The Final Cost of the Chicken

You see, I really do stretch a roasted chicken out quite far.

Once our family finishes with the original chicken, I sit down and pick the chicken off of the bones.  I then portion out what is left into one cup servings to go into other meals.  Sometimes, I'll use one cup, sometimes, I'll use two.  I try to use the chicken as more of a flavoring in casseroles and use veggies to fill up on bulk in the meals as much as possible. 

When I finish stripping the chicken, I will boil the bones down and either make broth to freeze for later, or I'll make soup.  I'm always surprised at how much meat is still clinging to the bones when I finish stripping a chicken.  The bones do make a very good soup.  This time, I chose to make some more broth.  I had planned on making soup out of the bones, but it's been an "interesting" week.  And I don't mean "interesting" in a good way.  I mean frustrating.  So, for the sake of my own sanity, I decided to go ahead and boil the chicken down into broth.

Anyway, the final rundown on the chicken:

Original Cost:  $15.69

Chicken and Rice Casserole:  6 servings
White Chicken Chili:   6 servings
Chicken Neck Soup:  6 servings
Baked Chicken: 6 servings

This added up to a grand total of 24 servings from one chicken.

Divide the $15.69/24, and we come up with 65 cents per serving.

Not bad.

Again, if you take a closer look at the recipes I used, you'll notice that I stretched my chicken out with rice, veggies, beans, and in soup as much as possible.  The meat became more of a flavoring than the centerpiece of the meal. 

I can't wait to see what I can do with a turkey come Thanksgiving!