with a big family and an unpredictable income I have learned to be quite creative! In keeping with Crystal’s Frugal Friday, I am going to share one of my secrets with you. In the meat section at the grocery store you can buy a big bag of chicken leg quarters for usually less than $5, my walmart has them for $4.60. Take that big bag home and separate it out, putting the meat in ziplock bags. If you have a big family put two leg quarters in each ziplock, for a small family, just one. Put them in the freezer except for the meal you plan to start with. For making meals, you take your chicken and put in a pan with double the amount of water to cover it. Boil until the meat is falling off the bone. Then strain through a colander. Pick all of the meat off the bones and put back into the broth. Now with this you can make at least 10 different meals. We always add lots of vegetables we like, carrots, green peppers, green onions, broccoli, whatever is on hand, and usually some cajun seasoning. Here are 10 variations or ideas. I think just about any of these can be made for under $5 a meal.
- add a good amount of brown rice and simmer in the crock pot for chicken and rice
- add a small amount of rice for chicken and rice soup
- add barley for chicken and barley soup
- blend it all and thicken and serve over biscuits
- add noodles for chicken noodle soup
- thicken the broth and pour it all into a pie crust with cooked diced potatoes for chicken pot pie
- make homemade noodles and drop in boiling broth for southern dumplins
- make biscuit dough and drop by spoonfuls into the simmering pot for drop dumplins
- keep it the way it is for chicken vegetable soup
- add okra and tomatoes and rice for a chicken gumbo soup or stew
An 11th Way to Squeeze them Chickens?
Take them mean ol’ roosters & rotten egg-eatin’ layers’ crockpotted meat & cover with your favorite cheapo salsa. We call it “Baja Pollo” or lower chicken. Cook white rice in your broth and mexican spices as part of the meal. Another course for it is crockpot cooked seasoned pinto beans, mashed into refried, bacon-greased perfection, serve it all together with corn tortillas and you have a meal fit for a king. Add some luxury with sour cream, cheese, and fresh salsa on the sides. When the family has eaten their fill, take the leftovers, mix them all together, bind it with the last of the cheese, roll into burritos, roll ’em up in aluminum foil, put ’em back into the crockpot (all rolled up in the foil) or into the warmer compartment of the oven, an’ have ’em ready to go for anybody who wants ’em hot & ready any ol’ time!! THAT’S our version of fast takeout food!
Oh, my goodness, is anything yummier than chicken that has been cooking for so long that it falls off the bone? I never looked for those bags of chicken legs, although I have used smaller packages for soup. I’ll have to keep my eyes open. I love having a well-stocked (no pun intended) freezer and this sounds like a frugal way to do it.
By the way…every time I come by this blog, a certain Beatles song starts running through my head. Only it goes like this:
In Penny Raine, the barber shaves another customer…
We see the banker sitting, waiting for a trim…