Chicken roasted, barbecued and soup

I like to buy a whole chicken and use that as a starting point for several meals. I got a 5.11 lb. natural (no hormone, no antibiotic, vegetarian feed) whole chicken. It's a little expensive at $ 12.62, but it makes a lot of meals!

Here it is after splitting it into breasts (skin-on), breast tenders, leg/thigh quarters, wings, carcass, and remaining bits.

Vacuum sealed and froze the chicken breast tenders (2.8 oz.) for a meal like chicken paprika or fried chicken fingers or boneless 'wings' .

Vacuum marinated the 2 leg and thigh quarters in Brooks chicken marinade for barbecued chicken , 2 more dinner servings.

The barbecued chicken marinated overnight, then I grilled it for 6 minutes. It's not fully cooked through to it has to go into the sous vide for 45 minutes at 160°F. Vacuum sealed, one serving frozen.

Seasoned the breasts with salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder and rubbed sage. Put everything remaining into a roasting pan, roast for 30 minutes at 400°F for the breasts, and 10 more minutes for everything else.

Here are the roasted skin-on chicken breasts. Use an instant-read thermometer to make sure they get to 160°F in the middle.

And everything else roasted. They'll be boiled in soup, so it's not necessary to check their temperature, but after 40 minutes they'll certainly be done, anyway.

Save the drippings from the roasting pan! Combine 12 oz. cold water and 1/8 cup of all-purpose flour. Add to the chicken pan drippings and bring almost to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes on the stove. Season with soy sauce and salt to taste. Strain. This made about 12 oz., which is perfect so each breast serving can have 6 oz. of gravy. And it was really delicious!

After the chicken breast has been cooled, sliced and vacuum sealed. One serving is for dinner tonight, the other frozen for a future dinner, both with gravy, and about 5.0 oz. each.

Made pressure cooker chicken soup with the roasted chicken bits, celery, carrot, onion, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf and 48 oz. water.

Let the cool for 15 minutes, release the pressure from the pressure cooker, then cool the pan. I usually put it in a sink partially filled with cold water, but it's 10°F outside with snow on the ground, and that works great too.

Liquid drained off through a colander into a large measuring cup. I set it back outside to cool to make it easier to skim the fat off the top, but if it's cool enough you can use the refrigerator.

Here are the solid bits of the stock. Putting it out a sheet pan makes it much easier to separate out the bones, fat, vegetable pieces, neck, gizzards, etc. (left) from the good meat for the soup (right).

There was 10.5 oz. of good meat, enough for 3 servings with 3.5 oz. chicken and 16 oz. stock, a hearty bowl of soup for lunch!

Vacuum sealed and frozen.

And served, with soba noodles and spinach.

That works out to 5 dinners and 3 lunches, not bad for one chicken.