How I make 18 Meals from a Whole Chicken

so for years i used to buy pre-cut pieces of chicken until one day i finally just mustered up the confidence to buy a whole chicken and try to break it down myself and trust me it was not the best butcher job at all but what it was was a sort of breakthrough into a new dimension of chicken creativity and delicious meals and since then my chicken prep has only improved so what we're gonna do today is go on a little bit of a journey first i'll be showing you how to break down a whole chicken and what i think is the simplest way possible then i'll show you how to take those individual pieces and transform them into five different foods that you can use to create incredibly diverse and delicious meals throughout the entire week so two years ago i put out a series on whole chicken and since then i've only gotten better at butchering and at using up the different pieces of chicken which is the goal as a home cook we're always improving and in that series i actually took a little trip to the farmer's market and i got some really good tips from a chicken farmer who's butchering dozens of chickens a day and i still use that basic breakdown so we're just gonna run through it real quick the first cut i'm gonna make is just kind of opening up these legs the skin right between the legs and the breasts just slice that and then kind of crack this open just like that and this open chicken is just gonna make everything much easier to butcher now every chicken's gonna be a little different but you see right here i've got a ton of just excess skin now here's the butt so i'm just gonna slice that right off straight through that and then i like to take these wings off get them out of the way and really you're just slicing right through that joint you're never cutting through bone which is great when you're butchering chicken same thing over here and if you can't find the joint just kind of crack it open that's going to be much easier for you to find where you need to slice so now this is one of the trickier cuts we've got to take the leg off the carcass and there's this little piece called the oyster right here so you can see if you just bend it like this you can feel that seam that natural crease right here so we can really just trace that out with our knife and then we just really slice through that was actually very easy and then we have the thigh bone over here the drumstick the full chicken leg now all we're left with is the backbone the carcass attached to the two breasts now really this is the only other difficult cut you need to make you have the breast bone going right in between these breasts so you're gonna find that it's hard it's pointy so that's not difficult and you're just gonna start cutting to one side you're almost filleting the breast meat right off the bone so you're just slowly kind of splicing it open trying to get way at the bottom so you don't lose any meat you just keep kind of healing it away it's going to naturally peel away you don't need much knife work you can see we're almost there just slice that right off fully intact breast meat with this is the little tender you can see that's just gonna naturally remove second breast peel the tenderloin right off and now we're left with the carcass the main reason why you should be breaking down your own chickens wash my hands so i will break this carcass down just a little bit more to help in the roasting process we want to create a little more surface area for more flavor and i'm going to use these kitchen cheers let me send i love that piece and then same thing here just cut that right in half that's three solid chunks right there so this is basic breakdown right here breast tenderloin leg carcass extra stuff there wings but we're gonna take it a step further and break down the legs in the way start with the legs this is really simple again we're just finding that natural seam and then you can sort of break that open just to reveal the joint and just pop straight through with your knife there shouldn't be resistance if you do it right oh yeah and i'm just going to take out these bones right now of the thigh and we'll use them for stuff i've shown you how to do that many times perfect boneless chicken thigh with the skin on and i've shown you this before which couldn't be easier i'm just gonna crack that open right through there and just chop off that tip and now we've got the three pieces separated wash my hands so what i'm gonna do right away which i pretty much always do preheat the oven to 425 fahrenheit a nice roasting temperature check this out start from the bottom chicken thighs bone out chicken breasts skin off chicken tenderloin drumsticks four wings extra skin in the little butt extra bone edge that's what we're gonna start with right now so get yourself a little baking sheet or a big baking sheet it doesn't really matter and take a bit of oil on the bottom you don't need much just so it doesn't stick now we're going to add all of these beautiful bones this right here is why butchering your own chicken becomes so economical and so beneficial i'm gonna coat them in a little bit of oil and a little bit of salt the amount of flavor we're gonna get by roasting these bones