Hello friends!

Ever since I got married I’ve started cooking without a recipe more often. It’s fun to make it up as you go along and I love the flexibility of adjusting ingredients to taste without having to refer back to exact measurements. One of my favorite things to do is to cook a whole roast chicken in the crockpot and then use the broth and pieced-up meat in different dishes throughout the week. It’s inexpensive per pound, makes enough for several meals, and is quite versatile (and healthy!).

I’m clearly not a food blogger plus I’m always in too much of a hurry to get good food photos, haha. But I hope this is still a helpful, if less professional, post for you. 😀 Here are a few of my favorite “no recipe” methods and ideas to use a whole chicken.

1. Crockpot Whole Roast Chicken + Broth || This is such an easy way to cook a lot of chicken and broth at once!

We’ll start with the base recipe. I usually put the chicken in the crockpot while it’s still frozen, although I do have to run hot water over it or let it thaw a bit to get out any strings, packaging, etc. Then chuck it in the crockpot and mostly cover it with water (about 8 cups). Season to taste with seasoned salt, paprika, onion salt, garlic powder, pepper, and fresh herbs. Cook on high for 12 hours or so. (This is a picture from making roast chicken in a Dutch oven which you can also do for a main dish if you don’t need broth.)

Heft the cooked chicken onto a tray and let it cool a bit. Pick all the meat from the bones; you can go ahead and chop it for easy use later if you want. Strain the broth into a large measuring pitcher for storage in the refrigerator. Homemade bone broth is really flavorful and also quite good for you!

2. Fried Rice || This may be my most-cooked meal. It’s easy, cheap, versatile, and super tasty.

Start by cooking a big pot of rice – we prefer brown rice but you can use white too. Meanwhile, sauté minced garlic, chopped onions, and butter in a large skillet. Add in a bag of frozen mixed veggies, or chop up whatever leftover produce you have in your fridge. Season with pepper and just a bit of salt while stirring until fully heated and cooked through.

Move the veggies to one side, add a bit of oil to the cleared space, and crack in several eggs. Scramble them with a bit of salt and pepper, and mix into the veggies. Add the chopped cooked chicken. Season everything in the skillet with a good dose of soy sauce. One the rice is done, add a chunk of butter, a lot of turmeric, some paprika, and a good amount of soy sauce. Mix and fluff the rice, and then add in the skillet ingredients. Serve with extra soy sauce on the side.

3. Chicken and Dumplings || One of our favorite ways to use both the chicken and the broth.

Start by melting a couple tablespoons of butter in a big pot. Add minced garlic, thinly sliced onions, and bacon bits. Sauté until onions are translucent. Add as much chopped, cooked chicken as you want (I usually use around two cups) and just a little bit of seasoned salt + pepper. Once that has been stirred, add in all your homemade broth and a couple cups of milk.

While that’s heating, mix up/find your favorite biscuit dough. When the broth boils, drop in large pinches of dough one at a time. Let it simmer for a while until the dumplings are fluffy inside and the soup has thickened. Stir in a little fresh parsley if desired and serve. Tasty from-scratch comfort food.

4. Deluxe Mac N Cheese || This is similar to the fried rice, but pasta-based.

Cook a pot of macaroni elbows and then drain it. Meanwhile, cook the add-ins together in another pot: chopped, cooked chicken; bacon bits; minced garlic; and frozen mixed veggies. Add everything to the macaroni and dump in plenty of cheese plus a little butter and milk. Mix everything together over low heat. Serve with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

5. Homemade Ramen Jars || A lot healthier than regular ramen and also super fun! 

Cook ramen noodles according to the package directions, but discard the sauce packets. Add a variety of thinly-sliced veggies to a Mason jar, plus cooked chicken. Top with noodles. You can keep the jars in the fridge for several days until you’re ready. To serve, boil your homemade broth, adding in some extra seasoned salt, soy sauce, herbs, paprika, and pepper. Pour into the jars and let it cook the ingredients for a few minutes before eating. (Based on this recipe.)

5. Cheese Fondue Board || A novel and delicious home date night meal my husband and I both love.

Melt shredded cheese in a pan with butter, a good amount of milk, some cornstarch or flour, hickory smoke salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Basically you wanna make a cheesy white sauce. Stir frequently over low heat until nice and smooth.

Meanwhile, prepare your dippers. I either roast them in the air fryer or cook them in my bamboo steamer, but you could also roast them in the oven. Some of our favorites are french-fried potatoes, roasted or steamed broccoli, steamed carrots, and toasted sourdough cubes. The best kind of meat for dipping is usually the expensive kind, like steak, but you can also use larger pieces/slices of cooked chicken, or wrap deli ham around potato fries before roasting them. Basically you can cook whatever tastes good with cheese, lay it all out nicely on a cooking pan, and dip everything into your fondue pot. So simple but SO YUMMY and fun!

6. Summer Rolls || A customizable, healthy, and delightful main dish or side.

Cut up your choice of filling. Some ideas include fresh herbs, mangos, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, and meat of your choice like chicken or deli ham if you want to make it a main dish. If you have rice noodles or glass noodles, those make it more official. I didn’t, so I just sliced up some soaked rice paper to make my own noodles, haha.

Dip both sides of a piece of rice paper in water and lay on a dry plate. Fill with whatever you desire, then fold the rice paper burrito-style. It sticks to itself and makes a cute little clear pocket for the veggies. You’re supposed to serve this with peanut butter, but Sully prefers them dipped in soy sauce.

7. BBQ Chicken Pizza || My family used to make this for movie nights. Non-traditional but yummy.

Make your favorite pizza dough recipe – I personally love the chewiness of a sourdough crust. Top with a thin layer of Sweet Baby Ray’s original BBQ sauce. Sprinkle on cooked chicken, dried minced garlic, thinly sliced onions, and plenty of shredded mozzarella cheese. (This isn’t actually BBQ pizza but the photo will suffice to illustrate my point. 😛 )

MORE MEAL IDEAS || Some of these I would actually use a real recipe for, but here are the basics as meal-planning inspiration.

• BBQ chicken sandwiches (mix your favorite BBQ sauce with chicken, put it on bread topped with sliced cheese, and air-fry/broil it for a bit)
• chicken pot pie (your favorite pie crust with chicken and veggies in a white sauce of milk, flour, seasonings, and chicken broth)
• chicken croquettes (chicken, parsley, and white sauce with broth; chilled and then formed into patties; coated in bread crumbs and parmesan cheese; and baked)
• chicken alfredo soup (a base of alfredo sauce + milk + bone broth combined with colorful bell peppers, carrots, chicken, and seasonings)
• chicken spaghetti (cooked spaghetti noodles mixed with plenty of butter, chopped fresh herbs, grated parmesan, and chicken)
• chicken salad sandwiches (chopped chicken with mayonnaise, mustard, dill, seasonings, etc.)
• pumpkin soup (crockpot-cooked diced pumpkin, onions, potatoes, and homemade bone broth blended until smooth)
• egg drop soup (bone broth with soy sauce, ginger, and eggs beaten and then streamed in until cooked)

I’d better wrap up this post since I’m writing it at about 6:30pm and now I’m REALLY HUNGRY. I hope you found this helpful! Let me know if you’re interested in more food posts and I can try to up my food photography game in the future, haha.

Thanks so much for reading, my friends, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S. Oops, I accidentally posted this instead of scheduling it for tomorrow… happy early Friday! 😛