You know how much I like experimenting for the sake of frugality. So I went on a mission to stretch a whole chicken through five meals to create a relatively healthy and inexpensive meal plan.
Note: I’m feeding a household of two adults. If you have a larger family, you’ll likely need to purchase an additional whole chicken.
First up, I prepared my shopping list and meal plan. I started off my shopping at Target and quickly realized I’d have to make an extra trip to Walmart because Target only has small whole chickens. So off to Walmart I went, with the mission of finding the largest whole chicken they had in stock, which happened to be just over eight pounds.
Shopping List Notes
- The cream of onion soup was supposed to be cream of celery. I mistakenly picked up the onion soup.
- The plain Greek yogurt is our healthy alternative to sour cream.
- The Parmesan cheese was used shredded over salads, in the salsa chicken wraps and in the Parmesan garlic green beans.
🐔 Preparation
I roasted the chicken in the crockpot. This was the first time I attempted this cooking method and let’s just say it had its complications. An eight pound chicken in a 4.5 quart crockpot is an incredibly tight fit! But, I made it work!
Once the chicken was cooked, I sliced the breast meat and shredded the dark meat by hand. I also took the carcass/bones from the chicken and stored them in order to make crockpot chicken stock to be used in the chicken noodle soup later on in the week.
🍱 Meal Plan
The chicken pot pie was the only failed meal from the entire week. Because this was one of the last meals I created for the week, we were running low on chicken. So this really was more of a vegetable pot pie with the addition of shredded chicken. Also there was too much crust; I created a bottom crust and a lattice top crust and it just didn’t work.
We had plenty of chicken noodle soup leftover – enough for at least another week of meals.
💰 Cost
If you’d like to do this meal plan on a bare-minimum budget I’d recommend eliminating the following things from your shopping list:
- Croutons
- Fresh Parmesan cheese
- Organic Salad Greens (in favor of iceberg lettuce)
- Flour Tortillas (in favor of more affordable corn tortillas)
I also recommend purchasing fewer onions since one or two will do for the crockpot chicken stock and the homemade chicken noodle soup. These changes alone will lower the cost of the meal plan from the original $46 to the $30+ range.
Results
I’ve done less expensive and more complete meal plans in the past. Strictly from a frugality standpoint, I think I did well, but not as well as I could have. All in all, one whole chicken was used to make five dinners in addition to homemade chicken stock. If I were to do this again, I’d definitely pick up a larger chicken because the chicken pot pie had very little shredded chicken in it.
This was the first time I’ve made a whole chicken work so hard, so I’d love for you to share your whole-chicken-stretching secrets in the comments below.
Hi!
Ginny Collins is a passionate foodie and recipe creator of Savor and Savvy and Kitchenlaughter. Indoors she focuses on easy, quick recipes for busy families and kitchen basics. Outdoors, she focuses on backyard grilling and smoking to bring family and friends together. She is a lifelong learner who is always taking cooking classes on her travels overseas and stateside. Her work has been featured on MSN, Parade, Fox News, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and many local news outlets. She lives in Florida where you will find her outside on the water in her kayak, riding her bike on trails, and planning her next overseas adventure.
Ground chicken and turkey is cheaper than ground beef. Ground pork too. Which can all tastes like beef in the right meals. At least when you buy mostly organic and pasture or free ranged. I do spend a lot more money on meat bc I can’t stand the thought on how they are treated. But these…all of these ideas are great. My grocery bill has seemed to skyrocket the last year.
Thanks, Melissa! Groceries have gone up quite a bit this year. It feels brutal to us! We are constantly looking for more ways to cut back. Cheers! Ginny
Just a FYI. The larger the bird the better the meat to bone ratio, so buying 2 smaller birds will not get you the same amount of meat as the same size in weight large bird. The larger the bird, the better. ?
I loved this article because it included recipes that my family will actually eat. There are 5 in our family (including two teenage boys who can put the food away). I doubt hat we could get 5 meals out of it, but we could probably get at least 3. I don’t buy a lot of whole chickens because I feel that by the time you pay for the bones and other stuff you don’t use, chicken breasts are cheaper (at least when I get them on sale).
Something I started doing is making dressing at least once per month. I make the dressing. I usually put the chicken in the crockpot and then when I fix the dressing I just crumble it on top or sometimes I put it inside. It usually takes 1-2 pounds of chicken and it usually feeds us that night and then we have plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day.
I’ve done something similar with young turkeys. I purchase two every Thanksgiving, but if you have a deep freezer, I’ve heard of some buying 12…one for every month for a year. Two good sized turkeys (each one providing stock and meat for several casseroles), cost me only 7 dollars each.
I’m really enjoying all of your ideas! I do lots of this type of money saving meal prep and grocery shopping as well. On the subject of whole chickens and buying them bigger, I’ve found that buying the max pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts is more economical. I don’t buy the name brand chicken and I can get six large breasts for $10 at WalMart. I cook that in the crock pot using Spike seasoning and the juices from that cooking makes awesome stock for soup. I can get 6-9 meals for 3 of us out of 10 worth of chicken and I don’t need to mess with skin and bones (which we pay for by the pound). Big smiles!
This is how I get meat into my boyfriend and my diet on 50 dollar weekly budget. On Sunday I make a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. That is our lunch for the week along with some in season fruit. The rest of the chicken will be used to make several of the following meals: chicken a la king with rice over toast, chicken stuffing casserole, chicken and bean burritos(freezes well for a quick meal), chicken and brocolli pasta, chicken salad sandwiches, chicken pot pie(freezes well for a quick meal), buffalo chicken pizza. Even the dog gets some chicken for the week from the carcass. My other favorite is bottom roast in the crock pot. You get delcious shepherd’s pie, sandwiches and a beef pot pie too. My motto is buy meat on sale, stretch it or freeze it. Stay frugal.
