2 Meals With One Roasted Chicken

In the past I have gone out and purchased a whole chicken, taken the time to prepare it, cook it and serve it. Although easy it is fairly time consuming. The other issue is that to buy a raw average size chicken is $10- $14. I can purchase a roasted one at the local grocery store for $9. No need for me to carefully wash and scrub a raw chicken, stuff it, wait around while it is cooking and no messy clean up! I love homemade food as much as the next person but the difference is negligible. My theory is save your time for something that there is a big taste difference on.

The meal ideas below are both based on a purchased chicken that is roasted and for 2 adults and 1 child. You could easily make the recipes larger if you have a bigger family. Chicken Soup goes super fast in our house and this one has lots of healthy ingredients snuck in. The soup recipe includes cabbage. . . don't be scared! I do not like cooked cabbage at all, yet in this recipe you cannot make out that it is cabbage. The soup looks time consuming but it really isn't and once you have made it once you can make it in about 10 minutes plus cooking time. In fact I make the broth while I am making the sides for day one's dinner and prepare it the next day with all the other ingredients.

Day 1
Remove the breasts from your chicken and use them as the main for your meal. Whip up a salad, some potatoes and a veggie of your choice and you have meal one. Save the bones and the dark meat for the soup on Day 2.

Day 2
Chicken Soup

• bones from 1 roasted chicken
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2-3 carrots, chopped
• 3 celery stocks, chopped
• 1 cup cabbage, (or 1/4 of average size head) cut into dime size pieces 
• 1 large potato/ 4 small potatoes
• 3/4 cup corn (if you have small children reserve some on the side. Since corn doesn't require much cooking time put cold corn in their hot soup to cool it down)
• 1 tsp each thyme/oregano
• 1 bullion cube (chicken or veggie flavour)
• left over meat cut into bite size pieces
• s & p

* In a large pot cook the chicken bones with about 4 -6 cups of water, depending on how brothy you like your soup. You can always add more later. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for about 1/2 hour. If you have time you can let this simmer for longer, for hours even, and it will just lend a richer flavor to the soup. Spoon of any 'foam' that rises from boiling of the bones. Remove the bones either by straining or using tongs to lift them out of the broth.
* While the broth is simmering in a frying pan, sautee the onions and garlic. Once lightly browned add in all the veggies and spices and cook on med-high just until the veggies are aromatic. Your goal here isn't to cook the veggies but a quick searing so the spices are infused into the veggies and all the tastes become amalgamated before it does the actual cooking in the broth. If you get some sticking to the bottom of the pan, a little water will take it off and be full of flavor.
* Drop bullion into soup broth, add veggies and bring to a boil and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes or until the veggies are cooked but not mushy. Add the left over meat. Since it has already been cooked it doesn't need as long in the broth, it more or less needs to be warmed up.

That's it. . . Enjoy!