Picked up this big bag of chicken leg orders for $5.90 at the local Food Lion. It’s usually $8-9 dollars but regularly goes on sale for $5-6.
It’s a good amount of meat for a small amount of money. Because it’s bone in the drippings are also something you can do a lot with in terms of seasoning veggies, sauces, rice or using it for soups. You’ll get an average of 10 pieces in the bag. This bag will do 4-5 main entree of meals for two of us, with a bit of leeway for a smaller piece or us splitting a second piece.
You can do anything with these. Whatever sauce you have is usually great. I use everything from BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, powdered ranch, to simple olive oil with lemon juice and garlic.
One of the things I’m using some old olive tamponade I found in the back of the fridge with a couple of olives. If I’m feeling lazy, I’ll just rub them down with olive oil, salt and pepper and season them later after planning out the rest of the meal.
One batch is the olive tapenade, a few black olives at the bottom of the jar, and the rest of a can of dice tomatoes I used for something else. The others are a powdered tikka seasoning, a salsa cream with some limes (rapidly approaching their sell by), and a simple creole seasoning. First rub them down with olive oil and salt/pepper. Season as you wish and then add in a smattering of various onion, celery, peppers. Veggies are more for flavor since I will make other side dishes to go with the chicken.
Bake at 350 until internal temp reaches 165. Spoon some of the drippings on top when it’s done. Voila. I will serve these with a mix of variously seasoned rice, beans, sweet potatoes, and veggies. May pull it off the bone to go in a salad or pasta.
by nursegardener-nc
7 Comments
Great use of ingredients!
Save all your bones and skins (and vegetable discards) in a bag in the freezer then make a stock for chicken etouffee.
My local United Grocery Outlet had the same deal this week ($5.90 for 10# bag). I got two & plan on vacuum sealing them in packs of two tomorrow. I was so excited!
Great price! Here in Alberta, Canada 🇨🇦, we’d be paying a few cents under $20 for 10#. We never get it for less than $1.99/# at the grocery store. Maybe Costco would be less, but, the closest one is 65 miles away, and I don’t think the $70/year membership cost would pay for itself in savings, by the time you calculate travel costs, etc.
Sounds like you have some great ideas on how to use the chicken. The mention of the olive tapenade made me think Mediterranean, then lemons. I saw a recipe just the other day for a sheet pan dinner that had you putting the chicken atop a bed of lemon slices, surrounded by veggies, with the olives added towards the end, just to warm them through. The photo almost had me drooling on my phone screen!
You could also make tacos with the most you pull off the bone.
Edit: additional text
Try roasting them in a covered roaster. Use a. It of garlic powder, onion powder, and perhaps some ground thyme as a rub. Cut off any fat or marginal pieces of chicken and drop them in the roaster along the sides to cook with them.
When done debone chicken and save the drippings thinned down 2 parts stock to one part water. Put in containers and freeze for up to 3 months. I would put that in like pint containers for ease of use later. Great with casseroles with chicken requiring water. I usually use it up in all casseroles or chicken pot pie.
I just put them in the air fryer and roast them with salt and pepper. I let them cool and take off and freeze meat. Per African tradition, I break bones and make stock in slow cooker.
Where’s the Chicken Adobo!?!?!