Mmmm, Chicken, two ways

... Or how to reuse chicken until you can't reuse it no more! These recipes use the same few vegetables, which allow you to stock up and make two complete dinners out of just a few things in your pantry and frig.

The other day Hy-Vee had whole chickens on sale for 99 cents a pound, so I bought two. Three days ago, I made roast chicken. There is no picture because we devoured it too quickly.

Neck and Gizzards: dinner for the pets or gravy -- your choice

Wash chicken completely. Remove neck and gizzards (usually found somewhere jammed inside the cavity). Place neck and gizzards into a small saucepan with a generous amount of water and a pinch of salt. Put lid on top and boil for about a half an hour. Remove heat and let cool completely. I typically pick the neck as clean as I can and feed the neck meat and gizzards to the dogs and cats or use it to make gravy. Save the broth for later.

Night 1: Roast chicken dinner

Use a large casserole dish or small roasting pan. Peel 2-3 potatoes and cut them into large chunks, throw into bottom of dish. Add some peeled carrots that you have cut into large pieces to the dish. Slice about 1/2 an onion into large chunks or rings and add the dish. Throw in a couple of diced cloves of garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.

After chicken is washed, add a sliced lemon, 4-5 smashed garlic gloves (to open up and release the flavors), some rosemary (fresh is best, but dried can be used, as well), and about 1/4 of an onion cut into chunks to the cavity of the chicken. This will add flavor to your chicken as it roasts. I layer the ingredients until they are gone or the cavity is full. If you want, you can sew up the back of the chicken, but it's not necessary. Rub the chicken with olive oil and salt and pepper and place on top of the veggies in the casserole dish.

Place in preheated oven. Bake at 375 for about an hour and a half. If chicken is getting too crispy you can place some aluminum foil over it part of the way through.

Enjoy chicken and veggies. Save the juices and fat in the bottom of the pan, and whatever chicken is leftover. Put the casserole lid on (or some foil over it) and put it in the refrigerator over night.


Night 2: Chicken Noodle Soup

I am the queen of the crockpot, since I don't have to tend to anything. In the morning, add the following things to the crockpot:

• the broth from the gizzard and neck boiling
• pick the chicken carcass clean of any remaining meat, tear into pieces and throw into crockpot
• 1-2 potatoes, peeled and cubed into small pieces
• several carrots, peeled and sliced into small pieces
• the other 1/4 of the onion from yesterday, diced into small pieces (it will give the soup an amazing flavor)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, diced into small pieces (it will give the soup an amazing flavor)
• now take a small holed colander and run whatever is in the bottom of your casserole dish through it. First you should get all the broth. Add it to the crockpot. Then run the more solid fat through by using a spoon to push it through. Add a little water and make it into broth. Add that to the crockpot.
• Now "wash out" the bowl you used for the fat with water. Add that to the soup.
  
• Add more water if necessary
• Salt and pepper to taste
• I like to also add basil and thyme

Stir everything up. Now put the crockpot on to cook on low all day. Stir occasionally, if you remember it.

Bake some yummy sourdough bread (see earlier post) if you have time during the day.

About 45 minutes before you want to serve it, bowl some water, and turn off the heat on your crockpot. Boil a small bag of egg noodles in the water. Drain the noodles, run them under cold water to stop the cooking process, and add the noodles to the crock pot. Let them sit in the crockpot until ready to serve. Your soup will have cooled slightly, and will be ready to enjoy.

Oh, it is so good. My children devour it, and so do I.