how many meals can you make from one whole chicken?

[Tiam]

And....more importantly, for how many meals? I've heard people say up to six which is impressive, and also using very little of the chicken at a time. I routinely make homemade chicken stock. I'm not a huge leftover chicken eater, but I'd like to hear what folks make.

[bae]

Well, if I don't eat the chicken, and let it lay eggs for years....

[Zoebird]

assuming you mean an already butchered one (hehe, bae), we get one meal for our family of 3, plus then bone broth which goes across many meals throughout the week.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Never bought a whole chicken, I buy parts (legs with thighs, or breasts with bone, or ocassionally wings). A whole chicken would be chicken until the point I went into complete rebellion against eating chicken (should finish up the chicken ... no!! not more chicken!! no!!!). Anyway the parts at the farmers market are large, not just a hunk of flesh (as with boneless skinless chicken breasts) but a huge bone connecting two breast pieces (the whole front of the chicken). So I make breasts or leg pieces into stew/soup, and it lasts 3 or more meals (the meals being not just chicken but lots of veggies and some liquid, sometimes I add fat after cooking - avocados, sour cream etc. - haha and I call that eating chicken even though chicken is just one part of it). I've shared with others and still gotten more than one meal out of a chicken breast piece that way. I've roasted them too, but like stew/soup better (even good quality chicken needs a little work IMO, it just doesn't have the innate intensity of flavor of meat or fish - my prefered "meats").

Someone here is going to post how they get chicken with all the innards, and use them all, the chicken livers and giblets etc.. But that person is not me :)

[sweetana3]

The two of us usually get 5 meals from a roasted chicken. One with sliced breast meat, two more with the picked off meat cooked various ways and at least 2 or more quarts of chicken soup which will make at least 4-6 large servings with Amish noodles. We serve our meals in the kitchen and rarely go for seconds.

[Blackdog Lin]

For the two of us I would guess about 5 meals. (1) the roast chicken with mashed 'tators-n-gravy etc; (2) the large chunks of meat picked off the bird used for a casserole, or dinner salad, or stir fry, or pot pie, or goup over rice; (3) another meal of the leftovers of that meal; (4) boiling the carcass for broth/meat for a soup, or chicken and noodles; and (5) another meal of the leftovers of that.

I've never gotten the hang of cooking for two, so most of the things I cook make enough for two (or more) meals. Plus it saves me time and effort in the kitchen.

[Rosemary]

I'll estimate about 8 meals x 3 people. One meal as roasted chicken, 4 meals of chicken tacos, and 3 meals of chicken soup.

[Stacy]

Only two of us eat chicken, so it goes pretty far. The chicken we get from our CSA is pretty big, so we can divide the chicken breasts in half to get four servings. So one meal of grilled chicken breasts or some other chicken breast recipe. Then one meal where we chop up the breast for stir-fry. Then one meal using the leg quarters and wings, usually a one pot meal like arroz con pollo, or fried chicken. Then, we take the rest of the carcass, which had been in a bag in the freezer, and make chicken soup. We always have leftover broth for future meals. I haven't come up with any way I like to use the giblets, so I've been throwing them in with the rest of the carcass when I make broth. Then they can be a snack for the cats.
So four meals, or at least eight, since we always have leftovers.

[cattledog]

We get three meals. The first is the meat from the roasted chicken. Hubby can eat a lot of chicken. I usually eat most of a breast w/my kiddo and I give the dog a few pieces because it's usually salivating on my foot when I carve the chicken. I use the remaining meat and bones to make soup. The soup will last two meals though because I add vegetables and sometimes dumplings.

[SteveinMN]

We don't have a "chicken cooking protocol" :), so it really varies. But we will get eight servings out of a whole chicken if it's served simply with maybe a starch and a vegetable or two, and that will leave enough (back, neck, etc.) for soup for three or four servings (depending on how hungry the eaters are and what else is in the soup). We sometimes will make sandwiches or salads with leftover pieces, but we rarely make another hot meal with it (tacos, chicken & noodles, etc.).

[Square Peg]

1 and then stock options.
We have 2 teenage boys and a preteen boy.

[Tiam]

As for using the innards, that's what pets are for.

I guess I can get 3 or 4 depending, for two adults. In addition the roasted bones go for bone broth, or stock. Bone broth is a new term for me. To me it is stock. But truth be told, I don't actually buy whole chickens which is the cheapest way to buy chicken. I buy frozen breasts, and t hen thighs which are very cheap. For meals that would use a breast like a salad, that's what I use, but thigh meat has so much more flavor and is much juicier so I marinate that and use it in stirfries and tacos and such.

[Float On]

1-3 meals for 4 of us. I now understand why my mother always made so many side dishes for every meal.....to streatch the meat. I try to make sure and provide a lot of sides too and it's paid off, neither teenage boy will sit down and eat a whole chicken (like I remember my cousin doing), they'll go for the sides first and add a small piece of chicken to the plate.
If I roast a chicken, I'll have left overs to add to salad or to make chicken salad or add to soup or taco night. I don't do innards (liver/gizzard) those I chop & toss out for the hens.

[Tiam]

sides go far. Just a spoonfull of beans, and a spoonful of macaroni and a spoonful of green beans can go far to extending a small main course.

[Tiam]

I imagine, that pushed to create the most, I'd go with limiting the breast meat and using it with broccoli and rice, noodles, or potatoes. I'd make tacos or enchiladas with the next batch, then, bone broth and make a soup with a hearty broth, lots of veggies and rice or turnips. Any left over or extra bone broth would be for more soup.

[Mrs-M]

Depending on it's size, I'd say 3-4 meals (comfortably), without compromising the dishes with reduced chicken content. We're a large family, so very little in the way of food goes a long way.

Anyhow, I'd make a batch of chicken chow-mein, maybe a pot of chicken soup, a side of chicken wraps/burritos, and hopefully would have enough leftover to prepare a day or two worth of chicken-salad sandwiches for everyone.

[Amaranth]

There's a lot of good info in 3-4 meals from one chicken thread

http://www.simplelivingforum.net/showthread.php?3586-3-4-meals-from-One-Chicken