Don’t Throw Out That Roasted Chicken Carcass

Question: When you roast a whole chicken for dinner or buy a rotisserie chicken at the market, what do you do with the carcass after cutting most of the meat off?

I bet many of you just toss it. I often do but last night I again realized what a mistake this is. Instead use it to make a simple chicken broth you can use to make a quick and easy chicken soup. It cannot be easier and the flavor is so much better than anything you can buy in a can.

I’m not talking about making a classic chicken stock that does take time to do properly. I’m talking about covering the chicken with water in a large saucepan or small soup pot and let it simmer for an hour or more with the lid mostly on.

You can remove most of the already cooked meat and just simmer the carcass or leave whatever meat is on the bird and remove it after you are done. Whatever is easier for you.

Last night, I let the carcass simmer for about a 1-½ hours while I helped the kids with their homework and worked out. When it was done and the liquid had plenty of flavor, I removed the carcass and any remaining bones from the liquid and added some chopped carrots and celery.

While the carrots and celery were cooking, I removed most of the edible meat from the bones and reserved it until the carrots and celery were tender but still a little crunchy. I could have added leeks or fennel or broccoli but this was for my oldest daughter and me and this is what she wanted. You can add whatever you like or want to clean out of the refrigerator. It’s going to be good.

When the vegetables were done, I added the reserved chicken meat and some store bought cheese tortellinis that I just cooked for my younger daughter who doesn’t like chicken soup. I could have added cooked pasta; egg noodles or even cooked the pasta in the chicken broth. It could not be easier. This is a classic shortcut meal.

This simple chicken soup was incredibly flavorful. So much better than any commercial soup you can find. The flavors are fresh and clean without all the salt and artificial flavorings.

And to think, I almost threw out that carcass.

I needed a quick meal the other night and I wanted to use up some left over roasted chicken from the night before. I was thinking risotto but I didn’t have any in the pantry but I did find a box of San Giorgio orzo and thought this might work.

What is Orzo?

Orzo is rice shaped pasta slightly smaller than a pine nut and is great in soups and pasta salads. See my seafood orzo salad recipe.

Find Recipes In All the Right Places

I love finding recipes and adapting them with ingredients I have on hand. Keep your eyes open and you can find interesting recipes everywhere; on product packages, the supermarket shelves, ads in magazines, newspaper articles, mail flyers. Most of these recipes are trying to sell you their products but they are still good starting points for creating your own recipe.

The orzo box was no exception. They had a recipe for Mediterranean Orzo Pilaf. Some of the ingredients were processed products like dried Italian seasoning, bouillon cubes, and garlic powder. It’s my opinion you can really change the quality of mediocre recipe just by using higher end products that really don’t cost you that much more money in the end.

For example, using homemade or quality chicken stock instead of bouillon can make all the difference in the world. Try using fresh garlic instead of garlic powder or fresh basil and parsley rather than dried Italian seasonings.

Dried herbs are great in some dishes, but with a pilaf recipe like this, why not go fresh if you can. If you don’t have fresh herbs in your refrigerator, by all means go with the dried ones but make sure they have not been sitting in the cabinet too long. I don’t date my dried spice bottles, but I should because I’m sure some of them have been around longer than my daughters. Chef Ricco forgive me.

I made the chicken stock the night before when we had roasted chicken. I’ll be honest.  I didn’t roast the chicken. It was a rotisserie chicken from our local market and a pretty good one at that. After I stripped the meat off, I stuck the carcass in a pot, covered it in water and made a quick stock in about an hour. Not classic chicken stock but good enough for what I wanted to use it for and a heck of a lot better than anything canned and lets not even talk about a bouillon cube.

You can make this dish one hundred different ways by substituting various ingredients. Don’t like chicken, add shrimp. Don’t like parsley, try cilantro.  Try different types of cheeses, olives, nuts; whatever works for you or you happen to have in your pantry.

Experiment and have some fun. There are some recipes you must follow a precise technique using specified ingredients. This is not one of them.

Quick Orzo Pilaf

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
8 ounces uncooked Orzo
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 ½ cups chicken stock
12 or more grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 cooked boneless chicken breast, meat shredded or cut into pieces
Salt & pepper, to taste
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

How to Make Orzo Pilaf at Home

Heat a large sauce pot or fry pan over medium high heat. Add the butter and melt. Add the onions and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the orzo and cook with the onions & garlic for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently so the orzo doesn’t burn. If the pan seems too hot, turn down the heat to medium.

While this is going on, I like to heat up the chicken stock so I’m not adding cold stock to the hot pan with the orzo. No reason to slow down the cooking process by cooling down a hot pan.

Add the chicken stock to the pan and bring it to a boil. Lower heat and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes while the orzo absorbs the stock. Be sure to stir every so often.

Add the grape tomatoes, chicken and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and then cover and cook for a few more minutes until all the stock has been absorbed into the orzo. Be sure to stir so the orzo doesn’t stick to the pan.

I like stir in the grated Parmesan cheese at the end just before serving. You can add a sprig of fresh parsley to the plate to make it look nice. I always forget.

Here’s a “shortcut” meal that takes as long as it takes to cook a ½ pound of penne pasta. It’s quick, easy, and delicious and if there are any leftovers, you’ll have a great lunch the next day.

The idea for this recipe originally came while my wife and I were on our honeymoon in Italy years ago. We visited my sister-in-laws friends who lived in Rome and invited us over for dinner. They made this dish with canned or jarred Italian tuna, fresh artichoke hearts and olives that they just brought back from Sicily while visiting family.

As simple as this dish was, it was one of the best meals my wife and I had on our trip and that’s including some very nice restaurants. I think it had something to do with being in someone’s home, sharing a meal with new friends and being on an adventure.

The reason I call it a shortcut meal is because I used canned artichoke hearts instead of fresh and I’m sure this pasta dish would even be better with fresh artichoke hearts but I needed to prepare this in a hurry.

I also used a jar of solid tuna imported from Italy and a can of artichoke hearts imported from Spain. The artichoke hearts should be packed in water not oil. Both these items were picked up at an Italian specialty store.

There is really nothing to cook but the pasta. Oh yeah, I did sauté some garlic in the oil the tuna was packed in. The rest of the ingredients just need to be heated up while the pasta is cooking. Here’s what I did.

Ingredients:

½ pound penne pasta (1/2 a box)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 - 10.5 oz  jar of imported tuna packed in olive oil
1 – 14 oz. can of artichoke hearts packed in water, cut into quarters
10 or 12 Kalamata olives, pitted and cut in half or quarters
Salt & pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese, optional

How to Prepare at Home

Get a big pot of water boiling for the pasta. Add some salt and throw in the penne pasta. Immediately give it a stir and cook until al dente. (You can read my page on how to cook pasta here)

While the pasta is cooking, sauté the garlic in some of the oil the tuna is packed in. When the garlic gives off that incredible fragrance when cooked in oil, add the artichoke hearts, tuna (with oil) and olives.

While the sauce is heating up, the artichoke hearts and tuna will breakup into smaller pieces. No problem.

When I was preparing this at home, I thought the sauce was too thick so I added a few ladles of water from the pasta pot. It helped thin out the sauce just a little so it would be easier to cover the penne. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper.

Once the pasta is done, drain it and plate it. Add your sauce and serve. I’m not sure if Parmesan cheese is right with this dish but my wife grated some on hers and it looked good so I did the same. It was delicious.