Comments on: What to Do with Bone In Split Chicken Breasts

By: Marrisa

Marrisa — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:08:51 +0000

Thank you for posting this. I too am kind of a b/s chix snob but I think it’s becuase I have no cooking skills and didn’t even know where to begin with whole chickens. I buy food through the Angel Food Ministries program and they always put in whole chikens and split chicken breast, becuase it’s cheaper, but I never know what to do with them. You post has helped greatly. Thank you!!

By: Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom

Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:52:13 +0000

@kim, The knife cuts cleaner through the chicken when frozen. (But you hands will get cold!)

By: kim

kim — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:54:54 +0000

how is cutting frozen chicken easier? i can see partially frozen. sorry I just found this website and it’s awesome

By: red.kitteh

red.kitteh — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:36:12 +0000

@red.kitteh, Oops, I think I left in a gratuitous sentence there at the end of the first paragraph. Sorry.

By: red.kitteh

red.kitteh — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:56:05 +0000

I wasn’t always good with whole chickens. Here are a few things I’ve picked up. Apart from basic good procedure, like SHARP knives, get a pair of kitchen shears made to cut food. (Mine are from Smith & Wesson. They even have a notch by the pivot just for chicken bones, and they come apart for cleaning. They are incredible!!)
Cool, and the pickings should fall right off. Perfect for salad, casserole, whatever.

My best cheat for whole chickens is to stuff the bird with a chopped onion–dust the onion with paprika, curry, herbs, or whatever YOU like. If you can’t sew, close the openings with toothpicks, but don’t ‘bury’ the picks. Oven roast. Lay the bird breast up for a “show” bird, or breast down for the juiciest roast chicken you’ve ever had. Then the whole thing is already cooked, and the leftover can be picked as soon as it’s cool enough. QUICK, CHEAP, EASY! The Cheapskate trifecta!!

Chicken comes from a whole animal: bones, gizzards, guts, skin, feathers and feet. Your story about the Dominican butcher gave me a good laugh, but it also made me appreciate my roots on the farm. I’ve killed, plucked, prepped, roasted and eaten chickens that I’ve known and fed. I also got a puzzled chuckle out of the comments about being “grossed out” by a whole chicken, or even the parts that aren’t purely muscle. You and I have skin and bones; so do birds. Even the ones we eat. Remember, respect and be grateful for/to the animals you eat.

By: darcy

darcy — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:10:53 +0000

I believe you need to try out for: “Hey Can you cook” on rachael ray ( I know you’ve been on the show) OR Next Food Network STAR – as you are a star and have lots of interesting stories and the such like they want on the program! Thanks so much for all the tips, recipes, and fun here on $5 dinners! Maybe we should all take inspiration from the movie Julia and Julie too and blog our way through various cookbooks – like you are your own too – Or try to turn the recipes into $5 dinners!? Just a thought… I post favorites from various sites and especially Food Network on my blog! Cooking, Baking, Shopping, Meal prep, couponing, and all is SO MUCH FUN!

By: Gina

Gina — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:36:09 +0000

To Claire:

To get skin off a chicken, use a paper towel to peel the skin back. It’s not slimy and comes off pretty easily.

As for the bones, no crock pot, don’t worry. Get a big pot and do exactly the same thing only on a stove on very low heat for 8 hours. It’s the same thing.

Time savers: get a moist towel to put under your cutting board to keep it from slipping, make sure you have a sharp knife to work with, have your pot ready for the bones, have a ziploc ready for your new b/s chicken breasts to go in the freezer or to marinate.

Hope this helps,
Gina

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:33:04 +0000

Just found the site today after you appeared on the RR Show-which is my new favorite! Thanks so much for the great tips. I’m finally a stay-at-home mom so any new trick will help. My newest trick for chicken-I boil a combo of bone-in Thighs(.78/lb) and bone in Breasts (.99/lb) then chop the meat for chicken casseroles for the rest of the month. After I divied up the meat in zippies, my cost per dish is now $1.56. I saw on RR show that the thigh meat is very comparable to the breast meat but cheaper. After cooking it, the thigh meat did seem to be very similar to the white meat and I will do this combo from now on.

My mother is a fabulous cook and I can remember calling her in college to ask how to cut a whole chicken-phone on shoulder, chicken in one hand, knife in the other. Since then I have never been afraid of bone-in chicken. My husband unfortunately is a LOUD B/S snob, so I have to camouflage the bone-in chicken. I am slowly winning him over with my frugality and maybe soon he will see the light!

By: Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:29:13 +0000

[...] 16 oz container fat free sour cream ($.88) 1 can of green chiles ($.68) 1-2 cups homemade chicken stock (free) about 1 1/2 cups of shredded chicken ($1.50) 1/2 tsp garlic powder ($.05) Salt/Pepper, to [...]

By: Chicken and Tostones

Chicken and Tostones — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:59:04 +0000

[...] before handling. Cut off as much chicken meat as you can. Save juices and bones/carcass to make broth. 5. Serve Chicken pieces with White Rice and Tostones [...]