Using Whole Chickens to Save $$$-WFMW

Today is Works-For-Me Wednesday hosted by a great blog Rocks In My Dryer. You can check out what works for hundreds of other bloggers by going here.

Something that I have been doing for a long time now is buying my chicken whole. For a while I was getting conventional chickens when they went on sale for $.69 lb. Now I have upgraded to organic chickens from Costco. It is quite a bit more expensive at $1.99 lb, but worth it to me.

I boil 2 chickens at a time in my largest pot or pressure cooker. I use the recipe for Chicken Mix found in the Make-A-Mix Cookery cookbook The best part is that my DH picks all the chicken off the bone for me. I knew he was a keeper!
The broth is cooled in the fridge overnight and then I skim the fat and put it in jars the next day.

I usually end up with about 4 quarts of broth and 6 pints of chicken meat. I label it in glass canning jars and put it in the freezer. CAUTION-the broth must be in wide mouth jars and leave about 2-3 inches clearance at the top! I don't screw the bands on until after it is frozen. And, yes, I'm speaking from experience. lol

We go through about 2 chickens per month, maybe a little more some months. I like that we only have to do this once a month and have meat and broth when we need it.