of my way. When I got home, I remembered why I had stopped buying chicken quarters there. They leave the backbone on along with a bit of the rib cage. It has been more than a year since I shopped there. I took one look at the legs and was going to separate them. No thanks. They will go into the oven just like they are. What a hack job they did. But even without the backbone and rib cage, the legs are huge. At first I thought they had been labeled wrong. Looking at them at a glance, they looked like turkey legs.



I've never bought leg quarters that didn't include the rib and a piece of backbone.  I prefer that, because that means I get the oysters too, and that's just about the best bite on a chicken.


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## Addie (Jun 17, 2016)

RPCookin said:


> I've never bought leg quarters that didn't include the rib and a piece of backbone.  I prefer that, because that means I get the oysters too, and that's just about the best bite on a chicken.



These quarters were just hacked. A big disappointment. I don't mind the back on them, but having the ribs also made it difficult to cut the backbone off. When I take them out to thaw, I will have Pirate cut the backbone and rib cage and they will going into the chicken parts bags for later use for chicken and noodle soup.


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## Addie (Jun 18, 2016)

RPCookin said:


> I've never bought leg quarters that didn't include the rib and a piece of backbone.  I prefer that, because that means I get the oysters too, and that's just about the best bite on a chicken.



One year when my supermarket was having a sale on legs and thighs, I knew there had to be backs. So I asked if they had any I could buy. They put together a ten pound package for me. Best broth and purchase I ever make. $.29 a pound. What they would have received from their recycle pickup.


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## LAD (Jun 19, 2016)

*Chicken Anything*

I boil a whole chicken,season with salt,pepper,garlic,onion,carrot,bay leaf,celery.Drain.Cool.Remove bones and skin,chop u the meat,put it into a loaf pan,add the broth.Chill.Now you can make anything with it,hence the name,You can slice it for sandwiches,crumble it for tacos,burritos,chicken salad,chicken pie,etc.


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## Kevin86 (Oct 8, 2017)

We put chickens through once a year so we're in the same boat and variety is the spice of life so try everything once. 

Lately we've been on a herb kick. So garlic, oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, etc what ever you have be generous and roast low and slow. 

For a while I was on a sauce kick so thaw if u want to marinate or just add honey garlic sauce and rebaste every half hour or hour once it gets cooking. Sweet and sour etc and so on is also ok. 

We try to pack flavour but keep it basic so we can have our roast dinner but then make quesadillas, casseroles, soup, etc. There is so much variety that requires so little work once you cook one bird that a bird will last my wife and I a week. 

So if you're not sure try everything once.


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