a chicken that keeps on giving

for those who know me, I am definitely not cheap. but I think I am resourceful and sensible with my spending most of the time, and maybe because I have quite a few good jew friends, they rub off on me.

where am I going with this? I roasted another chicken a few days ago, this time a quite big one, 6 lbs. needless to say, I got plenty of left over that can not go to waste. I made a soup with the bones and the onion and carrots I roasted with the chicken. but I still got quite a lot of meat as well as the dripping left.

one dish my grandmother use to make was this thing called: 菜飯. it is essentially rice cooked with bokchoy and chinese cured pork that is pretty fatty (unsmoked). it is best if it is cooked in a heavy pot over low heat, and a nice crust would form on the sides and the bottom of the pot, not unlike what you should get with paella when it is done right.


I got some bokchoy in my fridge, so instead of fatty pork, I used left over chicken meat plus the fat from the roast to make this dish. in my first try, it turned out a little soggy (the tricky part is that the vegetable and meat will give out moisture, so the amount of water in the pot will depend not only on how much rice you got, but also how much vegetable you have as well). but it turned out that I have enough left over chicken for another try (both small batches though). and this time it was pretty good. look at the lovely brown bits on the bottom, I tore through the thing in like 2 minutes. I miss grandma.