Vibrant Village ™

Astronaut Chicken Feeds Six

Reads like a National Enquirer headline, doesn’t it? There’s a character in Steven King’s Duma Key who calls rotisserie chickens 'astronaut chickens' because they’re sold in see-through capsules like space suit helmets.

An astronaut/rotisserie chicken grabbed on your way home will help put dinner on the table fast and be the basis for meals the next couple of days.

We’re a family of two, and one of these provides delicious variety for three meals each, thus the headline.

At least once a week one of us picks up a cooked rotisserie chicken at Food Lion on the way home from work. Most grocery stores have them, and at about $6.00 each they’re affordable.

There are a variety of flavors available, but I only buy the “plain” ones in order to have control over the flavor of the soup I usually make from them. After 15 minutes in the car surrounded by the aroma of roasted chicken, by the time I hit the kitchen I’m ready to tear into that bird like Tom Jones in the movie. Usually, though, I just eat one of the wings over the sink while planning dinner, trying to restrain myself from peeling off and eating all the skin from the breast – a secret vice.

Yes, this is processed poultry, but only in the sense that most of the cooked chicken you buy will have been “pumped” with a type of salt solution. Even so, four ounces only contains about 300 mg of sodium And yes, it sure is convenient, and the calorie count per serving averages just 150, with no carbohydrates and around a third of your daily protein needs.

A word about food safety here: chill the chicken right away. Remove the lid (chill it, too) and refrigerate the chicken, replacing the lid after an hour or so. But first, to make slicing the breast meat easier, I remove the wishbone (collarbone) as soon as I get home.

With impeccably clean hands, reach into the vent from the neck (wing) end and work the wishbone free, then chill the bird. By the way, with a small sharp knife this surgery can be done on a raw turkey before cooking it. Make two small incisions on either side of the neck cavity. Reach in and twist out the wishbone. This will make the breast easier to slice or remove.

Here’s how the chicken disappears at our house:

The first night there is usually warm or cold sliced breast with a salad, maybe some rice, too.

The second day, white meat sandwiches or chicken salad and some fruit leaves the carcass and drumsticks, usually some thigh meat, too. For the sake of fresh flavor, I start the soup that second night, chill it overnight, then finish and consume it the third day.

To start the soup, break up the carcass with your hands and put it and the leftover meat in a 3-4 quart pot. Add about three pints of water, bring to a boil, then simmer 90 minutes. Toss in a bit of onion at the start if you happen to have some; half a carrot, a stalk of celery, a bay leaf, and a few whole peppercorns simmering with the chicken will enhance the flavor but are not required.

When the 90 minutes are up allow the pot to cool off-heat a half-hour or so then refrigerate it overnight.

Third-day soup is fast and easy with the prepped soup base from the night before. Warm the pot on the stove enough to melt the jelled stock and pour the contents through a large strainer into another pot. Empty the contents of the strainer onto a baking pan and separate the meat from the bones. Taste the stock for seasoning, augment the flavor with a bouillon cube or canned stock, if needed, and add the picked-over meat.

It’s ready as is or you can add vegetables/pasta/rice/canned tomatoes/etc. and cook until the additions are done. Serves at least two and there’s often enough to take to work the next day.

I’ll leave you with two more ideas for your astronaut chicken, both of which can be made from one chicken’s leftovers days two and three:

CHICKEN PATTIES

2 cups chopped, cooked chicken
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
2 beaten eggs
1/3 cup sautéed minced onion (or microwave for 45 seconds)
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
Salt & pepper to taste

Mix ingredients, form into 4 patties, pan fry in olive oil (or bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes)

Serves two

EGG DROP SOUP

2 cups stock from night two prepped soup base
1 beaten egg

Heat stock to boiling
Remove from heat and with a whisk or fork gently stir in the beaten egg
May season with drops of soy sauce, sesame oil, some minced scallion
Add a bit of chopped cooked chicken, if desired

Serves two

Chef Tom started cooking when he was twelve years old and hasn't stopped since. After 25 years of teaching himself about cooking he entered and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Among his favorite culinary subjects are evaluating and simplifying recipes, cooking meals for one, and making something good to eat from what’s on hand.