How to Get the Most from a Rotisserie Chicken

We all have bought rotisserie chickens at one time or another for a quick dinner. This is one convenience food that has more uses than just one meal.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Rotisserie Chicken
• Large soup kettle
• Assortment of vegetables
• Pie crust - ready made
• Salad fixings

1. 
    
   Combine your rotisserie chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and a vegetable

   After bringing your rotisserie chicken home, remove as much of the meat as will be needed for your dinner. If you are feeding a family, you might want to get two of the chickens for all the uses. Often grocery stores will sell two of the chickens at a good rate. Just ask. Keep the meat for dinner warm in a low temp oven (about 250 to 300 deg.)while you prepare the rest of the meal. Put the chicken that remains in the refrigerator.

2. 
    
   When you have removed the chicken from the bones keep it all in plastic bags designated for sandwiches and meals.

   After dinner, remove the rest of the chicken from you refrigerator and remove the meat from the bones. Put it all into a zip lock bag for future uses, such as sandwiches, chicken pot pie, chicken salads. Recipes for all of these suggestions can be obtained from your cookbooks or from online sources such as www.allrecipes.com . Do not throw out the bones.

3. 
    
   Nothing beats a good homemade chicken soup.

   With the bones you can make a great chicken soup. Break up the bones at the natural joints and put into a Dutch Oven with at least a quart of water. Cut up an onion and a few carrots and at least two stalks of celery. Add salt and pepper to taste. Also add some thyme, oregano and any other seasonings your tastes enjoy. Let the soup simmer a couple of hours until a good broth comes. Take out the bones and remove any meat that remains on them. Put the meat back into the soup. Add either cooked pasta or rice to the broth. Season to taste. Enjoy! Use your own recipe or, again, consult one of the many online recipe sites.

4. 
    
   Use a good bread or a baguette, some mayonaise or salad dressing, add a tomato and lettuse and a great sandwich is there for you.

   With the remaining meat, lunch sandwiches can be made from the breast meat. A nice dinner pot pie will use up more of the meat and a chicken salad will probably finish it off.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't care for soup the stock you make can be used for many other things.
• Use your leftover vegetables for the soup or potpie.
• Always keep unused portions refrigerated.