How We Eat Paleo/Traditional on a Budget- Roasted Chicken

I'm not a homesteader. I'm not a doctor. I don't even play one on TV.  However, I read and research food and nutrition a lot.  Food can be medicine or a slow form of poison.  A large percentage of Americans are malnourished.  Now we may not have distended bellies, but things have a way of expressing themselves through symptoms.

I sound like a lot of fun, right?  Well, friends, I have seen first hand the power of good nutrition, and the rub with not being able to afford some ideal things.  One way I've tried to marry whole foods with our monthly budget is making a lot of stuff myself using good ingredients that pack a firm nutritional punch.  I'll pause here and say you might have more money, you might have more time.  Pick your battles.  (We have one salary and I homeschool.  Not sure where that puts me...)

So, once a month I have a chicken roasting day.  From these two chickens I can make 4 meals for my family plus enough broth for the month for rice and other recipes.  (Links to recipes I love are listed at the end. ) This is how it goes.

First I buy two organic chickens from Costco.  (Chickens from a local farm even better, or your budget might call for regular chickens.  Just be prepared that conventional chickens are pumped with water so the weight on the package is the same as their organic comparison, however the organic will yield more meat.  The conventional chickens will shrink.  True story.)

 Get out your roasting pan.  (My $5 beauty will one day be replaced with a finer version.  Until then I carry on.)  Preheat your oven to 450.

Pat those babies dry. (This will make it crispy delicious.)  If your birds have a bag of "stuff" in them, that's the cats meow for nutrition.  I won't tell you what the contents are exactly, but you have to eat them.  Put the contents of that bag into your crockpot immediately after getting them out.  Do that with the second bag o' stuff, too.  Cover it with water.  Set the crockpot time on low 12 hours.

                                           

Rub the chickens with sea salt (Himalayan sea salt is also good.  Both types have more nutrients than table salt.)  Place them nicely in the pan.  (They cook better if you treat them well and throw in some sweet talk.  Research never lies.)

Cook the chickens for an hour or until your meat thermometer reaches done.  I threw some apples and butter in a pan for dinner while I waited.  Sprinkled some cinnamon on them, some water, etc.  

Eat that little piece there at the end.  (You will thank me.  You're welcome.)

Let them cool a bit and take the chicken off the bone.  Now, as you debone, put the bones (not the skin) in the crockpot with the other stuff.  Let the chicken bones cook for at least until you get back from Bible study.  (Oh man, sorry. That's what we are doing.) Now I don't flavor the chicken. If you used a rotisserie chicken precooked from the store it will add more flavor.  Sometimes I will do that if I am pressed for time. (The reason for cooking the broth so long is this- you want to soften the bones and joints so you consume more collagen.)

After the time is up, strain the bones and you have some broth that is out of this world.  
Now, from here I do this pattern. 

Day one- We eat the chicken right off the bird and I make the broth.  In the evening I transfer the broth to cool for a few hours in a glass bowl and then freeze in freezer  bags or ice cube trays.
I set aside some broth, take the extra chicken and make...

Day two- Sweet Potato Apple Soup in my crockpot, Chicken Noodle Soup on the stove, and Bowtie Chicken Alfredo or some other chicken/pasta bake for dinner that night.  I freeze the soups in individual bags for a quick warm lunch treat.  Last winter I was so sick and literally thanked the Good Lord for frozen homemade soup every bite.  Chicken soup for the soul.  

Rest of the month:  Ice cubes for thinning sauces and the broth makes rice sing.  It literally sings.  (Or maybe that was just my family as they ate it…)

So my two chickens (around $23 together), yielded multiple meals and I used the whole bird.  The whole thing and drained that carcass of nutrients for my family.  My daughter who has been sick lapped up the broth like a little doggie.  It made all of the work worthwhile.