How To Stretch A $9.00 Chicken

Your rotisserie chicken has 21 servings if you do it right.

Years ago, people would roast a Sunday chicken, and then it reappeared as something else during the week. I still do that. BUT, sometimes we just don’t have a handy chicken kicking around in the freezer, or we’re too lazy or forgot to thaw it(me), or we just need to get something healthy on the dinner table tonight, fast.

Hello, rotisserie cooked chicken — savior of rushed, lazy and forgetful cooks.

I don’t know about you, but a rotisserie cooked chicken in my neck of the woods costs $9.00. And most people hoover it down in one sitting — about 4 servings. $2.25 per person which is still pretty damn good.

But with just a few slight adjustments, you can transform your ordinary and tasty $9.00 rotisserie chicken into 21 servings. (And no, you don’t need a 10-lb chicken.) Which brings your per serving cost of chickeny goodness to .43 cents a serving. Yes — you read that right.

Now that’s something to crow about!

The secret? 25% of the chicken is eaten as is, the remaining 75% is stretched with other ordinary ingredients.

Sure— you can certainly stretch it with a shepherd’s pie or in chicken fried rice. But please — sometimes we’re a little bored with those options.

I Have a Rotisserie Chicken Formula

The First 25%:

Drumsticks and wings — my husband loves them cold with a salad for his lunch. Easy-peasy — 1 serving

The Remaining 75%:

Curried Chicken Salad — 4 servings

Italian Chickpea, Orzo, and Chicken Stew— 8 servings

Vegetable Coconut Chicken Rice Soup — 8 servings

(And hey — even my werewolf dog ate the skin so he had a serving too! That’s technically 22 servings but who is counting?)

Each one of these dishes makes people happy, happy, happy and they all have a tasty twist.

Curried Chicken Salad

4–8 servings

OK — first off, I like my chicken salad to have larger chunks of chicken. So I get 4 servings out of mine. If you’re into finely diced chicken, well — you’re going to kick my butt with 8 servings.

Ingredients:

2 breasts from one rotisserie-cooked chicken

1 small sweet white onion — finely diced

2 stalks of celery and green tops— chopped thinly

*2 tablespoons of either chopped fresh basil or dill

3–4 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (don’t use plain yellow mustard — too sharp)

Grated zest from 1/2 lemon (always zest first before juicing)

Juice from the 1/2 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

*A small dash of cream (1 tsp approx.) — optional

1 tsp of mild curry powder

Salt and pepper to taste

For Dressing:

Add mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, curry powder, lemon zest, and juice, salt and pepper, and a dash of cream*. Mix well.

Now for the chicken:

1. Remove breasts from rotisserie chicken and cut into bite-sized chunks (or smaller if you really want to stretch it out.) Put into a medium-sized bowl.
2. Finely dice a small white onion and add to chicken pieces in the bowl.
3. Chop celery and tops thinly — dice them if you want to stretch it further.
4. Chop fresh basil or dill (if you have it in your garden or window sill — otherwise use dried.) Add to the bowl.

5. Don’t be stingy, add all of the dressing — you want the chicken salad to be moist so it sticks together. Dry chicken salad is a sin against mankind.

Now here’s what I usually do. You can fill a croissant with the chicken salad and then add a thin layer of cucumber OR tomato as well as either pea shoots and some lettuce from your fridge.

Or you just pile the chicken salad onto a plate with some lettuce or pea shoots and put the thinly sliced cucumber or tomato on the side.

Take your first bite. Rejoice.

Italian Chickpea, Orzo, and Chicken Stew

8 Servings

I recently made this and dropped it off for some friends. Their response?

“Sweet merciful God — that was so tasty!”

Ingredients:

2 thighs (and drumsticks too if you haven’t eaten them) from the rotisserie-cooked chicken. Remove skin and bones. Chop into bite-sized pieces.

1 small bag of dry, orzo pasta (or you can use macaroni or other small pasta)

1 large onion — chopped into bite-sized chunks

2 cloves of roughly chopped garlic

1 stalk of celery chopped

1 large tin of canned tomatoes

1 can of chickpeas (don’t drain!)

4 small balls of frozen spinach* optional

A handful of chopped fresh basil (from your garden — don’t buy it)* optional

2 cups chicken broth (or add 2 cups water with 2 stock cubes/packets)

2 tablespoons olive oil and some for drizzling

Zest from half of a lemon (zest before juicing)

Juice from the half lemon

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (more if you roll toward the hot side of things)

Salt and pepper to taste.

1. In a large pot, sautee onion and celery with olive oil until translucent but not brown (about 6 minutes.) Add garlic and brown for 1 minute.
2. Add canned tomatoes and chickpeas and liquid.
3. Then add chicken broth OR 2 cups of water with chicken cubes/packets.
4. Add chopped chicken, uncooked pasta, basil, frozen spinach, lemon zest, and juice, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Mix well.
5. Simmer covered on med-low heat for 30 minutes until pasta is cooked but not mushy. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil and stir in.
6. Eat the stew from a bowl and thank that little chicken.

Coconut Chicken Rice Soup

8 Servings

Well — this little number has the best of everything. Small bits of chicken, loads of veggies, a handful or two of white rice and to top it all off? A can of coconut milk which really adds a delicious and creamy touch.

Before you start:

Your chicken carcass has one last job. Remove the skin and put the carcass into a large pot, add about 4 cups of water and a dry bay leaf and put the lid on. Simmer on med-low heat for about 50 minutes. Remove the chicken carcass — don’t dump out the water — you just made broth!

Ingredients:

Small diced chicken pieces from boiling the chicken carcass

4 cups of broth water from above

2–4 cups of chicken broth

1 can of coconut milk

1 medium onion — diced

1 medium carrot or small chunks of sweet potato or yam — diced

2 stalks celery — diced

3 cups of bite-sized vegetables hanging in the fridge (you can add frozen peas or corn during the last 10 minutes of cooking)

3/4 cup white rice any kind

Zest from 1/2 lemon (zest before juicing)

Juice from the same 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons butter for sauteeing vegetables

1. First strain the broth into another pot to remove any bones. Any pieces of chicken put back into the pot along with the broth. Remove all of the small tender pieces of chicken that are falling off the bone. They will be small and don’t worry — they aren’t the main event so they don’t need to be big or plentiful. Put these chicken pieces back into your pot of cooked broth. Remove the bay leaf.
2. In a small frying pan, sautee the onion, carrots, and any other vegetable you have hanging about (but not cabbage)until they are soft. Add to the pot of chicken broth and chicken pieces.
3. Add a few handfuls of white rice to the same pot. Stir well. Add a container of chicken broth (or 2 dried cubes/packets.)
4. Finally, add a can of coconut milk and the lemon zest and juice and let the soup simmer on med-low for 60 minutes until rice is tender. Make sure the soup simmers and NOT BOILING. Boiling soup turns the vegetables to mush and toughens the meat.
5. Now taste it. Does it need a little salt and pepper? Tweak as necessary. This is a soup that you can layer additional seasonings as well ie/ a little grated ginger or dried ginger, or maybe a dash of curry or hot sauce. Play with it!

6. Sit down with your delicious soup and be smug about it. You just got 20–21 servings out of a $9.00 rotissierie chicken!

Thanks for reading! I have loads of food essays (delicious recipes too) and thoughtful and quirky simpler living essays waiting for you. (Well over 100 of them!) And this story caught the attention of NBC News In New York!