Who doesn’t love a juicy roast chicken on the weekend? But what do you do with your leftovers and could you stretch them into several more meals? Read more to find out how to make the most of your roast chicken, from turning the carcass into stock to using the leftovers in stews, curries and soups.

First roast your chicken

The time it takes to roast a chicken depends on the size of the chicken itself. Most packages will give you a roasting time, but if not roast at 190 C for 20 minutes per 450 g plus 10 - 20 minutes, roasting until the juices run clear. As an example, a 1.6kg chicken will usually be roasted for 1 ½ hours.

We have plenty of roast chicken recipes for you to choose from on Cookpad. Why not try John’s chicken roasted with lemon and garlic or Miss Fluffy’s herby roast chicken.

Remove any leftover meat from the carcass

Once dinner is over and the carcass is cold, use a knife and then your fingers to remove the leftover meat. You can separate the meat into dark meat (legs, thighs and wings), white meat (breast) and the meat ‘scraps’ (small bits of meat from around the bones and underneath the bird).

When the carcass has cooled completely, remove the meat using a knife and your fingers.
Separate the carcass into the bones (plus any fatty skin) and the meat (dark, white breast and smaller scraps)

Make stock

Once the meat has been removed, put the carcass into a large saucepan to make a chicken stock - you can find recipes for chicken stock on Cookpad here. The process of making stock pulls out the nutrients, collagen and fats from the bones and last scraps of meat to make a nutritious broth. This chicken stock can then be used to make sauces, stews and soups.

Use the leftover meat

Natalie's chicken soup recipe combines Asian aromatics with homemade chicken stock and noodles

Leftover chicken can be used in sandwiches, salads, curries, stews, casseroles and so much more.

Find more leftover roast chicken recipes on Cookpad here.