I feel like I have had a chicken revelation last month and I wanted to share. Maybe you all have already thought of this and/or already doing this but I am going to share anyways. Just in case someone else hasn't thought of it. Who knows maybe I am going to be embarrassed by the amount of "duh" comments I will get! :)
I have found that if I buy whole chicken (they come 3 to a bag) from Costco I can get more for my buck. What I do is I immediately cook two of the chickens in my crock pot with a little seasoning. I then shred the chickens and put into two separate containers. One is used for meals, from soups, burritos, quesadillas, stir fry's, wraps, to anything your heart desires. The second container is used for lunches. I make chicken salad out of one and provide my hubby with a weeks worth of lunch. I then use whats left to make chicken salads or just to add some protein for our lunch. I serve the kids some with hummus to dip it in. Then as soon as I am done shredding and separating the chicken I throw the bones back into the crock pot, add some carrots, onions, fresh garlic, seasonings such as: thyme, oregano, s&p, etc. I then continue to cook it overnight and into the next afternoon. Next I strain the broth (be sure to have a bowl under the strainer- last week I literally dumped my broth down the sink, I was bummed) and store it in containers and jars. I put the extra containers in the freezer until I need them for soup! So lets compare the prices, I am going to use all Costco price since that is what I know and where I buy all of these things.
1. Bag of whole chickens- $23.15
2. Box of organic chicken broth- $11.69
3. Nitrate free turkey breast lunch meat- $14.89
That's a total of $49.73 < that's alot of money!! For our family that is basically weekly!
Now if we only bought the chicken, made our own broth and used the leftover shredded chicken for lunches that equals $23.15. That being said I think its only fair to add a few bucks for the garlic, onion and carrots for the broth. So let's say the total is $26.15. That's a savings of $ 23.58 a week!! Now alot of you might be thinking its only $20 I'd be saving a week, the extra $20 is worth all of the time I would have to spend making all of that stuff....... I must inform you that it is sooooo easy! The broth literally takes 4 minutes and 37 seconds to put together. Seriously. And if you have children to help you shred the chicken it goes by so much faster, makes them feel like they contributed to dinner and gives you time to see whats on their hearts just by chatting or listening to them chat! Think about it the "just 20 bucks" turns into $1,226.16 a year you could be saving!! Now that's alot of money!
I like your idea of cooking several at a time for lunchmeat/easy dinners! I've been making stock out of them for about the last year and I love that I can control the fat/salt content! If you put the broth in the fridge overnight, you can skim a bunch of the fat off. I also found out that if you pour the broth into ice cube trays before freezing, it's easier to measure out how much you need later. My trays are about 6 cubes= 1 c.
ReplyDeleteI love posts about saving money on groceries!! :-)Melissa
This is an amazing idea! We also buy all of our meat from Costco (love it there!!)so i will buy the whole chicken pack next time and do the same!!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! You have a good system going... I think I am going to start doing that myself. Thank you for sharing this with us on Simple Lives Thursday.
ReplyDeleteSuch a good idea! I haven't done this much chicken at once, but we love a roast chicken at dinner, and then scraps and stock are made from the leftovers. I like to freeze the stock in ice cube trays, too. It really makes it convenient for using later. Such good ideas! I found you through Simple Lives Thursday, by the way.
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Great Idea! I like chicken in the crockpot too. It makes it so moist.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this idea before but just got a crock pot that doesn't have lead in it so i'm excited to take that one last step of making my bone broth in the crock pot.
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to say that i usually don't like playlists on blogs and turn them off - but I LOVE yours!! I think I'll keep it on all day :)
And to speed up your broth system a bit I have another great money- and time-saving idea.... When you take the tops of carrots, onion, celery for other purposes (snacks, salads, cooking, etc.) and even when you peel carrots or onions keep the tops/peels in a freezer bag and then use THOSE in your broth. All the taste, less food waste overall and save on time when you need it for broth. You're just straining the stuff out anyways so skins don't matter - flavour does!!
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