and making stock is insane so this isn't fully preheated but that's fine throw it in the oven gonna be about 45 minutes to an hour once it's preheated all right so we're about 50 minutes in we're talking flavor that's how you make a good stock right there so good pop this out the first thing i'm gonna do is get a little jar here to start collecting that chicken fat or schmaltz which is liquid gold and we'll get more when we render off that extra skin now what i'm going to do is really really simple i've got a little pressure cooker slow cooker you can just use a regular pot and now low heat is going to give us a crystal clear golden stock now this all the fawn on the bottom that is so important that we get up boom right in there i'm gonna fill this up with water doesn't really matter how much you can always add more to dilute it later on i'm going to set this for 12 hours pop the top on so we'll let this slow cook away [Music] so we've made a massive dent already in our prep up next i'm gonna work on these chicken breasts so i have no idea what the exact numbers are but my guess is that 90 of people at least in this country just buy chicken breast exclusively which is kind of funny because it's my least favorite cut but this recipe has actually i would say change my perspective on chicken breast i'm back in the game thanks to some help from a little friend the first thing i'm gonna do is remove this skin now in the last series i did i fried up the chicken breast and i think i made a salad with it which is totally a fine thing to do but to me chicken breasts can be tricky to get right so i find just throwing it in the sous vide without the skin and not worrying about it at all so i've got this sous vide bag here i'm gonna pop chicken breast in there plus those chicken tenders now we'll remove this wash my hands again and we'll add a little bit of salt a little bit of pepper so the spice here is more of just a light infusion as it slow cooks and sous vides i'm gonna take a few lemon slices these are mayor lemons beautiful citrusy flavor and then i've got some parsley but i'm just gonna use some of the stem we'll save the actual leaves for the chicken salad and the stems will hold up a bit better in that cooking process peel it off take this little air sucker pump thing and boom ready to rock and roll so i'm gonna fill up this pot water and you could totally just poach the chicken that's gonna work great too but if you do have suvi capabilities that's sort of a next level pro home cook action just not necessary and i honestly don't sue that often but these little plug-in machines that hook right to the side of the pot they work great you can just store them away so easily i do have to look something up real quick angie lopez in the serious eats days you can trust this man with your life because you know he was recipe testing like a beast and he's got a little breakdown here which is perfect because it actually tells you 150 fahrenheit 66 celsius is best for tender and juicy for a cold chicken salad thank you kenji it's a one hour minimum four hours max i've been doing it at three hours into the bath we go i'll take a plate just to weigh down the chicken make sure it's submerged the chicken took about a three hour water bath and it's good to go i will let it cool off just a bit before cutting into it to not lose any extra juices now i'm gonna slice up the chicken into tiny little rough cubes and once we're cubed now it's time for the flavor i'm starting with those parsley leaves i'm gonna give them a rough chop and get that into the mix and about two tablespoons of mustard followed by some capers for a salty kick oh my goodness i almost forgot the crunch in this dish so crucial to get some fresh veggies that are gonna give it some texture i'm chopping up some celery here into small little pieces the carrots work great as well in your chicken salad and then i'll squeeze in some lemon juice to just brighten everything up a bit and i'm going to grate in some garlic on my microplane to give it a nice little spicy kit and then finally of course you got to bring it together with your mayo so a few fat tablespoons of that and just mix it up until it's perfect when's the last time you made really good chicken salad have you ever made good chicken that is so much better than your classic deli or store-bought chicken salad cause the flavor is just and it will only get better with time trust me on that day in the fridge two days in the fridge so good so this i don't know what i'm gonna make with it but i'm sure there'll be some creative meals coming later in this video we are cruising through this prep so next up is the easiest prep we're gonna do i'm gonna focus on these chicken thighs i'm going to actually salt brine them so just get a paper towel because you want to make sure everything's nice and dry pop your chicken thigh on the paper towel a good amount of moisture came off that as you can see wash my hands so dry brining will probably be the most important thing you ever learn about me more important than butchering because you can do it to any piece of meat and it's also the simplest thing you can do we're just gonna season our chicken thighs with salt and you can do this with any