Frugal Family Chicken Recipes
By Michelle Newbold
© Budding Books 2012
Copyright Notice
First Published in 2012 in Great Britain by Budding Books at Smashwords
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted by any means save with the written permission or accordance with the provision of the Copyright Act of 1956 (as amended). Any publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Copyright © Budding Books 2011
Michelle Newbold is hereby identified as the author of this work in accordance wit Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
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Chunky Chicken And Vegetable Soup
Main Course Frugal Chicken Recipes
A Word About Using Chicken Leftovers
Basic Home Made Pasta Sauce That’s Great With Chicken
Home Made Potato Wedges (To Go With Chicken)
Family Chicken And Mushroom Pie
Chicken Stew And Cheesy Dumplings
Healthy Chicken And Vegetable Skewers
Introduction:
I have written this recipe collection as a result of an experiment I ran while I was seriously short of money.
There came a time when I was looking at quite a few weeks of paying out for large bills that would put a serious dent into my monthly spending budget, and after the normal monthly expenses of essential household bills were deducted, this left me with very little money to spend on food for my son and myself.
So I vowed that for a period of three months, that I would go back to basics and prepare meals from scratch using basic ingredients, supermarket deals, and any reduced priced items I found along the way that could be worked into our eating plan.
Out went the boxes of fish in batter or breadcrumbs, ready meals, and those other products that come wrapped in plastic, frozen or chilled that required zero effort, and need no more than reheating for 20 minutes in the oven, including oven chips!
In came fresh and frozen raw meat, fresh and frozen vegetables, bags of bargain potatoes, sauces I made from scratch, and home-baked cakes, biscuits and puddings.
I have always liked to experiment in the kitchen, and as luck would have it my kitchen note pad had well over 2 years worth of recipes, notes and ingredients scrawled in there in my illegible handwriting.
My plan is to write a few recipe collections focussing on a different main ingredient, or topic such as beef, pork, and baked goods, and this is my first recipe collection on my favourite frugal ingredient – chicken!
Chicken is one of the main staples for frugal family meals, and this is a compilation of my favourite chicken recipes used during my three-month cooking experiment, and also from my sacred kitchen notebook.
I hope you enjoy them!
What can I say about soup other than it can be an absolute lifesaver for anyone cooking on a budget.
Soup is nourishing, warm and comforting, and can often require very little effort to prepare, and sometimes very few ingredients are needed to produce a hearty meal, which saves money in the long run.
I am not going to preach to you here, but if you really want to save money and not waste a single ounce of goodness from your food, then I would recommend making your own chicken stock.
I know this is not for everyone, so if you prefer to use stock cubes in these recipes rather than your own chicken stock, then go ahead and use them. Stock cubes are pretty good these days, and the manufacturers are using far less salt in their preparation than they used to.
For those of you who want to squeeze every last scrap of meat and goodness from your chicken carcass, then here is my favourite chicken stock recipe:
Ingredients
1.75kg (4 lb) chicken, skin on and bone in
1 large onion, halved
3 carrots, cut into small pieces
3 stalks celery
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste
Place the chicken in a large saucepan over a high heat. Add boiling water to cover and bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
Remove chicken from pot, leaving liquid. Cool the chicken, then remove skin and bones from meat. Return the bones and skin back to the pot. Add onion, carrots, celery, bay leaf and salt. Continue simmering covered for 3 to 4 hours.
Strain the stock through a fine sieve and cool.
Use the chicken meat for soups, salads, and sandwiches. Skim the fat from the cooled stock, use the stock – it will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze immediately. You can freeze the stock in ice cube trays then transfer to a freezer bag once frozen.
You can thaw the frozen stock cubes overnight to use in recipes the following day, or just add the frozen cubes direct to the cooking dish if only using small amounts.
This recipe was quite off the cuff, and used up the last bits of veggies in my fridge. If you want your finished soup to have more vegetables, then please increase the quantities listed here to suit the tastes of your own family. You could even throw in some frozen veggies to bulk it all out a bit, especially if you are feeding growing teenagers.
All In One Chicken Soup - serves 4
Ingredients:
1
tablespoon oil
1 whole chicken, breasts removed and put aside
2
onions
2 pints boiling water
Salt
2 bay leaves
1 large
carrot
1 celery stalk
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup fresh
parsley leaves
Ground black pepper
Method:
Heat
the oil in a large soup pot and sauté the chicken breasts until they
are light brown. Remove the breasts and set aside. Add the onions and
sauté until soft approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
Cut up the remaining raw parts of the chicken into small pieces and sauté in the pan until cooked and moist. Return the onion to the pot, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the chicken releases its juices.
Add boiling water, reserved chicken breasts, carrots, celery, 2 teaspoons of salt, thyme and bay leaves. Cover and simmer until chicken breasts are cooked, about 20 minutes. Increase the heat if necessary.
Remove chicken breasts and set aside. Strain and reserve broth.
Throw way the chicken bones, but keep the vegetables.
Slice and add the reserved chicken breast to the soup pot with a little oil and sauté the remaining onions along with the carrot and celery for about 5 minutes.
Pour in the broth and bring back to the boil. Season with salt and pepper, add parsley and serve.
This keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days, and can be frozen for later use if you want to keep some to eat for lunch later in the week.