chickeny leftovers

on tuesday i spent much of the cleanup picking semi-raw chicken off the roasted chickens. by the fourth chicken i was tired of picking it off, and probably didn't pick it as cleanly as a hungrier person might have. i packed all of that chicken into a single tupperware the size of a large, flat brick, and stuck it in the fridge labeled "raw chicken."

unsurprisingly, on friday nobody had eaten any of it. i picked it up and it felt like a brick, too, as it was packed so tightly. i had wanted to make something with it for the past few days, but didn't want to buy anything to add to it, instead wanting to make something with ingredients we had around.

as happens with most good things, i started by sauteing some diced onions. i added leftover gravy, and then i added the chicken (which i had to pry out of the tupperware). now, what to do, what to do...we had a can of evaporated milk in the pantry so i added that, as well as some leftover fresh thyme we had from roasting the chickens. i kept adding milk until i realized i didn't really want to be eating milk with a little chicken, so i added rice. the rice needed more liquid and we didn't have any real chicken broth, so i gave in and made a few cups of chicken broth from bouillon. i then kept on adding whole milk as the whole thing cooked in order to keep the rice from sticking to the pot and burning. about an hour later on low heat, i had a chicken stew. pretty chickeny, thought it could have used more chicken broth instead of milk. and perhaps a little lemongrass, although i always like thyme. in fact, it really tasted like the filling for chicken pot pie (without the carrots, potatoes, and peas, and plus rice).

for the recipe junkies, here's the recipe, though it's rather general and also dependent on what you've got in your fridge. i think i used about a half-gallon of whole milk (or maybe a third).

leftover chicken stew #1
olive oil
4 medium onions, diced
2 - 3 cups leftover chicken, in pieces
1/2 pkg of thyme, leaves stripped from the stems (about 1 1/2 to 2T)
leftover gravy/roasted vegetables/whatever's in your fridge
1 can evaporated milk
a few cans chicken broth
whole milk
any other vegetables you want to throw in
2 1/2 cups short-grain rice (i really liked the rice i used...it's a short-grain California white rice, tomiko or tamiko or something like that)

[1] heat some oil in a large pot and saute the onions until translucent. add the gravy, let cook about 1 minute, then add the chicken pieces.

[2] add the can of evaporated milk, and whatever leftovers you want to put in.

[3] add a few cups of milk and some chicken broth. add the rice, and make sure there's enough liquid to cover the whole mixture. turn heat to low and stir the mixture frequently. add more milk or chicken broth when it starts to get too dry (the mixture will start to stick to the bottom).

[serves 8]