HOMESTEAD LIFE: ROTISSERIE CHICKEN
Rotisserie Chicken might be the most underutilized kitchen tool, and yes, I call it a kitchen tool because it is something that is super versatile and makes daily life easier in the kitchen.
I’ve included a video above, but here is my process:
At the beginning of the month, I grab 2 or 3 rotisserie chickens from Costco (you can’t beat the $4.98 price tag).
I debone all of chickens (don’t throw your bones away, I’m going to tell you how to use them!), separating white meat and dark meat. I typically use dark meat in soups and white meat in salads and other meals.
I fill a mason jar with white meat to keep in the refrigerator for making salads over the next few days.
The rest of the meat, I divide into vacuum seal bags and use my Food Saver to vacuum the bags and seal for freezing. I don’t have a precise measurement for how much I put into a bag, but I’d say roughly 2.5 cups is what I would use for a typical recipe.
Once they are bagged, I label if they are dark or white meat and the date before putting into the freezer.
Here’s a few recipes that you can use Rotisserie Chicken with:
Now, what do I do with all of those leftover scraps of bone and fat? I make chicken stock! If you’ve never made chicken stock it is EASY EASY EASY. After you make it once, you will never go back to store bought.
Put your chicken carcass and vegetable scraps (I save all my celery, bell pepper and onion scraps in a freezer bag in the freezer until I'm ready to make broth) in a crock pot. You can see in the picture above that I save all of the scraps - skin, tops, seeds, everything!
Fill with water till covered, then throw in a splash of apple cider vinegar and pinch of salt. The apple cider vinegar helps pull out the minerals in the bones, which will leave you with a richer broth.
Let it simmer for 6-8 hours on low.
When it's done, scoop out all the bits and pieces and then I run the broth through a mesh sieve to make sure to get any little tidbits that I wasn't able to scoop out!
Now that you’ve got this amazing chicken broth you can use it immediately to make a soup or you can store it by either freezing it or pressure canning it. If you choose to freeze it, pour the broth into gallon size freezer bags, as you seal it make sure all of the air is out and then lay it flat to freeze. I’ll be doing a follow up post on how to pressure can chicken broth for long term storage and use.
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