One chook so many options.

This classic chicken dinner is an example of what I call a progressive ingredient adventure. An ingredient that can reappear multiple times during the week in vastly different guises eliminating the boredom factor plus it prevents me from wasting food. There were two guidelines for working the progressive ingredient:

1. The ingredients are ones that can’t be bought in small quantities but can work in multiple ways but look completely different each time and
2. The recipes that are based around foods that don’t go off quickly or are enhanced with store cupboard/ frozen ingredients.

The start of my chook adventure is a healthy “roast” chicken that is steamed. The steaming water becomes the start of my chicken stock. Recipes below. I often cook this part of the adventure on the weekend when I have a little more time to cook the chicken and play with the stock.  I see it as an investment spending a little time cooking now sets me up for a whole range of fast meals later in the week. The quantity in the recipe below is based on a whole chicken, which still leaves plenty of chicken and vegetables to become my progressive ingredients to the coming week. however, I have done it with a pack of chicken pieces. After a chicken and veggie dinner, when the chicken has cooled, I stripped the moist chicken meat off the carcass and set it aside. I then use the water that is in the TM bowl from steaming the chicken to be the beginning of the chicken stock. To this, I add a few aromatic ingredients and a little more liquid with the chicken bones in the steamer basket and cook for about 20 to 40 minutes ( depending on my mood and the hour of the day) to create a simple chicken stock that will be the basis for other dishes later in the week. Currently, I have at least 11 favourite dishes that I make from the leftover chicken stock or meat. This gives me lots of choice as to what I can have later in the week. no waste or boredom! My current dishes:

• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Chicken Salad with Ferment Veggies and Avocado
• Pho Style Bowls
• Chicken Pasta Bake
• Homemade Chicken Nuggets
• Chicken Rissoles
• Chicken and Veggie Sausage Rolls
• Chicken sandwiches
• Chicken toasty
• Chicken Stir-fry
• Chicken Risotto

Recipes for my versions of the above are coming soon, but I'm sure you will have your own versions of many of the above. In the meantime enjoy a healthy roast chook and quick stock.

My Steamed ‘Roast’ Chicken and Stock

Number of Servings: 4 or use as the cooked meat in other dishes Ingredients - Chicken 1.5 kg whole chicken 2 tsp garlic infused olive oil 1 tsp salt ½ tsp black pepper 1 carrot, cut lengthwise 1 onion, peeled and quartered tops of several stalks of celery 1.8 litre of water Method - Chicken Place chicken in Varoma bowl, rub all over with oil and season with salt and pepper. Add carrot, onion and celery leaves in and around chicken. Place water in TM bowl and set Varoma in place. Steam chicken for 60 minutes / Varoma / speed 2.  Using a food thermometer check if the chicken is cooked (74°C or when juices run clear). If not cooked, check the water level, top up if required and cook for extra time (10-15 mins).  Keep cooking water for stock. Allow chicken to cool, then shred meat keeping all the bones and carcass to make stock.

 Tip for Crispy roast chicken

About 10 minutes before chicken is finished, heat oven grill and a roasting pan. When chicken is cooked, pat it down with paper towel and place on hot baking tray and grill until golden – 10-15 minutes.

Ingredients- Stock Cooking water from steamed chicken (above) topped up to be 1.5 litres. 1 tbsp vinegar Bones and carcass of cooked chicken (above) salt and pepper to taste bay leaf Method - Stock Add cooking water and vinegar to TM bowl and top up to 1.5 litres. Place chicken bones and carcass into the steamer basket and insert into the bowl. Season with salt, pepper, bay leaf and then cook for 30 minutes / 90°C / speed 2. Remove steamer basket with bones and discard. Pour stock into a storage container and chill in the fridge. When it is chilled, the fat will rise to the top and can be removed by placing paper towel onto it. Stock can then be frozen or kept in the fridge for a few days.

Progressive Ingredient Chicken A steamed chook can provide up to four meals for one person plus 1.5 l of homemade stock.

The meat from this recipe is used in the other dishes in this collection.