Making it S-T-R-E-T-C-H …. (Part 3)

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Day 3
Today we are making our last meal with the remaining 3 cups of chicken.  In Part 1 and Part 2 we roasted our chicken, started making our chicken stock, made enchiladas and now we wrap this meal plan up with some delicious tasting chicken noodle soup! 

By mid afternoon my stock had been simmering for 20 hours.


It was time to strain out the stock. To do this I put a large bowl (you can use another stock pot if you wish) in my sink and put my strainer in the bowl. Then I poured it all into the strainer separating the bones from the stock…




When all was said and done I ended up 24 cups of rich looking and great tasting stock. For my day 3 dinner of chicken noodle soup I will be using 12 cups of stock. I put my 12 cups in a soup pot and set it on the burner to heat up to a boil.



While this was coming to a boil I got the rest of the soup ingredients ready. 

2 cups sliced carrots
10oz. pasta of your choice (I used spinach linguini noodles, but any type will work)
3 cups of chopped chicken




After my chicken stock had come to a boil I added my 2 cup of carrots..



I let this boil and cook for 15 minutes.

When it was done I added my pasta and my chicken meat..






I let this boil and cook for about 12 minutes (enough time to cook the pasta). I tasted it to see if it need salt, and it did.. so I added that along with a little pepper and a few dashes of Tabasco because we like a little kick to our food.. but the Tabasco is not mandatory! ~smile~



When my soup was done I put the remaining chicken stock into zip type quart bags. I had 3 quarts of stock to put in the freezer for future use. There is nothing better than homemade stock!


All in all my chickens cost me $10 and I fed my family for 3 nights plus had extra stock for the freezer.  I would say that is a pretty good deal. 
 

Comments

  1. Gail LaCroixFebruary 26, 2011 at 6:34 AM

    Thanks so much for the "Making it Stretch" series, Crytsal. Everything looks delicious and I can't wait to try both the chicken and beef ideas! I always enjoyed your "Trim the Budget" series as well --you've helped me think outside the box when it comes to fixing nutritious and low cost meals for my family. Again, many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KristineFebruary 26, 2011 at 7:30 AM

    What size pan/pot did you use for the stock to simmer in?
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. kellyFebruary 26, 2011 at 10:12 AM

    loving this series!

    ReplyDelete
  4. CrystalFebruary 26, 2011 at 2:14 PM

    Kristine, you will need a pot that is at least 10 quart.. if you don't have one that big, you can add less water, but you won't get as much stock when you are done.. but you will get enough to make the chicken noodle soup.

    My stock pot is 14qt size..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kitka's Human MomOctober 23, 2013 at 8:54 AM

    Thank you SO much for this series.

    ReplyDelete

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