How many meal I can get out of a chicken.....

I can normally get 3 or 4 meals out of a average sized chicken...I start out my baking the chicken generally with just salt and pepper for seasoning...then I start by deboning the bird...sometimes I debone the whole thing..sometimes just what I need for one meal...I generally use a breast for one casserole, and then the other breast for another casserole, and then both quarters for the last meal...then boil the bones again so any meat I may have missed will fall off and make a rich broth which can be used for any of the casseroles, or used in chicken and dumplings...

What kind of casseroles do I make with my chicken...favorites around here are chicken and rice...I combine one breast cooked and shredded with 3 cups cooked rice and a can of cream of mushroom soup and cream of chicken soup and some broth, mix well and bake about 30 minutes..sometimes topped with cheese but more often not..next we enjoy chicken spaghetti, which I make two different ways..the first way is the same as the chicken and rice but using spaghetti noodles...the second is just adding chicken to my red marinara/spaghetti sauce, we enjoy that red one served with mozzarella cheese on it..next we really like chicken and dumplings...I take my chicken and chicken broth add a can of evaporated milk or regular milk (about a cup and half) then I mix up some biscuit dough and drop the dumplings in while the chicken, milk and broth is boiling..I cook the first 1/4th of dumplings basically until they dissolve (they provide the thickening for the broth) then I make the rest of the dumplings...add lots of black pepper and delish!!!another dish we enjoy is chicken quesedillas, I just chop the chicken really fine, heat up a nonstick pan lay a flour tortilla in it, lay on some cheese, then some of the chicken chopped fine, then more cheese, than a tortilla on top, then brown on each side, cut into wedges serve with refried beans and lettuce and sour cream, salsa and guacamole...YUMMY!!

I will be back later with more tips
~Cindy~