Thirteen Ways of Looking at Cheap Chicken

Should you even look at cheap chicken while you're in the supermarket? Depends on where you live, relative to a farm. Where I live, organically grown chicken cuts, other than the premium breast cut, are often cheaper per pound than Friskies, Whiskas, or Nine Lives. "But then aren't you taking home a lot of fat that has to be thrown away?" Well, no; those handfuls of fat that form on the thighs of bloated factory-farm chickens aren't found on the smaller, slimmer thighs of organically reared chickens.

So, if chicken thighs, or wing or back cuts, are a bargain, what does one do with them? Here is a baker's dozen of serving suggestions. (All are, of course, gluten-free.) These aren't recipes; they're general categories of things I do with cheap chicken that are good enough to serve to company. Proportions depend on the number of diners; alternatives depend on what's most easily available. If you want to use all the suggested spices together, and sometimes I do, use just a sprinkle, never more than one or two teaspoons total volume—too many spices spoil the chicken.

1. Caribbean Cook-Up: The first thing everyone needs to know about the national dish of Trinidad and Tobago is that, to be authentic, it must be prepared by a man, usually using leftover food (as it might have been cooked by his wife the day before) combined and seasoned according to his own recipe, which is such a deep, dark secret that nobody else is allowed to help, watch, or even wash the dishes in which he's cooked it. So any attempt the rest of us make to replicate any version of Caribbean Cook-Up with which we are familiar will never be authentic. My late husband learned to make this dish in Trinidad, and dutifully kept the recipe for his authentic version a secret from me, so my version is ersatz.

However, the ersatz version is still pretty good. My husband used to begin by frying tiny amounts of several Indian or West Indian spices, including an onion and some white sugar, until the sugar turned brown. The frugal way to fry seasonings is in the melted fat removed from the chicken. I sacrifice some flavor and authenticity to health, parboil the chicken to remove all visible fat and blood, and steam the onion with the rice, adding no oil—the chicken and veg still contain enough oil. Any vegetables can be added to this. My husband always used frozen sliced okra, and usually a can of gandules or "pigeon peas," which are available in some, not all, parts of the United States. Any peas or beans will work; I think "pigeon peas" refers to the way these beans taste more like garbanzos or "chick peas" than anything else. Celery, bell peppers, tomatoes go well with these essentials. One can get creative; more than one of my husband's cook-ups included candied orange peels. Caribbean men feel free to use vegetables other than peas and okra, and, for that matter, meats other than chicken.

2. Curry: Like a cook-up, a curry can include all sorts of things. There are several different versions of "curry powder," most of which, in the U.S., don't even include the kari herb. They do include turmeric, which is the dominant spice in our version of chicken curry. It turns everything a wonderful shade of yellow. For this dish, although I still parboil the chicken, I do fry the onions and parboiled potatoes in a tablespoon of oil, with the curry powder. This is then mixed into the chicken with some of the potato water. It would contain enough carbs without rice, but I serve it on brown rice.

3. Sweet & Sour: In some Chinese restaurants, the "Sweet & Sour Chicken" is a nutrition-oblivious dish of meat thickly breaded in arrowroot, deep-fried, and served with something that resembles maraschino cherry syrup. I wouldn't heat up my kitchen for that. I parboil the chicken, steam the rice, and stir-fry any combination of carrot (sliced thin), celery (ditto), onions, scallions, radish, jicama, chayote, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, bell peppers, green or snow peas, green beans, citrus peel, ginger root, mandarin oranges, pineapple, possibly even canned peaches or cherries, and nuts, that's on hand. (If making this for a crowd, go ahead and let the chicken get lost in all the fruit and vegetables.) Supermarkets stock several kinds of teriyaki, sweet-and-sour, or General Tso's sauce but it's more interesting to make a sauce with the canned fruit juice, lemon juice, a little soy sauce, possibly sugar or syrup if the fruit juice isn't very sweet, and sprinkles of ginger, cinnamon, five-spice powder and/or pepper. Thicken the sauce with cornstarch or arrowroot if you like a thick sauce, or cut some calories by making a thin sauce—this is America, we don't have to use chopsticks.

