Steem Kitchen Contest #4 - One Roast Chicken threeways - Take three

So Steem has been dropping way down low and we're all feeling the pinch, and @steemkitchen's contest Cheap & Cheerful has come at just the right time.

What can we do to make our cents or rather our roast Chicken in this instance, stretch a little further?

Thanksgiving is coming up in some countries, and I'm sure the traditional Roast Turkey will take pride of place on many tables, but smaller families will certainly have a Roast Chicken on the menu.
@bozz did a post this week and asked us to respond with what we are thankful for - well, I could have written an entire post on just those things. Once I got started with my list, I realised just how much I have to be thankful for. Family came first, but many of us do not have any family but hopefully do have other things to be thankful for!
Spare a thought for the lonely and perhaps invite one of them to your thanksgiving dinner.

I did a post a while ago about making my chicken stretch, so here I am doing a new take on it especially for the Steem Kitchen community.

With our children having fled the nest, there's only three of us left, hubby and I and our 87 year old matriarch, my Mom.
We love our Sunday roasts with veggies and all the trimmings, so a Roast Lemon & Herb Chicken with fresh Herbs stuffing plus a potato bake or roast potatoes & fresh veggies is a regular feature, but it's way too much meat for just the three of us.

I will give quantities at the end but just tell you all about the magic of turning this one chicken into three meals, definitely something to be cheerful about :)

Sunday lunch menu was Lemon & Herb Roast Chicken with fresh Herb stuffing, Potatoes Au Gratin & creamy Swiss Chard & Corn.

After lunch, what's left over from the chicken was harvested for the next two meals - flake remaining meat and reserve for pasta, carcass for soup:

Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Ricciolini Pasta bake

Delicious and nourishing Mung Beans, Chicken & Veg Soup

RECIPES
Note I will break up meal servings but will give total cost of ingredients at the end of my post

Roast Chicken

Servings: (to make it stretch into 3 meals) 3-4
Prep time: 20 min, marinade at least four hours
Cooking time: 70 min at 190C

• 1,5kg Chicken
• 1 Lemon
• fresh Sage, Thyme & Rosemary
• Seasoning of choice
  Stuffing
• 3 slices Bread, grated into crumbs
• 1 Onion
• fresh Sage, Thyme & Rosemary
• 1 Egg

Method
1. Squeeze lemon juice over chicken
2. Cover with herbs and seasoning, stuff lemon inside cavity for marinating
3. Leave to marinade for at least four hours or overnight, turning halfway through
4. Mix breadcrumbs, onions, diced herbs & egg till it comes together nicely, season to taste
5. Stuff into chicken cavity after removing the lemon
6. Roast at 190C for about 70 min - note always roast the chicken on its breast side to keep that lovely white breast meat moist

Potato Au Gratin

Servings: 4-5
Prep time: 10 min
Cooking time: approx 40 min at 190C

• 3-4 medium-large Potatoes, thinly sliced into rounds
• 2 cups Milk
• 1/2 packet Mushroom Soup powder
• 100 gram Cheddar cheese, grated

Method
1. Arrange potato rounds in oven dish
2. Mix soup powder & milk, pour over potatoes
3. Dot with a little butter & bake around 35-40 min at 190C, sprinkle cheese on top for the last 10 min

Creamy Swiss Chard & Sweetcorn

Servings: 4-5
Prep time: 10 min
Cooking time: approx 20 min

• 1 bunch Swiss Chard
• 1 cup frozen Sweetcorn
• 3/4 cup Milk + 1 tablespoon Cornflour

1. Dice Swiss Chard & steam lightly, adding Sweetcorn at the end
2. Add milk & thicken with cornflour, season to taste

Mung Beans Chicken & Veggie Soup

Servings: 9, makes around 3,5 litres soup
Prep time: 30 min
Cooking time: 2 hours

Ingredients

• 1 cup Mung Beans
• 1 Onion
• 2 Carrots
• 2 Potatoes
• Chicken Carcass
• 1/2 cup Ricciolini Pasta shapes
• Spring Onions + Parsley, diced

Method
1. Cook mung beans for about one and a half hours in salted water
2. Keep on adding hot water, should end up with around 3,5 litres soup at the end
3. Add grated veg, chicken carcass & juices from roasting pan plus pasta and cook a further 30 min
4. Remove carcass from soup, flake off all the chicken meat, remove all bones and add meat back to soup
5. Lastly add Spring Onions & Parsley

Serve with homemade bread or crackers

Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Ricciolini Pasta bake

Servings: 5
Prep time: 30 min
Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients

• 3 cups Ricciolini Pasta
• 200 gram Mushrooms
• 2 Spring Onions, diced
• 2 cloves Garlic, crushed
• 1/2 packet Mushroom Soup powder
• 2 cups Milk
• 100 gram Cheddar Cheese, grated
• Leftover flaked Chicken

Method
1. Cook pasta al dente
2. Sautee mushrooms & spring onions in a little butter or oil
3. Add chicken & milk and thicken with soup powder
4. Mix cooked pasta & chicken sauce, pile into oven dish
5. Grate cheese on top & place under grill

Serve on its own or with a fresh garden salad

Shopping List
TOTAL COST ZAR157 or USD11,14 or a whopping current 26.87 Steem for 18 meal servings

• 1,5kg Chicken ZAR55
• 350 gram Ricciolini Pasta ZAR10
• 200 gram Cheese ZAR17
• 1 packet Mushroom Soup Powder ZAR5
• 1 litre Milk ZAR12
• 1kg Potatoes ZAR8
• 200 gram Mushrooms ZAR20
• 2 Carrots ZAR2
• 1 cup dry Mung Beans ZAR5
• Swiss Chard ZAR15 would have been free from my garden but some creepy crawley ate into the leaves, making them look like green lace, not impressed!
• 1 cup frozen Corn ZAR8
• 2 Onions - free from my garden
• 1 Lemon - free from a friend's garden
• 4 Spring Onions - free from my garden
• fresh Herbs, Thyme, Sage & Rosemary - free from my garden

So guys and dolls, let's hope Steem starts moving up so we can all get back on track again with our budgets, but hope that my cheap & cheerful Chicken magic will help you somewhat :)

Original Content by @lizelle
Thank you for stopping by
Comments, upvotes & resteems all much appreciated :)
Copyright @lizelle - All Rights Reserved

Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone