Rotisserie Chicken....the chicken that just keeps giving.

The grocery store rotisserie chicken....the savior of many busy people all over the country. I have to admit it is one of my favorite things to buy. Every time  I go to the grocery store I pick one up for dinner that night. It is cheap, healthy, and quick. Gotta love it!

It also happens to be a great deal. I just picked up a chicken yesterday for $5.99. We had half the chicken last night for dinner and will turn the other half into chicken fajita's tonight. That breaks down to $2.99 per dinner....but wait I am not done with that poor chicken yet. I am all about getting my money's worth (in case you couldn't tell!). Can't let those bones go to waste!  Homemade bone broth is a must, but I am busy and don't have time to keep checking a pot all the time.

Here is how I do it.......

When I get home from the store I put the chicken and any drippings from the bag into my crockpot. I turn it on low and keep it warm till dinner. At dinner time I take it out and strip all the meat off and return the bones and skin to the crockpot. I then fill the crockpot up with HOT water (you will crack your crockpot stone if you use cold water). And heat on high all night long.

In the morning strain your stock into a separate bowl and discard your bones and skin.

Your broth should be a nice dark carmel color. At this point you can either leave it on your counter to reach room temp before you bag it or put it in your fridge to cool off. If you put it in your fridge you will need to skim the fat off of the top of your broth before packaging (thus giving you a reduced fat broth).

 When you are ready to bag the bone broth I suggest doing 1c. portions in small sandwich bags. They are much easier to defrost and use as needed in cooking.

 Once you have all your broth bagged up I put the small sandwich bags into one large ziplock freezer bag.Just pop your bag in the freezer and you have homemade bone broth anytime a recipe calls for it!

There you go done!

So one rotisserie chicken for $5.99 gives you 2 meals and 12 cups of chicken bone broth! That is a pretty good bargain!