52 Weeks of Chicken Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How many meals can I make from a whole chicken? ›

I wanted to share a meal planning idea with you of how to take a whole chicken, cut it up at the beginning of the week, and have all the pieces you need to make FIVE wonderfully wholesome and delicious meals for the week.

Let's start out by saying 500 degrees isn't a temperature we'd recommend for chicken. Given the fact that drumsticks and thighs are dark meat and won't dry out as easily as breasts, the range from 350 to 450 degrees is okay for baking them. 350 to 375 is generally best for breasts.

Step 4: Roast the first chicken and get 5 meals out of it.

Meal 5: Eat the roasted chicken with several side dishes as your meal for the night, but be sure that there is plenty of meat left to use for other meals. Meals 6-8: After you eat, shred and/or cube the rest of the chicken that you can take off the carcass.

After dissembling a whole chicken, you should end up with 8 pieces: two breasts, two thighs, two drumsticks, and two wings. See tips below on how to use the leftover carcass. With the chicken breast side up, run a sharp knife down the center of the breasts and slice down, splitting in two.

There are three key tricks: tenderize, marinate, and controlled cooking time. When you use all three of these methods, you will have succulent, moist chicken every time, and you can apply these strategies to other cuts of meat as well.

Use multiple cooking pots: If you need to cook a large amount of chicken, you may need multiple pots, like multiple slow cookers or roasting pans. You'll want to avoid overstuffing a single pot so the chicken can cook evenly and thoroughly.

It would be fine to eat it, but just not all at once. You can easily prepare a chicken, or purchase a rotisserie chicken from a deli, and have several meals, and alsmake several meals from it and freeze them.

Do you have to remove insides of whole chicken? ›

Yes! Don't forget to remove the giblet bag before cooking the chicken. A giblet bag should be included if the whole chicken packaging says "with giblets- some may be missing." We do not recommend consuming the whole bird if you have cooked the chicken with the giblet bag inside.

Larger cuts, such as whole chickens or bone-in pieces, often benefit from covered baking to ensure thorough and even cooking. Smaller cuts, like chicken breasts or tenders, can be baked uncovered for quick results. Lastly, think about the desired texture and flavor you're trying to achieve.

You can roast or bake anywhere between 325 and 450 degrees F. When roasting a whole chicken, a nice rule of them is to start at 400 to 425 degrees F and then turn the oven down to 350 after 15 minutes and cook until the internal temp of the chicken is 165 – 175 degrees F on an instant read thermometer.

Using a method called “dry-poaching” is best. It involves covering the breasts with a piece of parchment paper before they go in the oven. This allows them to baste in their own juices so they cook up to be tender and juicy.

From a 1.5 kg organic bird, I'd usually get at least 23 meals. We both like the leg and thigh when freshly roasted, part of the breast might end up in chicken pies, or noodle soup, or a nachos sauce, or Caesar salad, or fried rice, or curry sauce, or ensalada Mixta, or sandwiches.

A whole 3 to 4-pound chicken will feed 4 to 6 people, depending on ages and appetite. For Cornish game hens, which are very small chickens, count on one small (1.25 pounds) game hen per person or half of a larger (2-pound) game hen.