Why You Should Buy The Chicken Whole

Well, it's been a little while since I've blogged. I ended up needing to spend all my time studying for finals... but I've still been making, baking and sewing!

This post is about why I buy full chickens instead of just chicken breast, and the simply answer is stock!

Firstly... it looks like this.... 

Ingredients:
1 Chicken
3 Tbsp of Honey

Salt & Pepper

Recipe:

1) Preheat oven at 180 degrees.
2) Season chicken and wrap in tin foil.

3) Place chicken upsidedown and cook in oven for 45 minutes
4) Turn chicken over, open the foil so the bird is exposed and pour honey ontop. 

5) Cook in oven until cooked through and golden on top (around 45minutes - 1 hour)

With the cooked chicken I made:

Chicken, Mayo and Sweetcorn Bloomers on Homemade Bread

Homemade Chicken & Vegetable Pizzas with Garlic Bread

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Secondly, with a full chicken you get to make stock

Ingredients:

Chicken Bones & Left Over Chicken

Roughly Chopped Root Vegetables (Onions, Carrots, Potatoes) 

Mixed Herbs

Salt & Pepper

Water

Recipe:

1) Simply put all the chicken bones, left overs and vegetables into a large pan and cover it all with water.

2) Season with herbs, salt and pepper.

3) Bring to boil and then leave to simmer for 2 hours
(The longer you leave it simmering, the more concentrated the stock. However, always make sure the bones are covered in water)

4) Sieve out bones, meat and vegetables and leave the liquid to cool.

With the stock I was able to make:

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Chicken Risotto, which afterwards I made into Chicken Arancini De Riso 

And I can promise you, every meal was delicious!

In time I hope to blog about the recipes for each of these, but for the time being I hope you are convinced to buy your chickens whole

xxx