1 Chicken, 3 Meals

One of my most exciting kitchen discoveries what how much you can do with one whole chicken, and how much more cost effective it is. I typically will cook one of these every week and from one chicken I get at least 3 meals, plus some treats for the dogs!

When you use an entire chicken to make broth, you can add garlic and other vegetables for flavor but you don’t have to. If I have vegetable scraps saved then I will use them, but otherwise I will just slow cook the chicken directly in the crock pot and as I make my soups and meals I can add my own spices and flavorings. It is so easy. Below I will tell you just how I use a whole chicken for 3 meals.

So first I prep my whole chicken. I just make sure that there are no giblets, and then plop it right into the crockpot. I then put as much water into the crockpot as I can. Sometimes I can cover the whole chicken, and sometimes it doesn’t, but that is ok. As long as the Crockpot can close and seal you will be fine. Turn the crockpot on high for 24 hours. You can stop here, or do another 24 hour on low.

Next up, with some togs or 2 wooden spoons, remove the chicken and place it in it’s own bowl. Grab another bowl for the brother - strain the broth into it’s own bowl. You can freeze the broth or prep it to use as base for a soup that week. - That is meal number 1. Find a nice brothy soup and use your newly created broth, add your vegetables and whatever else you need and it is done!

Then you are going to remove as much meat from the chicken as you can. This can be weird at first. The chicken really falls apart, and if you do the whole 48 hours in the crockpot, sometimes the bones get super soft and crumble as well. All of this is ok, if you accidentally eat it that marrow is soo good and nutritious for you. While I don’t eat it personally, it is a normal food in some cultures.

While you are getting your meat, you should have a couple chunks of chicken that are super easy to get - most likely the breasts. Save these for a chicken parmesan, or baked chicken dish.

Shred the rest of the chicken and use it in something like my Probiotic Chicken Salad or BBQ Chicken Bowl!

There you have it, one chicken becomes 3 different weekday meals.