General Malaise
Footballguy
I know, there's plenty of threads on here discussing cooking and recipes, but right now, it might be tough to A) Find the ingredients you need and B) It might be important to some of us with giant families and a limited budget to buy only what's necessary currently.
So, I'll start with a cheap and easy suggestion and encourage anybody else with some basic food chops to do the same. Let's help each other out!
This has been General Malaise for YouTube budget cooking.....now, show me yours!
So, I'll start with a cheap and easy suggestion and encourage anybody else with some basic food chops to do the same. Let's help each other out!
- Bought a 6lb whole chicken, like this. While other types of chicken were in short supply, the whole fryers were a'plenty. $5.78
- Carefully removed the bird, washed it off in cold water, removed all the giblets inside the cavity (you can save these for the stock if you want) and patted dry.
- From here, you can season this bird a dozen different ways. My girl Laura Vitale uses a softened herb butter, salt & pepper, I opted for olive oil and a ready made dry rub. Can't go wrong with the basics: salt/pepper/onion and garlic powder/paprika etc.
- I stuffed half a lime and half an onion into the cavity of the bird and tied the legs up. You can roast this sucker in the oven (again, Laura V. can show you the way) but I opted for the fresh outdoors and my gas grill following this recipe. Grilling it over indirect heat for 80ish minutes at 400 (with a drip pan underneath) and then letting it rest covered for 20 minutes yielded a juicy, savory chicken that served as the main course for our family of 7 last night. BUT WAIT, THAT'S NOT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- There was a LOT of chicken meat left that I didn't carve off. Pick that sucker clean and pile all that meat up for the next step. Get your hands dirty, work that bird like it owes you money.
- What remains is the base of your next step. The carcass, bones, skin, cartlidge, curious looking meat with the pinkish hue ALL of that goes into a giant soup pot. If you have one that has a strainer, even better. Don't let your teenager throw away the drumstick bones - those go into the pot too. If you saved the giblets, they can go in there as well (maybe not the liver).
- Add to the carcass a couple of rough cut carrots, celery, onions (you can leave the skin on), garlic cloves, bay leaf or two and if you have an herb garden, toss in some fresh rosemary, thyme, parsley...whatever you got, man. I add in a handful of peppercorns and a good shake of Tonys then fill up the pot with cold water until everything is just submerged. *NOTE: I didn't include extra salt (other than the Tony's) but you can always salt to taste anytime during this process.
- Bring this all to a boil, stir occasionally and then bring it down to a slow simmer for hours. The longer it simmers, the more the bones will break down releasing that delicious goodness and nutrients into the stock. Stir here and there. When you've had enough fun, you can shut this off and let it cool down completely. I just cover it and walk away so it can cool slowly. Alton Brown suggests an immediate ice bath.
- Strain this when it's cool and WA LA, you've got homemade chicken stock that you can now use for soups, jambalayas, gumbo, casseroles, etc. Put it in the fridge for use in the next few days or freeze it for later use.
- Today, I'll be using some of this stock to make Chicken Noodle Soup for the fam with all the picked over chicken I plucked last night - about two cups, shredded or diced up. Here's a nice recipe for this classic soup.
- Tonight, after the little kids go to bed, I'll use more of my stock to make Chicken Fajita Soup for my lunches. I like a little more spice than the kids do and this is a great recipe that's super easy to make.
This has been General Malaise for YouTube budget cooking.....now, show me yours!