Given One Chicken

[project]

Suppose in a US grocery store I buy a chicken or two or three,

weight from, say, 3 pounds to 8 pounds each.

Yes, I am assuming that we might want to treat the different

weights differently.

Now what?

<br><br>

Yes, there are some good recipes, instructions, and

discussions on eG, at America's Test Kitchen, etc. for cooking

a whole chicken.

Here I want to set those aside and concentrate, instead, on

how to work separately with the pieces where, especially, get

some good chicken stock from, say, the back, neck, heart,

gizzard, and scraps.

That is, with a whole chicken, there are lots of different

pieces, and I am assuming that we want <b>both</b> to treat

the pieces in different ways and to use all the pieces for

something worthwhile.

<br><br>

So, here I am trying to work about one half level above

individual recipes and make progress on the <i>flows,</i>

organization, or <i>logistics</i> of all we do with all the

pieces of the <b>whole</b> chicken.

In particular, for individual recipes, while I am eager for

all details, with this question URLs are more appropriate than

usual!

<br><br>

For the chicken stock, there is a lot already on eG.

Let's assume that we know how to make chicken stock, white or

brown, French or Chinese, from the back, wingtips, scraps,

etc.

<br><br>

So, I do not want to <i>waste</i> the breast or thigh meat on

making stock but want to do something else with them, e.g.,

get them for a meat course main dish.

And that main dish may make use of stock made from the rest of

the chicken!

And, we may go oriental, for both the stock and the rest of

the chicken!

<br><br>

So, two broad questions:

<UL>

<LI>

<b>Favorite Uses.</b>

Given breasts, thighs, drumsticks, and wings, what are your

favorite treatments for them?

Uh, maybe the wings just go into the stock pot?

<br><br>

E.g., maybe for the breasts, contribute skin and bones to the

stock pot.

Flour the rest, gently saute in virgin olive oil, remove, and

discard oil.

Add some more oil and saute some aromatic vegetables -- usual

suspects garlic, onions, shallots, bell peppers, celery,

carrots.

Remove.

Deglaze with some white wine and reduce. Add some stock,

reduce if flavor is weak, and add heavy cream.

Add vegetables and the chicken. Simmer covered until done.

Maybe.

Haven't done that one yet; want to try it; if it's good will

report details with measurements!

<LI>

<b>Timing.</b>

If make the stock quickly, then can be fully done, complete

with removing fat and straining, in 1-2 hours, and this time

is short enough that the rest of the fresh chicken pieces can

rest in the refrigerator waiting for the stock to be done.

One issue may be how to handle the thigh or drumsticks after

they have been deboned and the bones, scraps, and possibly

skin have been added to the stock pot; that is, these pieces,

once deboned, will likely get <i>less fresh</i> more quickly.

Also, if want to take longer to make the stock, say, from

longer simmering or letting the stock settle and separate

overnight, then there is some question about keeping the other

chicken pieces fully fresh.

<br><br>

There are various alternatives, e.g., freeze the parts for

stock, make the stock later, and use the other pieces in ways

that do not need stock or just use stock made earlier from

other chicken pieces, etc.

</UL>

Maybe one compromise solution would be to use all of the

chicken in the stock making but remove the better pieces of

meat when they are just done and use them in some dish that

can start with poached chicken.

<br><br>

If the chicken is heavy, say, over six pounds, then the breast

meat can be so thick that old recipes do not really apply and

some special treatment is called for.

What "special treatment" is good?

<br><br>

What do you recommend?

<br><br>

Thanks!

[phatj]

For Christmas dinner I did a Duck Three Ways that could be adapted for chicken. This was pretty involved, though, and the assorted prep and cooking was done over three days.

I did the following:

Skinned entire bird, except for the breasts

Removed breasts and legs

Made stock with remaining carcass (I stripped some additional meat from the carcass after simmering a while)

Rendered fat from skin and added to fat skimmed from stock

Confited legs

Made soup with stock and meat removed from stock

Made pot-stickers with leg confit

Seared breasts, and served sliced on green salad

If doing this with chicken, I'd treat the breasts differently, but everything else should work fine.

I like whole bone-in chicken breasts oven-roasted with herb butter over a bed of thinly sliced onions. Deglaze the roasting pan with a little white wine for a yummy sauce.

[project]

Phatj,

Thanks!

Why not just include the skin in the stock?

When you rendered the fat from the skin, was there some

browning?

What did you do with the crackling?

For the legs, did you debone them before the confit and

include the bones and scraps in the stock?

Thanks for the roasting idea! Did you lightly brown the

meat before starting the roasting?

[phatj]

Phatj,

Thanks!

Why not just include the skin in the stock?

When you rendered the fat from the skin, was there some

browning?

What did you do with the crackling?

For the legs, did you debone them before the confit and

include the bones and scraps in the stock?

Thanks for the roasting idea!  Did you lightly brown the

meat before starting the roasting?

←

I think the reason I rendered the fat the way I did is so that I would get cracklings. I don't recall any significant browning during the rendering. After rendering I crisped/browned the skin in the oven, then salted and ate those cracklings like duck candy.

Boning the legs beforehand was too much trouble. I confited them whole, after which of course removing the meat was easy.

I haven't browned the breasts before roasting them, although you certainly could.

Edited February 22, 2007 by phatj (log)

[Joisey]

To take it a step further..take the wings off whole from the bird. Scrape the meat from each wing down the first bone to the joint, disjoint and remove bone. Make a small farce with some of the leg meat and stuff into the deboned wing cavity, making a "lollipop". Awesome way to get more mileage out of your bird.

[SheenaGreena]

you can take an entire chicken and stuff it with glutinous rice, jujubes, ginseng, ginko nuts, and some ginger and simmer it in broth until the rice is done inside the chicken and the chicken is cooked through. This is a popular "health" dish served in korea called sam gye tang

I would just take the left over innards and fry them up in sesame oil and serve them on the side as a side dish.

[SuzySushi]

I'm really simple in this regard:

I'd roast the whole chicken, eat some/most of the meat and skin. Whatever meat was left over, I'd use in a salad, stir-fry, or soup at another meal.

I'd make chicken soup from the roasted carcass.

The innards (heart, gizzard), I'd cook in the roasting and with the chicken and eat as my personal treat.

The liver, I'd save up with those of other chickens until I had enough chicken livers to make sauteed chicken livers over salad (the French way), or chopped liver (the Jewish way).