Get excited! Whole Foods is having another one-day sale on their organic whole chickens this Friday, February 17th! I L-O-V-E this sale and stock up every time they have one! Note that there's a limit of 10 chickens per person.
My husband and I are dedicated to eating healthy, which means cutting all unnecessary and potential harmful foods out of our diet. It can get expensive to eat organic! (Pesticides and hormones? No thanks!) With a family of six, we fix a whole cooked chicken at least twice a month and stretch the meat through at least two meals. We also make amazing, wholesome chicken broth from the chicken bones!
Here's my simple routine:
- Cook a whole chick either using the crock pot or by baking it in the oven. (The links are to our two favorite recipes.)
- When done cooking, debone the chicken and eat for dinner. Throw all non-consumable parts of the chicken (skin, bones, tendons, etc.) and any leftover veggies (depending on what recipe we used to cook the chicken) back into the crock pot and fill with water. Set on low and cook for 24 hours. When finished, you'll have a wholesome, healing broth to use for soup, rice or whatever! Let broth cool and put in freezer-safe containers to cool and freeze. (We use Ball quart-sized glass canning jars, leaving space at the top so the broth can expand when frozen without breaking the glass.)
- Use remaining meat from the chicken to make a favorite dish for later in the week. My go-to dish in winter is chicken soup (using your freshly made broth with onion, celery, carrot, and organic pearled barley or organic brown rice, along with salt and pepper). We also enjoy this Chicken Curry recipe on occasion, and sometimes make chicken salad (without the nuts - allergies).
Do you cook whole chickens? What recipes are your favorite? I love trying new ones, so please share!!
