what do with very little leftover roasted chicken,how to decorate dishes of chicken

What To Do With Very Little Leftover Roasted Chicken

October 19th, 2006 by RG in Chicken Recipes, Cooking Tips

We had a roasted chicken on Monday night and I thought there was a lot leftover but it turned out there was only one breast and one leg. So my idea of making a curry sauce to serve over the chicken that would be served over couscous needed to be changed rather quickly since I needed to make dinner in the next 20 minutes.
So I decided to clean out the refrigerator a little and throw together a quick stir-fry with some spices and various vegetables that were on their last legs along with the leftover chicken. It was quick and easy and delicious too. Simple but tasty.
It’s pear season and I purchased a flat of them at Costco so for a salad my wife sliced up some Bartlett Pears, placed the slices on some Romaine lettuce, crumbled some blue cheese on top and served it with a commercial brand poppy seed dressing. Again quick, easy and delicious.
Leftover Chicken Stir-Fry
Ingredients – I used whatever vegetables were lying around my vegetable drawer in the fridge but you can substitute your favorite stir-fry veggies.

• 4 – 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 thumbnail size piece of ginger
• ½ onion – Found it in a zip lock bag at the bottom of the vegetable drawer
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 handful of green beans
• 1 small bunch of broccoli heads
• Leftover chicken
• 1-teaspoon Asian fish sauce
• 1-tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste

Prep the Ingredients – As with all stir-fry, the most work and time is spent getting the ingredients ready. See my web page on stir-fry. It is important to try and chop all like ingredients to the same size so they cook evenly.
I peeled the garlic but left it whole. All I wanted to do was flavor the oil with garlic and ginger. By leaving it whole, it’s easy to work with and does the job nicely. If you like the taste of garlic, by all means chop it up or slice it. The ginger I did slice, but if I wanted to add more flavor from the ginger, I would have grated it.
I sliced the onion and cut the slices in half. For the peppers, I cut the top and stem off, removed the seeds and membrane and cut them into ¼ inch slices. The green beans were washed, trimmed of ends and cut into quarters or thirds. The broccoli stems were cleaned and separated.
The chicken was already cooked so I just removed the meat from the bone and sliced it into strips. It was more like shredding than slicing because the meat was so tender. Now I was ready to start cooking.
How to Make at Home
With any stir-fry, you want the pan and oil hot, but not smoking, so I heated up the oil in my large sauté pan over medium-high heat. I added the whole garlic and sliced ginger and cooked until the garlic was brown and I could smell it release its flavor. I removed the garlic and ginger with a slotted spoon and discarded it.

I immediately threw in the onion, peppers, green beans and broccoli stems. If I had more time I may have cooked some of the ingredients separately, adding more as I went along, but I didn’t so everything went in at one time. And you know what, it turned out fine.
Once the ingredients are in, you want to keep your eye on them so they don’t burn. I gave the pan a shake and then stirred them with my slotted spoon every once in a while. After about 5 to 6 minutes, I added the fish sauce, vinegar, salt & pepper and continued cooking for another 3 to 4 minutes.
Lastly, I added the chicken and continued cooking for a couple of minutes just so the already cooked chicken heated up and picked up some of the flavoring from the other ingredients.
I tasted for seasonings and everything seem fined so we served it up with our romaine lettuce, pear and blue cheese salad.
It actually took less time to make dinner tonight than to write & post this recipe. Isn’t that a funny thought?