Ive been doing this for years. I look for them when they go on sale for .98 cents a pound..then I roast a few at a time in the oven. I personally like the way theu turn out better in the oven versus the crock pot. The cro kpot makes them to oily for my tastes…and stomach. I usually make roast chicken the first night, chicken salad for lunch, chicken noodle soup and a chicken w garlic sauce pizza…sometimes I make chicken w crwam sauce / veggies / and rice. Chicken paprika, chicken catacatori
..lemo. peppet chicken…the ideas are endless. Can do the same thing when ham and turkey goes on sale. I also biy pork tenderloins when I find them for $1.50 a pound…slice them on my slicer for pork chops and a variety of other ideas. Happy frugal cooking!
Hi, This is great and will definately be giving this a go. I have found your blog very interesting and especially liked the focus around doing what you can within your own situation, as I have found many blogs are directed towards large families where for me its just me and the hubby. Living in the UK we dont have the crazy coupon offerings the states bring to the doorstep so looking at alternative options to save a penny, can be very interesting and obscure at times! Being in my 30s I find I am somewhat ‘different’ to many of my peers having just started an allotment to grow our own veg for next year. I also enjoyed reading about your 27 dollar challenge. I took part in something quite similar for charity earlier this year called live below the line raising funds for organisation tackling global food poverty where I had £5 to live on for 5 days. If it hadnt been for the ability to team up with others to purchase and split items I would have struggled to get a balanced menu.
Looking forward to your future blogs!
I do something very similar. I have two adults and one very picky 2 yr old in my house… I usually get a 4-5 lb chicken and roast it with carrots, potatoes, onions. Whatever “garbage” is left over from preparing the veggies I put in a freezer bag and save for making chicken stock after the bird is roasted. Then I roast that bad boy up. We eat on the roast that night, then I pick the bird clean and use it the rest of the week. Usually making chicken pot pie with the leftover veggies and some home made cream sauce in a pie crust. Then the next day usually chicken enchiladas and by the end of the week it’s home made chicken soup. I usually buy two whole chickens a month because I make a roast every Sunday. If it’s not chicken then it’s a pork roast or beef (if I can get a good price) I have also started using only 1/2 of the meat that the recipe calls for. You really don’t miss it.. at least my family hasn’t said anything yet.. lol Thanks for the tips.. I’m going to try a few of your recipes.
I have started doing this with turkey. It runs half the price of chicken, and I can actually get 5 meals for my family of 5 out of it, not including the amount of stock I get from it.
Buying turkey is a great idea! I love to stock up on them after Thanksgiving because they’re super inexpensive at that time.
Hi Jazmin i know this doesn’t have anything to do with stretching a bird, lol, but could you tell me what the site is that you use for adding what’s in your pantry and it gives you the meals you can prepare? i have been looking for it and i can’t find it in your posts. Thank you ;0)
Hey Melissa! It’s SuperCook.com 🙂
Jazmin, thank you so much. stretching the chicken is a great post, thanks for showing us how to do it. i have been researching ways to stretch our ground beef and pork :0)
Ground chicken and turkey is cheaper than ground beef. Ground pork too. Which can all tastes like beef in the right meals. At least when you buy mostly organic and pasture or free ranged. I do spend a lot more money on meat bc I can’t stand the thought on how they are treated. But these…all of these ideas are great. My grocery bill has seemed to skyrocket the last year.
Oh Jazmin, this is just what I need! We rarely buy meat because it’s too expensive for how fast it goes! Thank you thank you!
I hear you on the cost of meat! I hope this gave you some ideas, Sammi!
I’ve actually been toying with the idea of getting an even bigger bird for the size of my household. I’d roast a 15# – 20# bird on Saturday when I’m getting chores done. On Sunday I’d tear it apart and freeze it in meal-sized portions in the freezer or even pre-pack some casseroles or dump-it meals. I did this recently when ground beef was on sale and it is SO awesome to just grab a baggie from the fridge and let it thaw while I make a quick sauce or prepare a casserole. Since the beef was pre-cooked, it saved so much time on busy days.
You can also save money – and time – if your grocery store makes those rotisserie chickens. Ours sells them for about $6. We have one hot meal with it when I bring one home and then I use the leftovers for chicken salad, soup, & casseroles. And crockpot stock with the carcass, of course.
I do exactly the same thing – I buy a rotissere chicken and then have the legs with a potatoe/egg salad, the two wings with a macaroni & veggie salad, sliced chicken with gravy with mashed potatoes and veggie, sliced chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato, chicken soup with noodles or matzo balls (if mix is on sale), chicken fried rice, chicken with noodles and veggie – an entire week from a rotissere chicken. Yesterday at Sam’s Club I found two 5 lb chickens for $8 – grabbed them – two weeks worth of meals for less than $20 (with veggies and noodles and wraps). As a senior on a very fixed income, I have found great healthy wesmeals can be made for $32 a week.
That’s a great idea! buying a bird that size will definitely feed a family more comfortably than my little 8# bird. I LOVE your idea about ground beef! If I purchase from zaycon I’ll try something similar.
wouldnt it be cheper to buy 2 smaller chickens. I never pay more than 3 or 3.50 for a chicken that would be 7 instead of 12. chicken and home made noodles are good. use the bones and left over veggies to make the broth cook noodles and add a little chicken.
Because the chickens were priced by the pound it really wouldn’t have made a difference to the price I paid. But if there would’ve been a clearance sticker that definitely would’ve made a smaller bird less expensive.