TIL you can stretch a rotisserie chicken into 6 meals if you save the bones
I used to toss the carcass after pulling the meat off a $5 rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, which felt like throwing money away. Two weeks ago I started simmering the bones with onion scraps and a bay leaf for an hour, and got about 6 cups of stock I would have otherwise bought in a carton for $3. That stock became a pot of rice and beans that fed me three dinners, plus I shredded the leftover meat into quesadillas for two lunches. So one bird turned into six meals for around $8 total. Does anyone else save veggie scraps in the freezer for this, or am I late to the party?
My mom's been doing the freezer bag thing for years and I finally started one in January, just a ziplock in the door with onion ends, carrot peels, and celery butts. Tossed a whole bag of it in with my last chicken carcass and got 8 cups of stock out of it, which honestly tasted better than the $3 carton stuff. You're not late, you're just finally doing it right.