Understand the true cost of chicken you buy

If I asked you to close your eyes and picture yourself in a grocery store wheeling a cart down the aisle putting chicken in your cart, what would your chicken look like? What kind of chicken would you choose?

If you said a plastic 2.5 lb. bag filled with frozen, skinless, boneless chicken breasts, you're paying roughly $3 or more per pound (unless of course, you took advantage of a buy one/get one free sale). If you bought a whole chicken, that's only .69 per pound. Of course, prices vary from place to place, but the principle is the same: whole chicken vs. chicken packaged any other way is always much cheaper. And compared to the most expensive way of buying chicken, it's a real bargain! But suppose you're not all that kitchen savvy? What do you do with whole chickens? Here's a recipe designed to help you stretch your dollars and your menu at the same time:

Rubber Chicken (or how to make one chicken into three great meals!)

1 chicken, washed and patted dry

1/2 celery rib, cut in pieces

1 onion, quartered

1 carrot, cut in 2-inch pieces

salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

Day 1: Make a roasted chicken. If you don't know how, don't fret, I'll help you. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and place your clean chicken in a roasting pan, breast side up, with all the veggies placed in the cavity. Season liberally and cook. Baste it if you like. Depending on the size, it will take an hour or two to roast. While the chicken is cooking,throw the neck in some water to make additional stock for the gravy. Cook it on low.

When the chicken is done, the leg should move easily in the socket. Before you make gravy, remove chicken to a cutting board and pour all the cooking juice out from the roaster into a bowl to cool. Put it in the fridge or freezer to encourage the fat to glob up on to the top. Then you can skim off that nasty fat and throw it away. Return the juice — without the fat — to the same pan and deglaze your pan by scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.

In a small mixing bowl, take a tablespoon of flour, about 3/4 cup of cool water and make a smooth paste. Heat the cooking juice, add the neck broth (this is really starting to sound gross!) and then add your paste. Using your wire whisk, whisk like a crazy lady over a fairly high heat till your gravy starts to look like gravy. Remove from heat and serve with mashed potatoes and lots of vegetables. Remember, you want leftovers.