The chicken saga...

Ok, so maybe saga is too strong a word, but it was a bit of a mission...

I was cooking a special meal for some friends last night and had planned a big Chinese feast. One of the central parts of this meal was planned to be sweet and sour chicken. Which using my incredible powers of deduction required me therefore buying some chicken.

So Saturday morning, I set off up Gloucester Road armed with my reusable shopping bags and a stupidly long shopping list, which featured some free range chicken breasts.

The first hurdle however was when I got to the local butchers, only to discover that their chicken wasn't free range. With supermarkets off the agenda, I was faced with walking 20 minutes up the road to the next butchers that I knew stocked free range chicken (all the time grumbling that I hadn't taken my bike).

The second hurdle was reached when I got to the butchers. Yes, they had free range chickens, but no chicken breasts, only whole chickens. Parting with the best part of a tenner (internally lamenting that I could have bought a free range chicken for half that from the supermarket, whilst constantly reminding myself that this isn't about the money), I bought a chicken and carried it all the way home.

But then the hurdles turned into positives. I jointed the chicken yesterday, ready to cook it for the sweet and sour, and using only the breasts and one of the thighs, I fed myself and three friends, and still had enough to supply my two housemates with leftovers.

And then I roasted the remaining chicken parts, stripped off the meat, and made stock with the carcass and the bits of leftover vegetables that I've been keeping all week (supplemented with a few bits from my veg box). The remaining chicken and the stock then went into making a (by my own admission, delicious) chicken noodle soup that will supply me with lunches for the rest of the week.

So, having to travel quite a long way to get the chicken was a bit of a pain, but now I know which butchers to go to, things will be easier in future. Also, I've discovered a great butcher that clearly labels the free range/organic status of its meat.

However, I think the fact that I had to buy a whole chicken was a real positive (and good lesson). I don't think it's right that we can just buy the best parts of the animal and ignore the rest of it. If you want the chicken breast, you should use the rest of the meat too, and waste as little of it as possible. And by doing that with the rest of the chicken, I made stock (also using up lots of ends of vegetables that would have been wasted), and ended up with a lovely soup that will feed me for several further days.