Thanks for affirming the magic of boiling chicken. I'm a huge fan of stretching the breasts for many, many meals. The only reason I don't do the dark meat is cause hubby hates it. But the principle can be applied the same. Thanks!
10 Things to Do With Chicken Leg Quarters
Photo: glen edelson / Flickr
These little bargain beauties routinely come in 10-pound bags for a fabulous price. Here are 10 things you can do with chicken leg quarters to help stretch your family's grocery budget. (See also: How to Pinch Your Poultry Pennies)
Soft Tacos
Chop up leftover, de-boned chicken and heat up in a frying pan with 8 ounces or so of tomato sauce and some taco seasoning. Serve with all of the usual taco items such as chopped lettuce, shredded cheese, black olives, etc. Here's a bulk recipe for homemade tortilla mix that will keep things even more frugal on the home front.
Chicken Pot Pie
This down home, frugal family favorite is very inexpensive and uses thrifty vegetable choices as well such as carrots, onions and celery. Using leftover meat from a large batch of chicken leg quarters makes it even more affordable. Here's a simple recipe for chicken pot pie we use at our house.
Soup
There are more recipe options for this than I could possibly list in one posting. However, Katie Lee over at Chaos in the Kitchen stepped up with two. Here are her recipes for homemade tortilla soup with chicken and traditional chicken soup.
Calzones
I make chicken, cheese, and pesto calzones. OK, the pesto isn't exactly a penny pinching item if you don't make and can your own. But this recipe idea is a way to put a little pizazz into your family's weekly menu without completely breaking the bank.
Burritos
Mix in that leftover chopped chicken with some refried beans and use to fill a tortilla. Accent with your favorite Mexican style toppings. Burritos are just one more of the many affordable meals you can make with tortillas.
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Pizza
What are some of the yummy gourmet pizza ideas you've seen using chicken? Try them out at home! BBQ sauce instead of the traditional Italian red? Alfredo? Pesto? Get creative. Here are several alternative pizza sauce ideas to get you started, as well as a bulk dry mix recipe for homemade pizza crust.
Go International
Mix with some yogurt and your favorite Greek style seasoning mix and serve in a pita bread. Here's a recipe for Turkish tzatziki sauce you could use for a slightly different flavor.
Salad Power
Use with black beans and corn to give a Mexican feel to your green salad, try your hand at a homemade chicken Caesar, or go traditional with a basic chef's salad. Here's a recipe for a yummy chipotle chicken salad using homemade tortilla strips.
Fried Rice
This is a dirt cheap way to have an ethnic meal for dinner for around 15 cents per serving. Here's an inspiring fried rice article from Chaos in the Kitchen.
Your Basic Lunch Sandwich
Pair up your sliced chicken with some crisp greens and pre-cooked bacon for a yummy club sandwich. Here are some additional sandwich ideas for you die-hard bread fans out there. You'll be brown bagging it in style.
A tip for using the large bags of chicken leg quarters is to pre-cook them. You can either bake up the whole batch at once and de-bone after they've cooled, or bake up a few for a more traditional meat and potato dinner and just put in 2-3 extra legs for use throughout the week. If you really want to squeeze a penny until it cries, boil instead of bake the chicken when you pre-cook. You'll have homemade soup stock ready to go!
Best of Wise Bread
Hi. thanks for posting. I don't always boil, but it is a time saver when I'm running low on homemade stock. I like to make my own because I can control the fat (skim it off the top when it hardens) and the salt.
I'm also with you on the stretching of the meat supply through many meals (love that stir fry). It makes such a huge difference in the total monthly grocery budget at our house.
My husband isn't a fan of chicken either, but one thing that my family, including my husband, love, is chicken ala king. Use the chicken you have cooked in the freezer, add chicken mushroom soup with some milk, ( not a who can. Keep it thick). and peas or peas and carrots, I use canned. On those nights you need a fast meal there it is. Serve with rice. Get fancy and have buiscuts with it. It's a hit when we have more for dinner than expected
Those are great ideas, but where are the recipes?
Also, you deserve a medal if you can make boiled chicken more appealing than the gray, flavorless crap mom used to make.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. You know, I considered putting more detailed recipes, but felt it would take away from the purpose of the article, which was to provide a snappy list of ideas people felt they could jump in and use this week.
I do have several recipes on our family blog, if you'd like to check them out. Or you could run a search on the ones that interest you. Happy saving!
Boiled chicken is fine, as long as you flavor it with something. I think the point of boiling it is to cook it ahead of time so you'll have something to use on your salad, pita pocket, etc.
As to getting recipes for chicken, I use this thing called Google. :)
Good point.
You read my mind, the point I'm going for when I pre-cook is to have a bunch of chicken ready ahead of time. If I wanted to make tacos for example, I wouldn't want a flavoring in the meat ahead of time that would take away from the success of that recipe.
