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This is my favorite not-so-best-kept-secret for dinners: rotisserie chicken!
You can get them everywhere. I usually get mine at Whole Foods and you can get an organic bird for $9.99 or, if you’re near a Costco, you can get a big bird for $4.99 and rotisserie chickens. Once shredded, give you at least 6 cups of shredded chicken to put in salads, soups, pastas, wraps, tacos, and so much more! Not only does this help save money, but the meal ideas are endless. Most of the time, I can get three separate meals out of a $4.99 Costco chicken, and that’s being generous with the chicken in recipes. If you were a little less heavy-handed, I bet you could stretch that out to a whole five days.
Why are rotisserie chickens meal savers?
Because they’re already cooked and when you’re in a pinch, you can grab one up from the store on your way home and shred them and make so many different meals with them.
Or, what we have done lately is given ourselves the drumstick and thigh and roasted up some green beans as our side dish and a dinner roll or two and bam, quick and easy dinner. It’s nothing fancy and it doesn’t have to be. Food is on the table; that’s the important part.
However, on weekends where we have more time, when we buy a rotisserie chicken, we always shred them immediately and put them into glass containers for the week.
I can think of SO many recipes that can utilize the already shredded chicken:
Rotisserie chickens have saved so many meals for us and I hope they do the same for you once you see how versatile this bird is!
Don’t throw away your chicken carcass after you’ve shredded it. Use it for Homemade Chicken Stock. It is the most delicious and flavorful stock you will ever come across. It puts the store-bought chicken stock to shame. Give it a try and you won’t regret it! It’s so easy too!
My wife and I have been doing this for years. 2 chickens from Sam’s Club have been our standard. We eat some for the 1st meal, debone the chicken and then make stock with the bones. We freeze the stock using ice cube trays. We have been eating less meat, so we run into the problem of running out of stock before using all the chicken. We just love the stock.
I really am happy to have found your website. I see that you have a cookbook at Amazon and will order it after I send this email to you. Several posts ago you asked for any questions or problems cooking for two might present. My biggest problem is making delicious casseroles with a bit left over to enjoy at a later meal without having massive amounts of leftovers (which, usually can be frozen) – perhaps your cookbook will help with that.
thanks for ordering the cookbook! i hope you enjoy it!