Here's the original chicken, roasted using Martha Stewart's Perfect Roast Chicken recipe. The lady does not lie; this is one delicious bird:
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sTARAoF9m6A/SsdaBwqqa4I/AAAAAAAAAsI/nzbHQboFWHk/s1600/c_001chx3.jpg)
The next step was to strip the carcass and make stock from the bones. Meal number 2 was a yummy avgolemono soup:
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sTARAoF9m6A/Ssdaeh-dfPI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/ItAE0-2zHHo/s1600/c_002avgolemono.jpg)
This is my hands-down favorite leftover chicken recipe, Vietnamese Chicken Salad from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Bites.
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sTARAoF9m6A/Ssda7lo8WdI/AAAAAAAAAsY/S6rXwm0RK9E/s1600/c_003chxnigsald.jpg)
For meal number four we went to the robust lands of Tuscany for this Tuscan white bean and kale soup, another Martha Stewart recipe:
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sTARAoF9m6A/SsdbbD2LuhI/AAAAAAAAAsg/YxqNswI6c58/s1600/c_004tuscanwhtbean2.jpg)
Meal number five, another Nigella recipe, spicy chicken peanut noodle salad, but this one was from her TV show (Nigella's Fast Food), and I don't have attribution for it. It's just a dressed up version of a cold sesame noodle salad. Soooo good!
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sTARAoF9m6A/SsdcPC3rI6I/AAAAAAAAAso/_mKkD23Nu2k/s1600/c_005spicypeanut2.jpg)
Meal number six was a humble chicken sandwich (the king of sandwiches, in my opinion):
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sTARAoF9m6A/Ssdc-Vqoj0I/AAAAAAAAAsw/hmvV8vNK1yI/s1600/c_006chxsan.jpg)
And finally (remember, this is almost a week after the original chicken), we finished up with a big pot of chicken and dumplings utilizing all the leftover stringy bits, some stock, and a leaf from our hated bay tree:
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sTARAoF9m6A/SsddWRvFXqI/AAAAAAAAAs4/MkdZOJ_sfzI/s1600/c_007chxndumplings.jpg)
But Sarah, you say. That's only seven recipes... Well in fact we had enough chicken and dumplings to have them again for lunch the next day, and we also had a generous amount of leftover bean soup, which padded that old chick-a-doodle-do out to a total of nine hearty meals. Nine! For about what we'd spend on one round of takeout from the burger place in Ealing.
What did I learn from my experiment with leftovers? Well, for one thing, it was a huge money saver, but yeah, I did have to plan out my menu a week in advance. And it wouldn't have been such a money saver without all the great pantry ingredients and herbs I already had at home. I know that for some people Vietnamese fish sauce is not a staple and would have added to the grocery bill, but we always keep a bottle on hand. I also learned that leftovers don't have to be boring! It was nice to have the roast chicken, but I didn't want to have it a second meal in a row. I was definitely happy to bash up that bird and make some other recipes out of it, and I do have enough lovely stock for at least two more pots of soup. I also liked the challenge of being more creative with my cooking when one of the ingredients (leftover chicken) was a given. So in short, I'm going to try this again, but with a different base meat. Hopefully Isabelle really likes the taste of ham...
1 comment:
Enjoying your blog and really hungry for chicken right now.
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