When you see a 5 lb package of split chicken breasts for 99 cents a pound buy them. I’m going to show you now to tackle it. First of all people ask me all the time how much I spend on groceries since I cook real food every day. I am so tired of hearing people say that’s its more expensive to buy real food and that junk food is cheaper. Buying organic hell yes is more expensive. Any “diet” food is more expensive, but real food is not. The thing that people don’t like to hear is that you actually have to cook. They prefer quick prepared items, if you cost it out prepared food costs more without a doubt. for example I grew up eating instant potatoes. The box of potato flakes isn’t expensive. You can buy a whole bag of potatoes and make 3 times as much and it will taste so much better. Just sayin’. This Marty and I know because as school lunch directors we had a budget of around 74 cents a meal. That was for a protein, starch, veg, fruit and milk, all for only 74 cents. We did it and made some pretty damn good food that kids enjoyed. It involved cooking from scratch, looking for bargains and bought what was in season. We in most cases, introduced children to real food. The first time I made homemade chicken noodle soup all the kids didn’t know what it was. “What’s that?That doesn’t look like my mommy’s soup.” LOL Most of them tried it and liked it. However, some kids dumped it straight into the trash that first year. Many of them could tell what I was making just by the delicious smells going through the hallways of the school.
Like I wrote about yesterday, when you are not being tied down to a certain list or menu, you can keep your eyes open for bargains. Figuring out what to do with it comes later. Of course, you could always take it home, break the package up into smaller portions, wrap them up well and throw them into the freezer for a few meals. You can also plan your week around such a bargain like I did today.
When I got the chicken home yesterday I really had no idea what I was going to do with it. I slept on it and came up with a couple ideas. At this point I decided I was going to roast the whole 5 lbs. I took the chicken out and patted it dry with a paper towel. Put it into a pyrex dish that would hold 5 lbs of chicken. I rubbed the pieces down with olive oil, granulated onion and garlic, paprika, kosher salt and pepper. I baked the chicken uncovered at 375 degree for about 50 minutes.
After my timer went off I took the temperature of the chicken with a digital thermometer. Since the pieces were all such different sizes I took the temps of 3 different pieces. You can see how they varied. You always want to cook poultry to at least 165 degree and the only way to tell is to temp it. Some recipes say it’s done when the juices run clear. That is a bunch of horse shit. You do not want to give yourself or your family food poisoning from undercooked chicken.
After the chicken cooled, I took the meat off the bones and you can see how nice it came off . I was amazed at how much chicken I had to work with. If I was bored I would have taken the bones and made a pot of chicken stock, but not today. I have a couple meals planned, then whatever is left I will wrap it up well and freeze the cooked chicken for another day. Stay tuned to see what dishes I make. It smelled so comforting in the house while it was baking, perfect on a snowy winter day.
Mmm – looks good already! What else??