A Whole Chicken

Every so often, once a week to once a month, I'll take advantage of a good offer and buy a whole chicken. I could roast it whole, of course, or cut out the back and roast it flat as Bittman advises. Usually, though, I butcher it and take it through the following steps:

1 Breasts get used for fajitas or stir-fries, or are maybe marinated and grilled, and sliced and served alongside heaps of veggies and starches. At any rate, there are just the two of them, and they're usually not that big when I get them off of the whole chickens on offer here. But they'll provide the animal protein for a family meal at any rate.

2 Drumsticks get separated from the thighs and, and these together with the wings (and oysters, if I remember to dig them out) are marinated and roasted and served whole, or pan-fried, or thrown into a simple chicken stew. More flavor, and fat in these pieces, though they're filled with those cumbersome bones.

3 The carcass is really what we're working towards here. The other parts can get bought and used already prepared, but the carcass is special, especially in a country where canned chicken broth is unheard of. Here you're stuck with salty, suspicious bouillon cubes or doing it from scratch. I keep a big yogurt bin in the freezer I periodically fill with vegetable trimmings: the ends of onions and carrots and celery, and when I've got a chicken carcass (or back) to work with I throw it (trimmed of fat and skin) in the stock pot along with whatever's in the freezer. I usually get enough stock from this process to make a pot of soup and a batch of risotto.


There's nothing new in any of this, of course, but it does require a little planning ahead and a bit of time on the part of the cook. We're not a vegetarian household, but that doesn't mean we don't respect the animal or can't try to make the most of it while limiting our intake of animal protein. Making a chicken last three or four meals is just part of that philosophy.