My family loves roasted chicken.  It’s all warm and golden with crisp skin sitting atop some veggies that roasted along with it in the pan.  It’s great and not difficult.  I just rub the entire chicken with a schmear of garlic powder, salt and olive oil–just enough to make a paste-and then 2 hours at 350 in the oven and ta da!  The problem is the next night.  What nobody in my house seems to like is the left over chicken.  From succulent to dry, crisp to cold, yummy to yucky.

But we can do this.  We have the technology.  Let’s get creative and make something new.  Start by stripping the bones of meat.  I do it by hand as I find it the easiest and hands are often the best kitchen tools, it’s a greasy job but not difficult.  Once all the bits are separated from the bones (don’t throw those bones away!!) put the bones back in a container in the fridge for tomorrow and admire your handiwork.

The two dishes I like best for Roast Chicken dinner number two, are Curried Chicken Salad and Creamy Pot Chicken both made with the chicken scraps.  Chicken salad is pretty clear as to what you end up with, the Creamy Pot Chicken is actually the basics of a pot pie but since I rarely have the pie dough at the ready I often make it with noodles or rice or even on toasts.  I especially like this dish in the early spring when it’s still cool outside but nice spring veggies can be thrown in.

The third dinner is a lovely soup.  Remember the bones from yesterday?  Put them in a pot with some sliced onions, roughly chopped celery & carrots and some bay leaves and any other herbs you like.  I like garlic cloves, dill and parsley but thyme is great and so it ginger–experiment!  Boil away for a couple of hours and a delicious soup emerges.  Strain out the bones but I like to leave the vegetables and then season before adding noodles for chicken noodle soup.  My kids like the alphabet letter pasta and it cooks nice and fast but the skinny egg noodles are my fave.  If you feel fancy matzo balls can amp up any chicken soup.

What do you make with leftover roasted chicken?