The Journey of Two Whole Chickens from Sams Culb for $10.37: How to pressure cook a whole chicken.

The secret, and the key, to The Suburban Challenge is planning ahead - no doubt about it.  Cooking for a busy family while working full or part time often suffers from quick pre-made entrees full of preservatives, sugar, and enriched products - not healthy!  Yet, there is that burning desire to offer home made, nutritious, and budget friendly options that please the crowd.  "If only I had the time..." No one has the time, so I'm not even suggesting how to find the time - DON'T EVEN PLAY. I like to simply find ways to plan ahead, in order to make it work.
Objective: Casseroles and Soups with homemade chicken stock and roasted chicken.

Plan: I purchased two whole chickens at Sam's for $10.37.  Then I planned some menus for the fall: two batches of sweet potato soup that uses 8 cups of broth and 4 cups of chicken each, three chicken pot pies using 2 cups of chicken each, two chicken casseroles using 2 cups each, and two meals of chicken tostadas using 2 cups each. 
All I did was look through my favorite fall dishes and totaled up the chicken and chicken broth, then tried to get an idea of how many times I would want to eat that this fall.  Grand Total: 16 cups of broth, and 22 cups of shredded cooked chicken.  Written like that I might need more than two whole chickens.  But, we'll try.....

Monday after work: The First Chicken in the Pressure Cooker.
1.Clean the chicken, discarding the "middles" and cut into 4 large pieces. Lightly salt and pepper each side.
2. Brown each piece first. If using an electric pressure cooker, use the browning setting and work in batches.  I also cut the skins off of the chicken. If you leave the skins on, increase the cook time by 2 minutes.
3. Place all of the browned chicken back into the pressure cooker stacking the breast pieces on top.

 

 

4. Add 1 cup of water.

5. Cook on high pressure for 28 minutes.

6. Quick Release the pressure. (I then left the lid on and went to the YMCA for a spin class and the pressure cooker remains on the warm function.)

7. Remove the chicken and separate it from the bones.  The chicken falls of the bones making it difficult, but very fast.

8. This one chicken yielded 6 cups of shredded chicken. (I did this after I got home from spin class and then started the stock.)  So, I packaged it and labeled it for chicken pot pie, pre-measured into 2 cup servings.  Menu planning for the season, not just week, allows you to know the quantities you will need. Package the way you want to cook.

 ****Begin the way you want to end to make this whole process work.****

Stock:
1. Place the remaining fat pieces and bones into a large stock pot with 18 cups of water.  I also dumped in the leftover juices and water from the pressure cooker. Throw in some fresh herbs and leave them whole so that its easier to remove from the liquid when done. I love to use my stock pot with the steamer insert in the photo below.  When its all done, just pull out the insert and the stock is ready to package.

2. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer uncover for 1 hour.
3. Package up in measured amounts to yield easy cooking.  I measured off 1 eight cup container for my soup recipe and then packaged the rest in two cup containers.

In one night: 1 chicken - 2 hours - 6 cups of shredded chicken - 18 cups of broth.  Cost $5.16

Repeat tomorrow night with the other chicken.