However, if you feel you would be using the chicken more as a direct ingredient, as in the salad suggestion, then you might want to season it, or go ahead with the baking option and sprinkle some herbs over before it goes in the oven.
Thanks for commenting!
Surprised to not see chicken salad in the list. This is one of my son's favorites, since he doesn't like plain chicken.
Just chop the chicken up fine along with onion, celery, relish, whatever else you want and douse it with mayo (or thick salad dressing--french works) so it sticks together a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste, or get funky and add curry powder, taco dust,...
Serve with crackers, bread, celery sticks, pita...
And those bones and skin you had left over? Boil 'em for broth. We typically bake chickens, then after they've been picked clean we boil whatever was left for broth (cover with water, cook until water reduced by at least half).
Hey--anybody know of recipes for those seasoning mixes? Sounds like a frugal thing to me, since they're probably charging a premium for mixing them for you. I do italian on the fly (roughly equal amounts of basil and parsley, with half or less that amount of oregano).
I love to season the chicken leg quarters with a generous sprinkle of garlic powder, onion powder and Lemon Pepper.......do both sides........then roast at 350 til done. I usually do 10 lbs on 2 cookie sheets. Loosen the drippings by adding some water and scrape off. Carefully pour into a container, refrigerate and remove the grease when cold....... I use some chicken grease when making creamed cabbage........nothing gets wasted.
Yes, chicken salad is a nice standard to include from the chicken legs or roast chicken left overs. I'm so with you on the stock. It's so much healthier.
Regarding spice mixes, I'm working on a few for meat rubs, but one thing I know of is mixing beef broth powder with dried minced or chopped onion. It makes a homemade version of onion soup mix and is great if you want to use that for a French Dip sandwich dinner. I'll try to find some more. I have noticed since you mentioned taco seasoning that at least where I've shopped, I have a hard time making my own for less than I can buy the bulk stuff at the warehouse store.
Glad you liked the article.
HEY EVERYONE I'M NEW TO THE SITE AND I HAVE A LOT OF CHICKEN RECEPIES BUT NONE OF THEM REALLY SEEM TO BE QUICK AND EASY FOR THE MOM ON THE GO. I RECENTLY PICKED UP SOME CHICKEN THIGHS AT MY LOCAL GROCERY STORE BECAUSE THEY WERE ON SLAE, HERE IS MY PROBLEM THE HUBBY IS TIRED OF EATING THE SAME OLD BARBQUE CHICKEN THAT I USUALLY MAKE WITH THEM NOR IS HE INTO POT PIE. SO NEEDLESS TO SAY I'M STUCK I HAVE FOOTBALL PRACTICE AND NEED TO COOK BEFORE WE GO BUT DON'T KNOW OF ANY QUICK, SIMPLE, MOUTH WATERING DISHES I CAN TURN MY CHICKEN THIGHS INTO. SO IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS LET ME KNOW.
ALSO IF ANYONE WOULD WANT TO TRADE RECEPIES THAT WOULD BE FANTASTIC.
THANKS
ANGEL
I make this recipe when I am in a hurry. This recipe takes about 15 minutes or so and is delicious. If you already have chicken boiled and frozen, then just thaw it and you're ready to start. Prepare enough instant rice for your family, when it's done, add your chicken, a can of corn (or frozen, or maybe change the veggie if you like), and chicken gravy (mine's out of a can, in a hurry, remember?). I know it doesn't sound like a gourmet meal but I can guarantee that my kids loved it and still ask for it to this day. I have friends and family who have started making it after hearing how easy and tasting how delicious this recipe is. If you want, you can make a can of those hungry jack biscuits to go with it. Have the honey jar there for the biscuits. Hope this helps the women who have a hectic schedule.
Well, if you've already precooked them and have rice on hand, the fried rice idea is one of the fastest, in my opinion. I try to sometimes make rice on the night I bake off the legs. Then, I'm all set for either chicken and rice soup, casserole, or the chicken fried rice. It's way less than a quarter per plate for cost, and pretty darn quick if you have those two items on hand. If you haven't cooked them, perhaps a different marinade or seasoning so hubby doesn't get bored? I've been looking for a honey orange garlic recipe I used to make that was REALLY popular at our house. Many of my recipes are in storage, but I'll keep checking for that one. What was great was you could prepare it ahead and freeze it. Then you would just pull out 2 or 3 in advance and pop them in the oven. Let me know how the above ideas work out for you.
Thanks for posting.
