A Happy Fat Chicken....

We shop on a budget. But that doesn't mean we don't eat well. We're omnivores and like a nice fat bone to gnaw on. Moving swiftly on...

We simply can't buy into the notion of cheap meat, eggs and dairy, but are not judging anyone that does. But for us, it's simple. We won't eat untraceable animal produce wherever possible. Take poultry. We'll leave it to Hugh and Jamie to tell you about animal welfare, but we just believe this: It can't ever be a good thing to eat a £2 chicken....

So we eat it once in a while and make use of it. This fine fat bird above cost a whopping £12. It weighed 6.5 lbs (3kg ish)and is a supermarket free-ranger. It fed 8 people (four adults & four teenagers) for a roast dinner, then there was enough left for a chicken pie to feed four, a huge pan of chicken and vegetable soup (2 people ate very well, twice) and then the bones made a fabulous stock that will flavour 8 separate dishes (frozen in bags). Now, forget the stock, but by my feeble reckonings, that £12 bird, divided by the amount of meals it made = £1.34 per meal per person.

It wasn't organic. It didn't come from a farmyard with 1 or 2 hens scratching around on a summer's day. But it's a happy compromise.... and with a bit of bacon slapped on its breast and some generous seasoning, it was jolly tasty.