cut with the brass with the drumsticks but the reason i'm focusing on the thigh here to me this is the prized possession of the entire chicken i think it has the most flavor i think it has the best texture and when cooked correctly you really can orient an entire meal around this so you want to season both sides and when you're seasoning just want a nice coating of salt nothing too crazy you don't want to over salt so i'm going to take a plate pop my chicken thighs on there skin side up now i'll take these over the fridge pop those up there uncovered now if uncovered meat in your fridge wears you out and just cover it with saran wrap you'll still get the cure you just won't get the benefit of the extra crispy skin so since those chicken thighs are nice and thin one day is the perfect time for a salt brine overnight in the fridge but you can do two days i pushed it to three if i forgot and it's still fine so when i am breaking down a chicken i'm thinking okay the next day i'm gonna have these incredible chicken thighs to use for some crispy goodness which right now i don't know exactly what that will be but i have some ideas so stay tuned so we are flying through this prep now the last pieces i have and the last prep we're gonna do before we actually start making delicious meals for the week i've got the wings and i've got the drumsticks both of these cuts can handle a nice long slow cooking braising process where they get nice and tender and shredded and that's what i'm gonna do but the first thing while we prep everything i'm gonna take all of this chicken skin i'm gonna start rendering all this extra fat and we'll reserve some and we'll use some for this dish and what i'm making is a chicken adobo actually wash my hands so i'm using three different mexican dried chilies we've got pasilla guajillo and ancho so i'm gonna be removing all the stems the seeds and most of those inner white veins of the chilies i really just want the flavor of the chili and i'll get some spice with any extra seeds that make it into the dish i'm taking a scissors to these chilies and cutting them up into rough pieces and everything can be super rough in this dish because it's all getting blended up in the end now that the chilies are prepped i'm moving on to the chicken and i'll just coat that in some salt and some pepper get that nice and seasoned and then i'll move on to my fresh aromatic some rough chopped onion and i'm just gonna smash some garlic cloves and keep them whole so dried chilies are prepped aromatics this is coming along nice you can see fat has rendered i didn't add any extra fat to this but i've got a good five minutes more in the meantime go over here for some spice action see what we can get definitely cumin wouldn't mind some cinnamon in there that's what i think yes oregano for the win that's good for me so i've just been holding the pan like that to get it finished off remove these crispy pieces so good i'll probably just eat those i don't know if there's anything that tastes better than that in the culinary world so i've got my schmaltz that's a lot of fat i don't need all that fat but i do need some of it that looks pretty good now we're gonna braise this chicken so the first step is getting that chicken in the chicken fat and getting some nice color on all sides which is going to take around 7 to 10 minutes depending on your heat level then i'll remove that chicken and in with the aromatics with a little pinch of salt and i'm just cooking these down to soften them up get some nice color build a little flavor which is going to take around another five minutes and then boom in with the chilies so you don't actually have to pre-press the chili because we're doing it right now you can see it's getting nice and toasty now i'm just gonna add a little bit of cumin seeds fresh oregano and then this cinnamon stick half a cinnamon stick i'll deglaze with some water get all that goodness up in the bottom and then the base is tomatoes yeah whole can that's 28 ounces a little bit more water so after about five minutes of bubbling away i'm gonna add some salt then it's time to blend which um yeah this was an absolute disaster due to the lack of height on this pan so i'm switching to a blender which yep much better now that's my adobo sauce i'm gonna pour it right back into my pan followed by the chicken and i'll put that on a very low heat and cook it for about one and a half hours but really you'll know when it's done when that chicken is falling off the bone all right so it's been about two and a half hours i really let this go on a low and slow because i wanted it nice and tender look at that soft so the chicken should be the chicken should be falling right off the bone pretty much and that sauce is beautiful so i'm just going to take all of the pieces pop them into a bowl now this sauce you won't need to use all of it directly on the chicken i'm just going to split it into two containers that way i'll have some extra that i can freeze oh actually you know what this would be incredible with that i'm definitely gonna make enchiladas so the chicken in here i'm just gonna let that cool and then i'll shred it the options are endless for this definitely making enchiladas but i'm excited