The Rubber Chicken

For years and years, I have done what I thought almost miraculous by stretching one chicken into three or four meals for our family. I really thought this was quite an accomplishment. However, I had become quite bored with those meals. The ones I usually used were:

1) a basic chicken soup of some sort
2) a chicken casserole-type dish, like Chicken Pot Pie, or Chicken Broccoli Casserole
3) quesadillas or a green salad with chicken in it
4) maybe cold chicken salad sandwiches

Boring.

I am thrilled to inform you that, not only have I ceased to be bored with my rubber chicken endeavors, I have also now learned to stretch that ONE chicken into SIX meals for my family!!! All thanks to one of the new blogs I mentioned in my last post: Heavenly Homemakers.

Laura posted "How To Stretch A Chicken To Make Six Meals." Her suggestions for meals are:
1) Broth to make Chicken Tortilla Soup
2) Chicken Noodle Soup
3) Homemade Alfredo Sauce with Pasta
4) Black Bean Taco Salad
5) Three Cheese Garlic Chicken
6) and Chicken Veggie Quesadillas

While her soups are not my family's style, I am inspired to use my own Warrior Chicken Soup, and my mom's traditional homemade chicken noodle soup. (Recipes will come eventually!) I have tried the Homemade Alfredo Sauce on her blog and it is FANTASTIC! I also LOVED the Black Bean Taco Salad. The Three Cheese Garlic Chicken was good, but I think I'm going to play around with it a bit. The Chicken Veggie Quesadillas were also wonderful. My family loved every single one of these recipes. If I put these on a sort of "chicken rotation" with some of my other chicken recipes, I think I could make QUITE A FEW meals out of an order of Hutterite chickens. (A local colony sells excellent chickens at a great price. You buy a bag with a few chickens in it.) I'm going to experiment with this, as well, and see if I can make up some freezer meals using these recipes as a guideline. I can cook the soup one day, then next day, assemble a few freezer meals.

Other recipe ideas:
White Chicken Chili
Chinese Chicken Salad
Chicken and Rice Curry Casserole
Bread Bowl Chicken Stew
Mulligatawny Soup