HOW TO STRETCH A CHICKEN

Did that title get you wondering why anyone would want know how to stretch a chicken or maybe you thought I was a bit crazy?  Well the second part of this question might be right, I’m crazy, loving how  I come up with ways to stretch meals, save money but still eat healthy.  So no, I’m not going to stretch a chicken, I’m going to show you how to stretch a chicken once it’s cooked to make a few days worth of meals.

It started with a $5.00 off Aldi coupon on a $30 or more purchase.  Now that alone is quite a challenge since their prices are so reasonable, it took some time to get $30.00 worth of groceries in my cart.  As I’m rounding the turn by the meat and poultry, I see a sign for Tyson all natural whole chickens for 79 cents a pound.  They had one chicken left and it looked the size of a small turkey at about 6 1/2 pounds and the price was $5.14, not bad for a meal for hubby and I. So by using the $5.00 off coupon, it’s like getting the chicken almost free!!  Look at all I purchased for $32.00 and notice there are no sweets, just healthy food!  Wait until you see how to stretch a chicken for even more meals!

I roasted the chicken in the oven at 350 degrees for about two hours and gosh did the kitchen smell good.  It was golden brown when I took it out of the over but I forgot to take a picture before carving it!  BiLo had corn on the cob on sale for 33 cents an ear, the summer squash was $1.59 and the amount of broccoli from a 3 pound bag of frozen florets was about $1.00 worth if that.  So dinner for hubby and I on Saturday came to about $8.50.  Not bad for two dinners, BUT WAIT, there was enough chicken left over for Sunday dinner for both of us. Yes, the picture above is a turkey roasting but you can stretch a turkey just like a chicken.

So for Sunday dinner, since I’m on my healthy eating plan, I don’t eat white potatoes so I made a different meal for me while hubby had the traditional sliced chicken breast, baked potato and spinach.   My dinner was a delicious chicken salad sandwich made from the Chick Fil-A recipe they handed out when they retired making them.  I had my sandwich on wheat bread with a side order of raw cauliflower with ranch dressing.  This was perfect since I’m not big on spinach either, then I garnished both our plates with olives.

Since I already figured the whole chicken into Saturday’s total, the only extra for my Sunday menu would be the potato, spinach, cauliflower and olives plus the egg, relish, and mayonnaise to make the chicken salad.  I’m taking a guess that all the extras would probably be way less than $4.00.  So for under $12.50 I made 4 delicious meals, for a few pennies over $3.00 each.  BUT, I still have enough chicken salad for another sandwich! Now if you are a family of four, you will probably be able to get a meal for all of you out of the chicken and $8.0 – $9.00 is still a good price for a dinner for four.  The meals were delicious, easy to prepare and so filling.  So now that you know how to stretch a chicken, will you be stretching yours?

This is the recipe for Chick-Fil-A’s chicken salad but I substituted about a cup of cut up chicken instead of their chicken breasts and cut the other ingredients in half to make about 1 1/2 cups.    What can I say except DELICIOUS!!