$5 Chicken Week

September 26, 2013

Every once in a while, when I am needing to be extra frugal or when I am running low on chicken broth, I do a $5 chicken week. I got this idea from my mom and aunt. They are experts at eating on a dime and they are "foodies" too! I tag along with my mom to Costco (We haven't become members yet) and I buy a $5 rotisserie chicken. They are delicious and cheap and can feed our family for a week (usually)! 

$5 Chicken Week

This is how we do it:

Night One: Eat Rotisserie Chicken 

After dinner that evening, pick off all the remaining meat from the bones. When I do this I pull apart all of the bones and try to get every last bit of meat. You should have quite a bit left. Refrigerate or freeze the left over chicken. Take all the bones, skin, and extra gooeyness and put in a crock pot. Fill the crock pot with water until the bones are covered. Heat on low over night, or all day depending on when you start this. You will have delicious chicken stock the next morning! 

Throw out all the bones and skin, I use a strainer to do this. Freeze the chicken broth for future use. Anytime a recipe calls for chicken broth, I just pull out a plastic container of it from my freezer. Even today I am making chicken and noodles in the crock pot and it was wonderful to have it on hand. Remember every penny counts! 

Night Two: Chicken and Rice Soup

I usually use some of the chicken broth and left over meat to make chicken and rice soup. It is comfort food for me. All you need is some of the meat, rice, and broth and I add my favorite seasonings to make a great meal! 

Night Three: Chicken Fried Rice 

With some of the left over chicken I make chicken fried rice. I add egg for more protein. It is easy and a great way to use up left over veggies (or frozen veggies) and rice. 

Night Four: Chicken Mexican Casserole

 If there is still meat left over, I make this chicken mexican casserole. It doesn't call for much chicken and it is oh so yummy! 

Night 5: ?

I don't always have left over chicken at this point, if we my husband eats a lot of the chicken at the beginning of the week. Sometimes instead of just eating the chicken on the first night, we will make paninis with the chicken so it lasts longer, or a Chicken chili to help make the chicken stretch through the whole week. Or I'll use the broth and throw together some veggie soup from whatever is left in my pantry or freezer.

I am not great about taking pictures of my food while I am cooking. I am trying to get better. If any of you had read this post about the Crock Pot Chicken and Noodles or the Meatball Sub Casserole, I added pictures. They both were super easy and yummy!

Here's to many more weeks of being organized and meeting my goals of eating on a dime, or in my case $40 a week!