Take the boiled chicken and mix one chopped white or yellow onion in it after it has cooled. Heat up some corn tortillas in the microwave and roll a few tablespoons of the chicken onion mixture in the tortilla. I make a long row of these in a 13x9 pan, seam side down. I then pour a can of green chili enchilada sauce over the enchiladas, sprinkle generously with monterey jack cheese, chopped green onions and a few canned black olives. Bake this all at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with a nice dollop of sour cream and you're set for a simple but great enchilada dinner.
i need a recipe something easy and fancy with chicken but fairly easy lol..... email chrismackay1@live.com
For me, the easiest thing is to get out the crockpot first thing in the morning and cook the chicken legs/thighs that way during the day. The broth I add to for soup or chicken and noodles. I don't do chicken breasts this way; that usually goes for a chicken-spaghetti combination we never get tired of; we do that at least once a week, or the foil packet thing with veges combo in the oven. Anyway, I personally am fine with just cooked leg/thigh meat with a bit of barbecue sauce, a baked potato and broccoli. Sometimes that's all the further it goes anyway, ha-ha, if you've been running all day, you walk in hungry and it's dinner right now.
what is the foil packet thingy you do with veggies and chicken in the oven? I am cooking chicken quarters right now, and was looking to see how long to cook them for (found it) and stumbled accross this information. the recipes sound great, the advice sounds great. thanks for the info, oh and yeah, the foil packet things?
thanks
hi! love the article and helpful advice - can you please tell me what the foil packets are? chicken and veggies, of course, but how, what and how long?
Well, it takes about an hour to cook them, so you would need to put them in there at least that long. Unless you were up for deboning and skinning them. In that case, cut up the pieces with some potato slices, onion wedges and a green veggie or two and fold them into a sealed aluminum foil "envelope" of sorts. 375 degrees for a half hour should do it, but check the meat and tenderness of vegetables first. For myself, I like this technique best on the grill with a pot of rice cooking on the side. Everybody can grab their packets and get a scoop of rice. It also takes the focus off the meat but still provides some wow, if you are trying to cut back on costs. Or, if you still want to include potatoes, you don't even need the pot of rice. The whole meal will be in the packet with very little clean up needed.
I like it. A menu after my own heart. Especially the biscuits, as we use quite a bit of the homemade baking mix to save pennies.
And even more affordable if you are able to make your own mushroom flavored cream sauce to use as a binder. Either way though, a decent use of leftover chicken.
someone asked about premixed seasonings?
i use this on everything from grilled fish and chicken (as a dry rub and during cooking) to veggies and even sprinkle on poached eggs- it always seems to bring out flavors...
1 salt (i use sea salt granules)
2 dried parsley (~3x the amount of the salt)
3 dried onions (~3x the amount of the salt)
4 white peppercorns (to taste - start with 5-10)
i use a thai granite mortar and pestle i bought online and grind it to a chunky powder. since there are no commercial binding ingredients you will have to de-clump it just prior to using (i stick a chopstick in the spice jar and stir). delish.
other quickee cheats:
for a yummy spicy dip or for fish tacos:
1 ranch dressing
2 a bit of sambal oelek (indonesian spicy chili paste sauce - this is not the same garlic chili sauce you see at most asia restaurants)
http://www.amazon.com/Huey-Fong-Sambal-Oelek-Chili/dp/B0006SKCJU
(it's crazy what you can buy on amazon these days)
stir
for a yummy dip for artichokes/veggies:
1 mayo (approx 1/4 cup)
2 squeeze of lemon
3 stone-ground dijon mustard (approx 1-2 tsp)
(ratios to taste)
stir
enjoy!
jdf
Here's one I bet you didn't think of! =P
Raw feeders often use chicken leg quarters as a staple of a raw diet for their dogs. They are pretty cheap and have a pretty good ratio of bone to meat. Not a balanced diet all by themselves, and not necessarily frugal (though I do know people who manage to wrangle a raw diet for less than I pay for premium dog food+some raw).
Nope, I can honestly say that you are right. I've never thought of that. In fact, I didn't even know there was such a thing as raw feeding programs for dogs. Guess you learn something new every day. Thanks for stopping by.
Check out my various projects and services at Itinerant Tightwad. I also have a monthly education newsletter and am active on Twitter.
I've got more than enough chicken recipes from the fast n on the go to the oven baked kinds.
Quick n easy curry: cut up the chicken to a size u like
clean well n drain n add:
chicken boullion, 1 cube
garlic 8 pieces
onion 1/2
cumin 1 tspn
curry 3 tspn
oil 1 tbspn
mix together in pot, cover n cook over low fire till done to your liking
like spicy? Add 1 Jamaican pepper while cooking
This is usually done with 2 chicken quarters
My family is picking n refuse to eat the same thing over
chicken is the one meat we all eat so Ive developed plenty of recipes
that go well with chicken.
If anyone wants to trade recipes let me know :)
Title is completely different from the text. The text does not discuss what to do with leg quarters, rather it's all about using up leftover chicken and gives no recipes for actually cooking leg quarters.
I was looking for chicken leg quarter recipes, these are all great ideas, but they can uses any cut up chicken, theres no recipes for actual leg quarters.
