The Value of a Chicken

I'm sure I'm not the first person to discover the value of a whole chicken, but today its worth struck me as blogworthy. Plus, I haven't been cooking anything fabulous lately, so I'm overdue for a post.

As I've mentioned, I'm in a temporary home in San Diego for 8 weeks while my husband is out here for work. It's been nice, but I miss my kitchen and my things. Here, I have very few pans to work with, and all are very poorly made, which makes most cooking techniques a risk, at the very least. Aside from that, I don't have many of my go-to tools, such as a good roasting pan, so we've been relying more heavily on store-bought prepared foods, such as a rotisserie chicken we got at Von's Supermarket the other night--for probably the 12th time since I arrived here 6 weeks ago. Their chickens are great! Probably the best supermarket-cooked chicken I've ever had. And, at $5.95 for a cold, day-old version, the chickens are a real steal!

With that $6 bird, I will do various, all be, simple meal preparations for the next few days when I'm in a pinch for a quick fix. This afternoon, I had a cold chicken leg with the thigh (skin removed) and a side of cole slaw. Tonight, we had Caesar salad with chicken breast meat and a freshly baked baguette that I rubbed with minced garlic before tossing it in the oven; we shared a single breast. Tomorrow, I may use the other breast for a sandwich or stir fry, and the next day I'll pull off what's left and reserve it so that I can simmer the carcass for a nice chicken stock. I'll use the stock to make soup (maybe with some leftover pulled chicken), or I'll use it to make rice, gravy, or anything else I can think of within the week that follows.

The best part--or most valuable--is the fact that when we return to the east coast, we will be again treated to fresh whole chickens, free from my in-laws' farm. I think those chickens are appropriately called "priceless." Oh, and they give us eggs too! We're pretty lucky--but everyone can appreciate the value of a chicken anytime they can find multiple purposes for it at home.

Sidenote: As soon as I start cooking something noteworthy, I'm going to include photography. At least I'm going to try to include photography. We'll see how it goes.