Chicken Soup for the Pocketbook

Chickens were .99 cents a pound, so I grabbed one for the freezer.  It's turn arrived last night.  I cut out the backbone, rubbed it with some spices (onion powder, granulated garlic, cumin and paprika with generous salt and pepper,)  and I browned the skin side  in oil in a cast iron   skillet.  Tossed in a quartered onion and put the skillet to bake at 350 degrees along with a casserole with carrots and parsnips and more onion with butter, oil and a little chicken broth.  Salt and pepper, natch.  The chicken cost $3.54 and half of it was left due to ingesting a large salad with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, avocado and ranch dressing topped with dill.  


So. . . chicken soup!  I took the meat off the bones this morning and cooked the bones with carrot, onion, celery tops and a bay leaf.  When it came time to make the soup, I sauteed onion, carrot and celery, and then added the broth and some extra broth from the fridge.  Cooked the veggies, then added peas and the already cooked leftover veg from last night, chopped chicken, some dry mushrooms soaked in hot water and their liquid, the "jus" from the skillet last night with all those tasty spices in it, and some leftover rice that I'd defrosted.  More salt and pepper.  A little more water.  Taste until just right.  


Made that kick-ass salad again and served up the soup with  toasted English muffins.   Very toothsome.  And there's leftovers!    Six servings of high-quality protein for .59 cents per person.  Can't beat that.  And all those wonderful vegetables.  Last night I had saved some leftover  rum glaze for a cake and we heated it up and poured it over ice cream.  Died and gone to heaven.   
The Boston Globe now always offers two meals, one using leftovers from the first.  This is just smart and of course, frugal and tasty and time-saving and even delicious.  That's a lot to like.  I could have made chicken fritters or something Mexican.  Leftovers are versatile.
Yours ever in frugality and downright cheapness. 


The Cheeseparer