Tonight Donnie and I enjoyed one of our favorite dinners: chicken croquettes. In addition to being delicious, this meal is also one of the most frugal we eat.Every time we have baked chicken for dinner, Donnie and I cut the last bits of meat off the bones and save them in a freezer storage container. After a few baked chicken meals, we have about two cups of "chicken bits" saved up...which means it's time to make croquettes!
The recipe couldn't be easier. I add half a stick of melted butter, a beaten egg, and a heaping spoonful of homemade breadcrumbs to the chicken. I then form ten to twelve meatball-sized croquettes, roll them in additional breadcrumbs, and bake them for twenty minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
I also keep a gravy container in the freezer. Every time Donnie and I have baked chicken for dinner, I save the last few spoonfuls of gravy from the bottom of the serving bowl. As you can probably imagine, the gravy container is usually filled right around the same time as the chicken container. This means we always have plenty of flavorful homemade gravy to serve with our croquettes.
How do you use up the last bits of food from bigger dinners? Do you make soups, stews, casseroles, or other dishes? Please share with the rest of us!
9 comments:
I use my leftover chicken to make things like chicken tacos and quesadillas as well as chicken fettucini. The fettucini and quesadillas, especially, do not need much meat, so they're perfect for leftovers from big meals!
I always save the leftovers from a whole roasted chicken for chicken pot pie. Yum! I think I may even start branching out...chicken salad sounds good and I like Kara's suggestion of fettucini and quesadillas. I'm currently buying chicken just for those meals, but could probably get aways with using leftovers.
Oh- sounds yummy! I'll be trying these soon, thanks for sharing.
Forgot to add-- my leftover bits of meats get used in quesadillas for the kids & I for lunch.
All leftover bits of cooked veggies go into a container in the freezer, and when it's full I make vegetable soup by adding a tomato base. Yum!
Sounds delish!!
Oh that is such a great idea!! I have to remember this.
My secret weapon is rice. You can add bits of anything to rice to make a casserole!
Except hot dogs, that is, LOL!
Thanks for your comment on my blog!
Something my mother always did growing up was use leftover rice to make what she called simply, "rice and eggs" to which you could add leftover veggies and some meats and cheese to. It was similar to cooking a fritata but she cooked it all on the stove top, cut into quarter and would flip it. It was quite good, filling and cheap!
We like eating turkey smoked 'sausage' by butterball. If we have any leftovers...same with ham...but the turkey sausage is our fav, I make a breakfast for dinner and add make a homemade scramble like Denny's by dicing the turkey sausage, pepper, onions. It is tons cheaper and much better tasting, that with country potatoes is one of our favorite ways to eat leftovers
Post a Comment