What I Did With 16 Chicken Legs Backs Attached

Chicken used to be relatively inexpensive here but over the past several years the price has crept up there.  One of the local grocery stores had their $1 sale on so I decided to take advantage of the chicken that was on sale.  The chicken pieces were legs with back attached.  As little as a year ago these would go on sale for 69¢ per pound but now the sale price is $1 per pound.

My husband picked up four packages of the chicken.  Usually this store has the chicken packaged in plastic bags but now they are on foam trays with plastic wrap.  I'm not fond of this type of packaging but that is all that was available.  I ended up with 16 legs back attached at a total weight of 5.932 kg (13.07 lb) and cost $2.20 per kg ($1 per lb), $13.05 total cost.  This would break down into 8 meals for us at a cost of $1.63 or about 82¢ per serving for the chicken which is not a bad price given the costs of other meats.  However, I had plans to stretch the chicken out a bit further than 8 meals.  Chicken stock was on the adgenda since I was completely out here although two jars are safely tucked away at our vaction home. 

The first thing I did was vacuum seal eight of the chicken legs into meal sized portions.  That was enough for four packages for the freezer.  As a rule with a sale like this I tend to put up half then use the other half fresh and/or make other products for the pantry.  Of the remaining eight legs I used two for garlic pepper chicken with TPC Sesame Garlic Spaghetti for dinner that night.  Three of the chicken legs went into the stock pot for stock.  Realizing that our Christmas celebration was on the up coming Saturday meaning I would have a turkey left-overs and turkey stock to deal with, I put the remaining three pieces of chicken into the freezer as well.

I allowed the chicken legs to cook through then removed them from the stock and deboned them.  The bones and skin went back into the stock pot for a long, low simmer.  I seasoned the meat then used it for two meals of wraps and chicken tacos.

I ended up with 14 - 500 ml jars of chicken stock which is about my average yield when making stock.  As you can see I used Tattler reusable lids on seven of the jars.  The more I use these lids the better I like them!  For those wondering if I had to buy the chicken stock the equivalent would come in at approximately $20.86 ($1.49 each).  The cost of the homemade stock came in at $2.86 including the lids and electricity for both cooking and processing the stock.  It is easy to see where making homemade stock is very cost effective.  The stock can can be home canned or frozen.  I prefer canning mine for the convenience of ready to use.