Chicken for 77 Cents per Pound…nostalgia and inspiration!

Chicken at Safeway this week is 77 cents per pound – seems like Safeway changes the chicken price to this level from time to time. I remembered that long, long, LONG ago, I bought a whole chicken and froze it. I figured that I should use it…nearly a year later?

So I defrosted it overnight, and then brined it. Didn’t follow a recipe for the brine – just threw everything (for just a few hours, with salt, sugar, and apple cider) into a large stockpot, stuck it in the fridge for about 4 hours. I figured the apple cider vinegar would help liven up the taste if the chicken had fallen victim to freezer burn.

Someone had given me many bags of veggies, including a wealth of root veggies: fingerling and purple potatoes, as well as carrots. I decided that they would form a bed for a roast chicken. While the chicken marinated, I soaked the root veggies which were a tad dried out.

After quickly rubbing it with some chilic powder I got for $1.00 at the dollar store, I put the 4 lb chicken on a bed of root veggies into the 450 degree oven. About 75 minutes later, it was all quite roasted. The feedback on the chicken? No one knew it was previously frozen!!! I could have roasted a (previously frozen) woolly mammoth if I brined it first!!! Brining is truly magical.

Roasted chicken was part of one day’s meal (yesterday’s). And what about the second day of roasted chicken? Why not make lettuce cups? That’s right, slather that chicken with kim chee and roll it up in some lettuce. And call it a day. So so easy.

I can see doing something similar with cold, drained, firm tofu. Hm…maybe I’ll have to try that.

Thanks for still reading my blog, despite my inattention! Here’s a totally gratuitous photo of some California goodness.

Forty Cent Chicken Soup

Wildflowers

In the summertime, I bought five pounds of chicken quarters at $.77/lb. A total steal.  AndI had bought ginger, garlic, celery, and carrots. I had grand plans to make curry chicken, which I had’t done in ages. But then a heat wave hit. Who has the will to brown five pounds of chicken quarters when it is HOT? I couldn’t do it. But I didn’t want to freeze it either. So…maybe it’s time to make some chicken soup! Using this recipe means you want a LOT of chicken soup. Are you ready for it? And the chicken meat is soooo tender!

Forty-Cent Chicken Soup

5lbs of chicken quarters (@.77/lb = $3.89);

majority of a bunch of celery ($1.79 per bunch);

1 large yellow onion about 3/4 lb ($.99/lb = $.75);

most of 2 heads of garlic (sold 2 for $1.00);

most of a 1/3 lb chunk of ginger ($2.99/lb = $.93);

1/2 lb of baby carrots (1lb for $1.00, on sale);

lots of water; and

salt to taste.

Total cost: $9.36

Total elapsed time: 90 min.  (including washing the pot, cutting board, etc.)

Yield: about 6 quarts (24 cup-servings)

Cost per serving: 39 cents.

0. Washing/Chopping

I washed and chopped the veggies first. Then I washed the chicken. I always handle the meat last, in the interest of food safety.

1. Sweating the veggies

I started a skillet on medium. Smashed the garlic cloves, in their skins. Then removed the skins, and added them to the skillet. Then added the chopped onion, celery, carrots and ginger. The proportions are really forgiving. I am fickle about carrots so I don’t put a lot of them. In general, any type of root vegetable – rutabaga, beets, parsnips, daikon, etc. – can be part of the soup (if you have any type of root vegetable. There are a lot of root veggies from the brassica family, a.k.a., the cruciferous vegetables, which are extremely good for you.

2. Bringing everything to a boil

Once all the veggies were sweated/carmelized, I added the chicken quarters. I didn’t even feel like removing the chicken skin! So I didn’t. Then I just added water to barely cover and brought everything to a boil, leaving the lid off.

3. Simmer

After the water came to a boil, I lowered the heat to a simmer, added the lid, and did something else for about 45 min. The mass of ingredients was too large to place into my pressure cooker safely (you are only supposed to fill it to 2/3 capacity) but this would have been a good one for pressure cooking in a larger pot.

4. Homemade Chicken Soup is Mine

I let it cool down, and boiled some pasta for a simple soup-meal. Homemade chicken soup makes everything taste better! I eventually refrigerated it, skimming the fat (schmaltz) off of the top to use later.

5. Schmaltz

Chicken breasts are not my favorite. I usually eat them last, when there is no dark meat left. I had some chicken breasts leftover from a whole fryer I was using to make chicken curry, and I thought about trying the schmaltz from the chicken soup. Oh, it was SO good. The schmaltz picked up all the wonderfully deep flavors of the soup and gave them to the chicken breasts.

Someday I might have to try a stock recipe – just using the bones, and no meat.

P.S. I added to the Tips page the other day: The always-brilliant Frugal Cuisine says to never throw out chicken fat – use it  in lieu of expensive, fancy butters. Also on the Tips page – how to make a vegan stock.

my first pressure cooker dish: Chicken with Bamboo Shoots – very inexpensive prep

Well, I broke down and bought a Presto stainless steel pressure cooker. It’s worth every penny. I got it from an evil retailer who shall remain nameless for about $60.00. Holds six quarts. I am in LOVE. Why? It cooks very very quickly. It keeps flavor locked into your ingredients. It tolerates amazing laziness from the cook. Run, don’t walk and get a pressure cooker. Here’s the first dish I prepared with it:

Chicken with Bamboo Shoots and Apples

• 4 lbs of chicken (about $7.00);
• 4 small chopped Gala apples (about $2.00);
• 2 containers of tofu ($2.00 – from Whole Foods);
• 1 large chopped yellow onion (about $1.00);
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce (pennies);
• 4 tablespoons of sugar (pennies);
• 1/2 jar of bamboo shoots in chili oil (about 1/2 of $2.19);
• 1 beef bouillion cube (approx. $0.20); and
• 3/4 cup of water.

Well, just throw everything in and toss well. Um, get the thing to start pressuring. Pressure it for about 15 minutes. Remove it from heat, and keep the lid on for about forty minutes. Once the pressure has escaped, open the lid. Enjoy the heavenly texture of the chicken, now imbued with the confident tang of the preserved bamboo shoots. Yes, the meat will fall off the bone. As for the cleaning – hey, no burns on the bottom of the pot. No scraping. Sudsy water and sponging should do it. So easy, and so absolutely delicious. I’m sure the dish could be improved by browning the chicken, but, why not be lazy?