How to Make Three Meals With One Rotisserie Chicken

Photo byTim Bish on Unsplash

Food is getting more and more expensive as time goes on. Costs have increased by about 6.7% in the NY/NJ areas.

Finding new ways to make your dollar stretch is important.

One great way to save money is by using one item to make multiple meals.

Rotisserie chicken is often a staple grocery item for people because they're cheap and convenient to grab. So let's see how just one chicken can provide you with three meals.

The first step is separating the chicken into three parts. Take the legs and all the dark meat in one section, take the breasts and other white meat in another, and set the bones and skin aside.

The dark meat is great for meals like fried rice, chicken burritos, or chicken chili.

All of these meals require minimal additional ingredients. For example, fried rice can be as simple as rice, onion, chicken, and peas. The chicken burritos can be made with whatever vegetables you have on hand, or you can even make breakfast burritos using eggs.

The chicken breast/white meat makes up the bulk of the chicken, so using it as the main portion of your meal will help other grocery ingredients go further. For example, chicken breast and veggies are often a tasty pairing. Or, chicken and potatoes or pasta (both inexpensive ingredients) work well.

Finally, the bones and skin will make great chicken stock. Here's a recipe that shows how to make a simple stock.

You can use this stock to create a wide variety of dishes. But if you want to keep things simple and focus on saving money, adding frozen vegetables and rice can make a tasty soup.

These are brief examples that showcase how to make multiple meals from one rotisserie chicken but there are plenty of other meal options out there that can utilize one chicken and still save you money!