My sister and I were talking today about food. One thing she mentioned is how almost everyone at her book group doesn't cook with whole chickens. And those who do, some said that they would just cut off the breasts and THROW THE REST AWAY. And they actually thought that cooking with the carcass was gross! Or that when chicken looks like a chicken, that it's gross (I think it's gross when it's pressed into dinosaur shapes, but what do I know?). Well, maybe I'm weird, but I like buying whole chickens for a lot of reasons. But first, I will show you where I learned the proper way to disassemble a chicken. The important part starts around 4:30.
Reasons to use whole chickens rather than pieces or boneless skinless varieties:
*the carcass... I freeze it after I disassemble the whole chicken and use it later to make broth. Then I can take the meat off the carcass and either freeze it or use it in soup right away, if that's what I'm using the broth for.
*The wings... I don't always just use the wings when I'm cooking chicken. This way I can save them and use them for hot wings! YEA!
*I can cut the pieces how I like them!
*No waste!
*chicken stays fresher longer when it's on the whole bird
*I can use every part of the chicken!
*It only takes a couple minutes to do, so why not do it yourself?
*I can get whole chickens for a whole lot cheaper than I can get pieces or even cut whole chickens. Sometimes 50 cents a pound or less!
So... why not use the whole bird? That's one thing I want to do this year... only cook chicken from whole birds. And, so far so good! Tonight's dinner: chicken paprika!
5 comments:
AUGH!!! That was so disgusting:)
I totally agree with you, buying the whole chicken is alot cheaper! But I won't do it, working with raw meat justs grosses me out! And to take apart like that, AUGH, you could not pay me enoguh money:) So even though it costs less, I prefer to buy my chicken boned and skinned:) But I wish I were as brave as you, I would love to make a broth and save money and use the whole chicken, I just can't bring myself to do it:)
Hey Jenn, I'm a former vegetarian. I was vegetarian for 7 years. For ethical reasons. If I can cut a whole chicken up, ANYONE can. It's really fast, and not that bad! And so much tastier! And the broth that carcass makes is out of this world!
That was a really cool video. I loved how he kept referring back to the dino skeleton.
Funny enough there's a big campaign at the moment in the U.K. pushing ethical chickens. I used to not be able to cut up chickens either, but if I know its free range or organic and has lived a good life then I'm ok w/it.
MDC Mama here.
What a great video AND a great tip for living more frugally. I'll definitely be doing this the next time I go shopping.
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