In an attempt to eat healthier and less expensively, I’ve gotten really good at making one chicken go as far as possible. I used to buy a lot of boneless, skinless chicken breasts because they’re so easy to cook with, but have since focused on buying pastured chickens. And the only way I can afford free-range chickens is if I buy them whole. I know there are several different ways to cook a whole chicken, but I’ve found a method that works for us by creating at least 3-4 meals and gives us 6-8 quarts of broth to use in future recipes!

Step 1. Thaw the chicken.
This is a step that I’ve realized is way more important than you’d think! If you buy your chicken frozen (and I imagine you probably would) it takes at least 3 full days in the refrigerator to thaw out well. I imagine you could do a cold water soak if you needed to thaw it quicker, but that just seems more complicated to me. So, I recommend being sure it’s in the refrigerator for at least 3 days before you plan to cook it.

Step 2. Boil it.

I know some people like to roast or broil their chicken. I prefer to boil it because then I have ready-to-go chicken broth to make soup later in the day. I always plan this for a day I’m going to be home since it takes about 3 hours for the chicken to get cooked all the way through. I put it in the largest stock pot we have, bring the water to boiling, and flip the chicken over every 45 minutes or so since the whole bird usually doesn’t fit entirely under the water.

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Step 3. Let it cool and start making chicken soup.

Once the chicken is cooked through (I cut into it to check and see if it’s not pink), I take the chicken out to cool for about 30 minutes. I actually cook the chicken in this nifty pasta insert so that all I have to do is take the insert out of the stock pot without having to worry about not burning myself or making a mess in the process. I either put the pasta insert in the sink or on the counter on top of a plate to cool.

While the chicken is cooling I chop and add other ingredients to the chicken broth that was just made from boiling the chicken! You could do any variation of chicken soup you like. I don’t do anything fancy and actually don’t even follow a recipe anymore. I just add a chopped onion, sweet potato, and other veggies (often a bag of mixed veggies) along with 2 cans of diced tomatoes, and a whole lot of cumin, garlic, cilantro and italian seasoning and a bit of salt pepper, and whatever else I’m in the mood to add. It always turns out pretty good and I love having a pot of soup on the refrigerator to re-heat the next few days for lunch as well.


Yum! Chicken Soup in the Making

Step 4: Separate the meat from the skin and bones.

This is the key part that helps you make the most of the chicken! Depending on how big the chicken is I divide the chicken meat into 3 or 4 groups. I set aside all the bones and skin (and even fat!) to make delicious broth in the crock pot, while keeping the meat for future meals. I add one group of chicken meat to the soup that I’m already in the process of making and put the rest of the chicken (divided into ziploc bags if you’d like) in the fridge or the freezer depending on how far in the future I want to use it. If I’ll make it all in the next several days then I keep it in the fridge, but if I want some cooked chicken ready to throw into a recipe I will put it in the freezer. This time I was headed out of town for the weekend so I left Mr. Piñata with the chicken meat to make fajitas and chicken salad with while I put the chicken bones in a ziploc bag in the freezer and will make the bone broth when I get back into town.


Chicken meat separate from the skin and bones

Step 5. Make chicken bone broth in the crock pot.

This is actually a step that my sister told me about and I love it! If you put the skin and bones in the crock pot over the course of 2-3 days you can get A LOT of bone broth out of just one chicken! I put the bones and skin in the crock pot along with a chopped onion and celery and a splash of apple cider vinegar and then fill it to full with water. I cook it on high until I notice that it’s boiling and then turn it down to low and cook it for about 12 hours total. Then I spoon out 8 cups of broth to freeze, add more water and another splash of apple cider vinegar, and do the same thing again! I follow this pattern for about 2-3 days, until I notice that the broth is getting lighter. At that point it’s turning more into water than broth so that’s how you know you’ve gotten most of the nutrients out of the chicken. Using this method I’ve gotten as many as 8 quarts of broth from a single chicken! It’s SO nice to have this broth on hand when making any recipe that calls for broth or for when someone in the house gets sick and needs a soothing food/drink. Actually as I’m writing this I have beef stew in the crock pot with one of my bags of frozen broth! I love never having to buy it at the store now since it’s always on hand.

6. Use the cooked chicken in future recipes.

Once I have so much cooked chicken I use it in any recipe that calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but the extra benefit is that it’s already cooked! We use it to make curries, fajitas, casseroles, pasta, whatever! At this point you can be as creative or as simple as you’d like. Last week I added it to a spaghetti squash dish with pesto, diced tomatoes and parmesan cheese and it was so easy to already have the chicken ready to go.

I love it when I take the time to make the most out of a chicken. Although it’s one intense day in the kitchen it makes cooking the rest of the week a whole lot easier. What about you? How do you cook a whole chicken? Have you ever made bone broth before?