JamieOliver.com

good thread Jamie 
I totally agree with you many people have lost the art of making multiple meals from a whole chicken.
Gone are the days of a Sunday Roast ,Cold meat on Monday , Heated with gravy on Tuesday, Cottage Pie (or similar on Wednesday).

I think that some folk are a bit squeemish about picking all the little bits of meat off the bones on a whole chicken.
I seem to buy less chicken for my family at the moment.
But when I do roast a chicken ...
I tend to do the roast one day.Then strip all the meat from the carcass.
The carcass is then simmered for a reasonable length of time ,with vegetables,herbs,maybe a good slosh of wine ! and then the liquid is strained off leaving the broth.
I then use this stock as ..a base for soups
                                     stock to add to things like a rissotto
                                     to make a fresh gravy

When I make the soup ..

*I will add fresh chopped vegetables to the stock cook it gently.
*I might add a slosh of sherry of wine to the soup as it cooks. (sherry I am told by my family realy goes with the chicken and gives a lovely richness to the soup)
*Towards the end of the vegetables cooking I add some of the chicken meat that I had picked from the carcass.(I generally use the leg eat in this as my family find this the tastiest.)
*I always get the seasoning checked before itsserved.
It is important to ensure that the meat that has been added heats very well for a good few minutes before the soup is served.


Another favorite of my family is 'Chicken Pie'
This version is a little more like a 'cottage or sheperds pie ' as its topped with mashed potatoes rather than having a pastry crust.
I don't have a recipe as such as I make this as to what vegetables we have in the house at the time.
I generally make this the day after I have cooked roast chicken for the family.

What I do is this...
*I peel,chop and put some potatos to boil, when these are cooked I mash them with a knob of butter and a little milk.
*If I am going to add other veg,I peel,and chop these into small pieces and pre-cook them generally all in the same pan.
*I peel and chop a couple of onions and then soften them in a little butter,(over the heat )in a reasonable sized pan.This then becomes a base to make the 'white sauce' with. I do it this way as flavour from the cooked onions is very much in the pan.
Into the onions I then add some more butter and I make this into a roue(sp!)
with some plain flour and then slowley stir in some milk to make the 'white' sauce.
Often I will add the remaining gravy from the sunday roast at this stage..or..a little of the stock that I have made from the carcass<
I also add the cooked chicken pieces that I had removed from the carcass.
*Into the sauce, whilst its hot, I add the pre-cooked veg (that I have just strained and are still hot!)
*I tip all this into a deep sided dish and then I carefully top it with the mashed potatoes, making sure that I seal all around the edges of the dish .
*I then pop this into the oven to brown, but as everything is well heated and cooked I am sure that popping it under the grill would do the same job.

The family realy enjoy this , it does not take as long to prepare as it sounds .
a good thing about this dish is that if you do not have muck chicken left on the carcass , you can 'bulk it up' with a few more veg.

raviolli and canelloni filling is the usual post-chicken thing in our house - cooking juices can be used to moisten the filling if need be,

I eat a lot of chicken legs (thigh and drumstick) and favour the ballotine preparation, which means I can use the bones for a stock.

I did one recently, which was chicken ballotines and a summer truffle infused chicken sauce, served with basmati. It's only 2 legs, but that's enough stock for 2 people.

Just reduce it, infuse it with the summer truffle, add cream, finish by emulsifying with butter, and correct the seasoning.

More recently, I did a two way roast chicken. The legs with confitted in goose fat, and the breasts were slow roasted. I made a stock from the carcass, which was turned into a gravy.

Of course, this was all served up together with blanched and sauteed broccoli, glazed carrots and peas, but potentially there is a chicken stock for sauce, risotto, etc, chicken breasts and confit chicken legs. So, really, 3 meals instead of one roast.


BTW, a tip to all

Roast your chicken slowly, on as low a heat as you feel comfortable with (I did mine with the oven set halfway between OFF and the S mark) for up to 6 hours (at which point the chicken will be cooked). Heat a pan for 10 minutes on top heat, add some groundnut oil, then fry the skin side of the chicken for about 30 seconds (definitely no more than 2 minutes) to get the skin crisp. That way, you have tender flesh and crispy skin.

And yes, I did nick the idea from Blumenthal, but I think I'd be stupid not to copy some of his ideas.

One large chicken.. (bit pricy as it was free range !)
yesterday..only 2 at home ...roast with some veg..as soon as the chicken was cool enough I removed and meat (and put it in the fridge) and made a stock( as Jamie does with the carcass ), scraps and any pan scrapings..plus a few veg and veg peelings and left it to cool before chilling it overnight in the fridge.

Today..sandwiches for 4 hungry students who were off on a trip.
and then , with the stock I made yesterday (that had set overnight to a soft  jelly in the fridge)
Then I made chicken rissoto for 3 people
.
There is still enough left for my husband to have sanDwiches for his lunch tommorrow.

(and there is still some stock left !)

Dear Jamie,
I'm relieved that you have now taken on the fight for cheap and cheerful eating while not resorting to processed food. The young people will listen to you and not think you are just 'old fashioned' such as myself.

My children were brought up with the "If I don't grow it, process it and make it, we don't eat it" philosophy. I had four children times two because of their friends who all loved to stay for meals. So stretching meals to accommodate everyone including the extended family was just an everyday practice.

They lived through it and now appreciate the good wholesome food I grew and created and often look forward to the special treats of bubble and squeak from yesterday's dinner and chicken stew from the leftover carcass as well as the curry if Dad wasn't in the house.

Keep up the good work!

Cooky