We love leftovers: chicken

In the first of our `we love leftovers' series, lovefood looks at what two people can do with the chicken left over from a Sunday roast.

Sunday - roast chicken

Who better to entrust your Sunday roast to than Mary Berry? She suggests stuffing a whole chicken with an apple, onion, parsley, thyme and lemon concoction, then smothering the whole breast in a thick layer of lovely butter and roasting, breast-side down at first, for the calculated time (20 minutes per 500g, plus an extra 20 minutes). We’d probably serve it with these ultimate roast potatoes and a few glazed carrots.

The chicken will easily serve four people, but if there are only two of you, then you'll have plenty left over. Remember to save the bones and carcass for stock - make sure you pick the meat off the carcass as soon as the chicken has cooled completely. Transfer to a tupperware and refrigerate. 

Cost of meal: a whole free-range chicken costs around £5.50, and the trimmings to go with it will be an extra £4 or so, with plenty of leftovers. So around £9.50.

Monday's leftover lunch – chicken quesadillas

“A great thing to do with leftover meat like chicken or turkey is to make quesadillas,” says recipe author James Ramsden. All you’ll need on your shopping list is tortillas, a red onion, one red chilli, some cheese and perhaps a bunch of coriander.

Fill your tortilla with all the ingredients (shred the chicken, chop the onion and chilli, and cube the cheese), top with another tortilla to make a kind of sandwich, and then cook in a frying pan for 2-4 minutes on each side. Serve in quarters, nice and hot for a melted cheese finish.

Cost of meal: around £1 per person, with leftover cheese, tortillas and chillies. 

Monday's leftover dinner – Thai-style broth

First of all, make some chicken stock. It’s simple: chuck the leftover bones and skin from your cooked roast chicken into a large stock pot and cover with cold water; add some veggies (such as celery, onion, carrots and a bit of parsley, which you should have left over from Mary’s recipe) and seasoning; bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to barely a simmer; leave uncovered for four hours, occasionally skimming off any foam from the surface; and finally remove the bones and strain the stock.

That will be your base for Diana Henry’s fragrant Thai-style broth. “This is an incredibly quick no hassle meal, yet it seems on serving as if you have made quite an effort,” she says. “It’s also a complete meal in a bowl so there’s no washing up. Its sweetness appeals to children and you can leave off the hot chilli garnish when serving the youngest members of the family.”

Diana has made this recipe using both leftover chicken and pork before, but regardless of the meat there is always garlic, Shitake mushrooms, Butternut squash, turmeric, coconut milk, red curry paste, Tenderstem broccoli, lime juice and egg noodles included.

Cost of meal: just over £2 per person, with leftover curry paste and noodles.

Tuesday's leftover lunch – chicken and fennel pasta

"We always end up with leftovers when we roast a chicken on a Sunday," says recipe author Peter Sidwell. "As a kid I have fond memories of my dad in the kitchen picking the meat off the chicken while the dog sat there licking its lips in anticipation." Luckily it's not the dog who gets Peter's leftovers... instead, the chicken is tossed together with fennel and leeks cooked in white wine, as well as cream, tarragon and pasta. Your colleagues will be envious of that al-desko lunch. 

Cost of meal: if you've already got white wine in the fridge, and pasta in the cupboard, it works out to be just over £1 per person.

What do you make from leftover chicken? How long does it last for in your household? Talk to use in the comments box below.

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