Table of Contents
$3 Chicken Meals: More than 250 Delicious, Low-Cost Recipes for Americans’ Favorite Bird
Overview:
Per capita consumption figures of chicken, and to a lesser extent turkey, continue to climb; it’s been almost a decade since poultry surpassed red meat in per capita figures. So there is a constant need for more recipes to utilize chicken, however the focus of the media and in cookbooks during the past few years has been for boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are not as economical as using the whole bird. Another trend has been to increase the cost of a chicken or turkey meal by listing luxury foods like artichoke hearts and fresh wild mushrooms as ingredients in the recipe.
$3 Chicken Meals contains more than 250 recipes that use all parts of the chicken in a cost-effective way to produce delicious, low-cost meals. The chapters include appetizers and hors d’oeuvre that can be prepared for $1 per person, as well as main course soups, grilled recipes for chicken parts, and a chapter for foods made from ground turkey and ground chicken.
While there is a chapter on stir-fried and sautéed dishes made with boneless parts, most of the recipes use whole birds. Part of the reason is to have leftover poultry which forms the basis for myriad casseroles and entrée salads, the recipes for which are in separate chapters.
Contents:
Preface
Introduction
The introduction presents the consumption figures and nutritional benefits of poultry, as well as reasons for is popularity. It concludes with a section on the philosophy of the $3 Meals books, and its avoidance of processed foods to produce meals that are healthier as well as less expensive.
Chapter 1: Saving Money at the Supermarket
How to save money when shopping is a thread uniting the books published as part of the $3 Meals series. There are sections of this chapter on shopping tips, how to get the most advantage out of coupons, and other ways to stretch the food budget.
Chapter 2: Poultry 101: Everything You Need to Know About Chicken and Turkey
This chapter includes all the procedures for handling chicken to make it an inexpensive meal, including how to cut up a chicken, bone chicken breasts, and butterfly a chicken. There are also sections on selecting, storing, and handling poultry. The chapter concludes with recipes for basic marinades and spice rubs to enliven the flavor of simple dishes.
Chapter 3: In the Beginning: $1 Hors d’Oeuvres, Snacks, and Appetizers
This chapter contains recipes is for “little dishes” that can be served as snacks, at parties, or grouped together to form a “grazing meal.” They are developed to be less than $1 per serving, because it is assumed that other foods will be needed. The chapter introduction gives tips for creating an “assembly line method” for making them, as well as guidance on how much food to serve at parties.
Examples of Recipes:
Santa Fe Quesadillas
Blue Cheese-Crusted Buffalo Wings
Vietnamese Spring Rolls
Stir-Fried Chicken in Lettuce Leave
Nachos
Satay with Peanut Sauce
Chapter 4: Meals in a Bowl: Entrée Soups from the World’s Cauldrons
Chicken soup is synonymous with comfort food, and that’s true around the world when one surveys the ways it is flavored and served from country to country. The chapter begins with a chicken stock recipe, because the recipes are even less expensive to make if using homemade stock. These are all filling soups that, with the addition of a green salad or a loaf of crusty bread, are the entire meal.
Examples of Recipes:
Mexican Tortilla Soup
Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls
Lentil Soup with Turkey Meatballs
Minestrone
Chinese Hot and Sour Soup
Chapter 5: The Sum of Its Parts: Dishes Made with Whole Birds and Pieces
These recipes in this chapter are all cooked in the oven; some are “dry” preparations topped with an inexpensive sauce, while others are “wet” recipes in which the sauce is the braising liquid.
Examples of Recipes:
Classic Roast Chicken
Classic Roast Turkey
Oven-Fried Chicken
Coq au Vin
Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic
Chapter 6: The Daily Grind: Dishes Using Ground Turkey and Chicken
Ground turkey and ground chicken contain less fat and less cholesterol than ground beef, plus they are less expensive than all but the lowest level of ground beef. There is a range of dishes in this chapter, from ones that are on the table in a matter of minutes to ones that take some time to bake.
Examples of Recipes:
Shepherd’s Pie
Stuffed Cabbage
Spicy Chili
Stuffed Peppers
Meatloaf
Dilled Swedish Meatballs
Chapter 7: Redefining Fast Food: Boneless, Skinless Breasts and Thighs
There are times that boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs are on sale, and those are the times to stock up on them. This chapter contains recipes from the world’s cuisines that are quick to make using these lean parts.
Examples of Recipes:
Chicken Schnitzel
Chicken Parmesan
Mu Shu Chicken
Szechwan Chicken and Green Beans
Chicken Piccata
Turkey Stroganoff
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Chapter 8: Everything Tastes Better Outdoors: Grilled and Smoked Poultry
The author is rather an expert on grilled poultry, having written a five-volume series on American regional grilling. The chapter begins with a section on how to light a grill and basic grilling techniques, as well as a chart for how long to grill various pieces. Some recipes utilize the technique of turning the grill into a smoker that uses aromatic wood chips to add flavor.
Examples of Recipes:
Chicken and Vegetable Fajitas
Thai Grilled Chicken
Tandoori Chicken
Butterflied Lemon and Herb Chicken
Turkey Cutlets Ensalata
Chapter 9: The Second Time Around: Dishes Made with Poultry Leftovers
These are all casseroles and other dishes that stretch the leftovers from roast chicken and turkey to feed a crowd on another night.
Examples of Recipes:
Turkey Tettrazini
Mexican Chicken “Lasagne”
Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken Pot Pie
Turkey Croquettes
Chapter 10: Salad Daze: Poultry Salad Entrees
While some of these main dish salads utilize leftover poultry, others fall into the classification of warm salads; the chicken or turkey is cooked directly before serving the salad, and the meat is hot while the other salad components are cold. Some of the salads use grilled poultry, while others use stir-fried food.
Examples of Recipes:
Hot Fried Chicken Salad with Honey-Mustard Dressing
Stir-Fried Chicken and Pineapple Salad
Gazpacho Chicken Salad
Curried Chicken Salad with Chickpeas and Fruit
Mexican Chicken Salad with Chipotle Dressing
Appendix A: Metric Conversion Tables
Appendix B: Table of Weights and Measures
of Common Ingredients
Index