a chicken in every (crock) pot, continued...

The other day I decided to conduct an experiment to find out just how many meals I could get out of a three dollar and seventy-five cent chicken.

The tally so far?

• Meal No. 1: Roast chicken for two
  
• Meal No. 2: Chicken Pot Pie for two
• Two quarts of stock
  
• Breakfast for three cats and two dogs (leftover bits from making stock)
• Meal No. 3: Chicken Pot Pie (lunch) for two

That brings us to Monday night, and a truly desperate inspired use of leftover chicken (if I do say so myself).

I chopped half an onion and a handful of cherry tomatoes from the garden and sauteed them in olive oil. Then I added the meat from the chicken legs, a can of Cuban style black beans, the last of the salsa, and the tail end of a bag of frozen corn. I seasoned liberally with chives, cilantro, cumin and chipotle chile flakes...Are you beginning to sense a trend here?

I had already put some rice on to cook, using some of the chicken stock and a few more spices, like chili powder and cumin and...(no, not coriander!) a few threads of saffron, which even though it doesn't start with a "C", is very tasty.

Then I fried up a batch of corn tortilla chips in canola oil...

and threw together a simple salad with lettuce from the garden, topped with dried cranberries.

Meal No. 4

It was pretty tasty and...colorful. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
And here's the latest tally:

• Meal No. 1: Roast chicken (dinner) for two
  
• Meal No. 2: Chicken Pot Pie (dinner) for two
• Two quarts of stock
  
• Breakfast for three cats and two dogs (leftover bits from making stock)
• Meal No. 3: Chicken Pot Pie (lunch) for two
• Meal No. 4: Cuban Chicken & Rice (dinner) for two
  
• Meal No. 5: Cuban Chicken & Rice (lunch) for two
• Meal No. 6: Chicken Pot Pie (dinner) for two

I don't know about you, but I'm getting kind of tired of cooking, looking at, writing about and photographing chicken...There's one slice of pie left. Maybe Dave will eat it.
I'll let you know what I do with the rest of the stock, but not for awhile-I promise.

Now click over to Bossy's...where she's gone on a crash cash diet.