Yesterday, Carey started three meals from one fine chicken. If you haven’t read yesterday’s post yet, go check it out and follow it up with these two excellent recipes!

You can visit Carey at Frugal Fulfillment. Thanks for the great recipes, Carey!

Day Two: Homemade Chicken Alfredo Pizza

If you’ve never made your own pizza dough before – please try it! You’ll be amazed at how easy it is! And it takes much less time than you might think. Here’s the recipe I used:

1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 ½ cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Mix into all remaining ingredients. Knead until smooth, using a little more flour if necessary. Roll out on a floured counter and transfer to a pizza pan. Press dough to edges of pizza pan.

For this recipe, I then spooned on about 1/3 of a jar of Ragu Classic Alfredo sauce, used half of my leftover chicken, and about 4 oz of mozzarella cheese. On half the pizza, I also threw on a few mushrooms and sprinkled just a bit of green pepper. That’s my half – Twelve ‘won’t eat fungus’. I sprinkled the whole pizza with a bit of dried oregano. I baked it at 450 degrees for about 13 minutes. It was delicious!



1/3 of whole chicken $1.49
pizza dough ingredients $1.00
sauce $0.80
cheese $1.00
extra veggies $0.10

TOTAL meal cost for two: $4.39
And we only ate half the pizza! Now we have leftovers for lunch. See how this rubber chicken stretches?

Day Three: Chicken and Pinto Beans

With the rest of the leftover chicken, since it’s winter time, I decided to make a warm, hearty and filling dish. This one is also very simple! First, I soaked 16 ounces of dried pinto beans in a bowl of water overnight. In the morning, I rinsed the beans, put them in the crockpot, added water to about ½ inch above the beans, and added the following ingredients:

2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp minced garlic
½ an onion, finely chopped

I left the crockpot on HIGH and simmered those beans all day! About one hour before dinner, I threw in the leftover chicken. My original plan was to serve this over rice, but it looked so thick and hearty that I didn’t think it was necessary, but it is an option! I added a little more raw diced onion and a sprinkle of chili powder to mine. Twelve and I both loved it! We even had leftovers… MORE leftovers! Here’s the cost breakdown:



1/3 of whole chicken $1.49
16 oz. dried beans $0.79
spices, garlic and onion $0.50

TOTAL meal cost for two: $2.78

But wait! There’s more! Leanne Ely from Saving Dinner stretches her rubber chicken for a family of four. Her chicken meat only lasts two meals, and her third meal is a soup made from broth from the chicken carcass. We’ve done three meals for two, and still have the carcass to deal with! Read my post here, about how I make homemade chicken stock.

That little chicken stretched a long way! Now, if your family consists of more than two, you can make just one of the above leftover meals, add side dishes, or you can start with two chickens! There are countless different recipes that require chicken meat – be creative and stretch that rubber chicken!