Chicken week: Roast and Repurpose, Greek chicken pie and a bunch of chicken-friendly recipes
It's a clucking celebration
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For a while now I’ve wanted to start a series of “weeks” where we take one ingredient and go to town on it.
How to cook it, what to do with it, how to store it or freeze it. Some recipes that make use of it.
I’m starting with chicken because, well, I love it. And the big recipe this week is a Greek chicken filo pastry pie made by poaching a whole chicken for its meat, reducing the stock, and packing filo pastry in the most incredible way. A true celebration of chicken.
Vegans and vegetarians I’m sorry, this week won’t be your bag. But rest assured I have big plans for plant-based weeks very soon.
For the rest of you, let’s do this.
This is a big email, so here’s what you’ll find in the next 2000-odd words:
A note on choosing your chicken
I don’t have to bang on about this too much because when it comes to food writing, almost all of us always say the same thing — buy the best chicken you can afford.
My brother rescued battery chickens from their fate and reared them in his garden. When they arrived they were in a terrible state, their behinds rubbed raw from feathers, scrawny, and weak. It was upsetting. Once you’ve seen battery-farmed chickens in the flesh, you’ll never buy a $5 chicken ever again.
Although I choose to eat meat, I also choose to only eat meat that’s had a happy life. The best way to ensure this is to get to your local butchers or try an online option.
I’ve just come across two US-based meat delivery services — Crowd Cow and Butcher Box.
Both companies apparently source their meat from sustainable, quality farms and send it right to your door. Meat services like this are a great option for those of you who don’t have access to a quality local butcher.
Failing that, look for chickens that are free range or organic in your supermarket. And if it’s cheap, remember there’s a reason for that. Not a good one.
Although a good quality chicken can be a little pricey, the good news is that there are ways to make a whole chicken go far. The following method is one I’ve used for years and gives me and my husband something like 4-5 meals from just one chicken…
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The Roast and Repurpose method — make your chicken go far
For nearly 10 years, I roasted a chicken every few weeks but never actually ate it as part of a roast dinner.
Instead, I would use the “roast and repurpose” method which gives me around 4-5 two-person dishes per chicken.
It goes something like this:
Roast a chicken (recipe below).
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