Making The Most Out Of Your Food Budget:Chicken or Turkey and Rice Recipe
Making The Most Out Of Your Food Budget
Easy Chicken or Turkey & Rice
With the economy in the state it is in everyone I know has been cutting back on their spending.
One of the most expensive aspects of life right now is the price of groceries. It seems like each time I go to the grocery store the prices have changed for the items I regularly buy. It makes it hard to budget your food shopping when you have no idea from one day to the next what the price of an item is going to be.
One way to help cut the costs of your families food budget is to make something out of nothing.
No I am not a magician. I can’t make a meal appear out of thin air.
But what I can do is make a meal out of the left overs or out of something most people throw in the garbage.
A few weeks ago my husband picked up a couple of rotisserie turkey breasts for dinner. Our local Sweetbay usually has rotisserie chicken but I had never seen the turkey breasts. Those two turkey breasts fed 3 adults and one 13 year old dinner. We also had turkey sandwiches for lunch the next day. The night before after dinner when I saw how much turkey I had left over I knew I was going to make turkey and rice the next day for dinner.
My husband paid about $20 for the two breasts. And for that $20 I had two dinners feeding 3 adults and my daughter. My daughter and I also ate a sandwich at lunch the next day. That is pretty good for $20 bucks don’t you think?
The turkey and rice I made is so simple to make anyone can do it. You can use left over rotisserie turkey or chicken. You can use left over baked chicken or you can start with about 2 large chicken breast.
Chicken or Turkey & Rice
Left over Turkey or Chicken breast,or a left over whole baked chicken still on the bone.
- 1 cup of cooked turkey/chicken pulled off the bone
- 1 small onion
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 1 16 oz bag of yellow rice
salt and pepper to taste.
Place your left over turkey or chicken still on the bone in a large pot and fill with water so the water covers most of the poultry.
If there is a lot of meat still on the bone pull about a cup of it off the bone and save it to add back into your pot of cooked broth.
Add the onion and garlic to the pot. You can add any other seasoning that you like. I usually add a couple of bay leaves but since the yellow rice is seasoned already I didn’t add anything except for the onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook about 30 minutes until the meat is falling off the bone.
If you are starting with raw poultry you will have to cook it much longer until the poultry is cooked throughly! I usually bring my pot to a boil and turn it down to a low boil and cook for an hour or longer when I start with raw poultry. You do not want to feed your family undercooked poultry so make sure there is no pink left in the center of a breast or thigh!
Once your chicken or turkey is throughly cooked turn the heat off and let it cool enough to handle.
Remove the poultry from the pot into a strainer placed over a large bowl. When the meat is cool enough to handle pull it from the bones and put it into another bowl. Make sure that no bones are still attached to the meat!
Discard the bones.
Pour any broth that has drained from the cooked poultry back into the pot of broth.
Now place a fine mesh strainer onto the large bowl and strain the broth. Dump out anything the fine mesh strainer catches including the onion and garlic and strain the broth back into the pot. Pour or strain the broth back into the bowl again.
Using a measuring cup measure the broth from the bowl and pour it back into the pot. You want about 7 cups of liquid. If you have less then 7 cups of broth add water to make up the difference.
Add the cooked poultry meat back into the pot and bring it to a boil. Add the bag of seasoned yellow rice. Bring it up to a boil and stir the rice for 1 minute to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Turn the heat down to low and cook for 10 minutes, turn the burner off and remove the pot from the hot burner. Put a lid on the pot and let it sit until your rice is tender.
Fluff the rice up and enjoy! This meal costs about the price of the bag of yellow rice ( under $3) if you are using left over chicken and have the onions and garlic in your house already.
Sorry I don’t have any pictures. I tend to make meals that I think would be great for my blog all the time but never think to take pictures until it’s too late and we have eaten the meal.
Thanks for stopping by!