to see how this sauce takes shape throughout the week and right now i'll just let this chicken cool for a few minutes and i'll start shredding all right chicken prep officially done and before i start turning 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check out the link below use codeword home cooks for 20 off your first order now we can make some chicken dishes so there was one little piece of prep left which was making a teriyaki sauce taking advantage of that chicken stock plus a little mirin soy sauce cornstarch slurry sesame seeds and boom the first meal of the week was lunch right after i prepped and i went straight for the chicken salad first i fried up some leftover spinach i needed to get rid of chopped up some lettuce and pickles threw that chicken salad on a flour tortilla with some cheese filled it up popped on those freshies really tasty lunch now that night i actually had to prep little meal because i was going to the brooklyn studio to grab some camera gear the next day so i fried up the chicken thighs nice and crispy added in the rest of the spinach wilted that down air fried some broccoli and packed everything up served over rice with the side of the teriyaki now for actual dinner that night i made some noodles using about four cups of the chicken stock i added in some shiitake mushrooms and in the moment for whatever reason i saw some seaweed and i decided to throw that in which turned out to not be the best flavor combination and to serve up the noodles i dolloped in a little bit of chicken fat on the bottom of the bowl and for the seasoning i actually added the teriyaki sauce some rice noodles poured over the broth and added a half boiled egg overall definitely not one of my better noodle dishes the flavors didn't quite work out but i will get some noodle redemption later in the week oh yeah and just a note one thing i learned recently was that tortilla dough or masa is basically the same consistency as play-doh so for anyone with kids out there a great way to entertain your kids and meal prep at the same time is to make some corn tortillas so the next day when i got to the studio i just destroyed that teriyaki bowl and since i had some extra time i whipped up some enchiladas while i was there tortillas shredded chicken black beans repeat and once the air fryer was filled up i smothered them with that extra adobo sauce covered them with cheese and then into the airfryer and these were so delicious and actually turned into a few dinners so right here was a little chicken salad snacker that my wife had for lunch because she was a little too hungry to wait for the main event which were these yummy little slider rolls that i had whipped up that day and i roasted up some cauliflower in the airfryer then simply scooped on some chicken salad over those rolls a little bit of sauerkraut and this lunch really hit the spot okay now it's time for some noodle redemption i blanched a bunch of greens and stir-fried them up with some onions and a little bit of that teriyaki sauce now i had a few watermelon radishes hibernating the fridge so i decided to finally turn them into pickles then for the soup i added some chicken fat to a pot a nice glop of some homemade miso fried that up a bit and slowly emulsified in some chicken stock i poured that over some rice noodles added some air fried crispy shiitake mushrooms those pickled radishes and these noodles were a 10 out of 10. so good now at this point i was running pretty low on the shredded chicken so to bulk it up a bit i added in some beans and rice and the adobo sauce to make a nice little taco filling fried up some tortillas added a base of some creamy avocado sauce hit it with those pickles and then i air fried some little crispy potatoes on the side and serve that out for an awesome meal and the final meal for the week to use up the remaining little chicken salad i had was a salad that i made using anything remotely fresh i had in the fridge at that point i massaged up some chopped kale with a little bit of lemon added some romaine crispy tortillas chicken salad black beans fresh radish pickled radish shaved cheese and dress so there you go you don't just need to make soup out of a whole chicken you can really push it to make incredible meals all week long and of course after a few days if you're sick of chicken you can freeze things which i actually did which probably would have equated to a few more meals that i didn't actually count in this video so thanks for sticking with me i know this video was a little delayed on the release but i actually had my second child last week so i'm just slowly integrating back into the world of youtube but there are some awesome things coming for pro home cooks some big upgrades in 2022 so i'm very excited to keep these videos flowing and [Music] yeah that's about it hopefully you make some chicken and i'll see you in the next video

Channel: Pro Home Cooks

Views: 437,888

Keywords: cooking, how to, video, how to cook, how to make, cooking video, Chicken, Butcher, Chicken Stock, Chicken salad, Mea prep, Whole chicken, Chicken breakdown, Chicken adobo, crispy, easy meals, cook for the week

Id: dIyofv7G50o

Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 31 2022