4. Cassoulet: The official rule for this French bean soup is to use any kind of meat, and any kind of beans, you can get, the more different ones the better. The French cook everything separately and can make cassoulet into a major production. For a simple American version, parboil the chicken, drain off the frothy water that contains most of the meat and fat, and cover the chicken with fresh water. Add a chopped onion, up to a cup of chopped celery if you have it, a few garlic cloves, maybe a carrot. Let it simmer. As it simmers, add, in no particular order, but stirring in each ingredient to keep the pot simmering not boiling: a can of garbanzos, a sprinkle of sage, can of gandules, sprinkle of rosemary, can of pinto beans, sprinkle of thyme, can of black beans, sprinkle of cayenne, can of black-eyed peas, sprinkle of lemon juice, and a can of cut greens, preferably kale or mustard. It should boil only after everything has been added and should not boil long. This can be served by itself with bread or crackers for dipping, or extended with rice, but it's more unusual if it's poured over a tureen full of popcorn.

5. Chili Bean Stew: Parboil the chicken, drain, and add a large can of tomatoes with their juice. Stir in, in no special order, as above: pinto beans, black beans, cannellini, drained rinsed kidney beans (I do not like sugary beans), and spices. If you like a commercial chili powder mix, use it. If not, use a generous sprinkle of red pepper and small sprinkles of cumin, sage, rosemary, and/or black pepper. This can be served on rice, or on cornbread, or with corn kernels in season.

6. Green Chicken Stew: Parboil the chicken, drain, and add half a cup of fresh water. If you have fresh greens, wash them and fill the soup kettle with them; they'll wilt down as they cook. Otherwise use cans to fill the kettle. Add a can of garbanzos (or two), sprinkles of lemon juice, soy sauce, cayenne, rosemary, a Badia packet of sesame seed and/or flaxseed, if you like. This is also surprisingly good on unbuttered popcorn, or on rice, or on cornbread.

7. Moros y Cristianos: Spain was settled by a mix of Northern African "Moors" and Southern European "Christians," and the Spanish commemorate them by giving this name to any combination of black beans with either white beans or white rice (or both). When I'm cooking just for myself, I might just heat up one can of each kind of beans, or use a packaged mix (Vitarroz, available only in the city, used to be low-cost, flavorful, and gluten-free). When I do Moros y Cristianos for company, I divide the parboiled chicken between a pan of black beans and a pan of white beans. Each pan gets simmered with a cut-up onion and a minced garlic clove. White beans can be further seasoned with celery and rosemary; black beans with cumin, cayenne, and soy sauce. Each plate then gets a ladleful of each kind of beans, one on either side of a mound of rice.

8. Taco Salad: Parboil the chicken, cut it in dainty bite-sized pieces, and stir-steam it in a small amount of water with taco spices. (If you can't find a gluten-free taco spice packet, this would be small amounts of chili powder, cumin, turmeric, garlic powder, salt, and rosemary, not more than two teaspoons altogether.) Add a yellow onion, garlic, and/or celery to the onion if you have some large ripe ones to use up. I cook and drain, but do not mash or refry, pinto beans, and usually cook them along with the chicken. Cover plates with tortilla chips or corn chips, top with chicken and beans, then top those with chopped tomato, chopped sweet onion or scallions, chopped green leaf lettuce, sliced cucumber, and a shredded radish if you have one. Some people add yogurt, cheese, or guacamole to the stack. I don't.

9. Chicken with Peanut Sauce: Parboil the chicken, remove all fat and "impurities" from the liquid, and use the clean, clear liquid to melt and mingle unsweetened peanut butter, salt and/or soy sauce, a minced onion, and cayenne or lemon juice if you like. This can be served on rice but it's delicious on rabe or collard greens.

10. Cacciatore: Parboil the chicken and, in a small amount of water, stir-steam onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, possibly carrots and celery, garlic, and diced summer squash. Add just enough water to keep it from sticking; you want the vegetables to form a soft thick sauce, not a soup. You can add rosemary, thyme, cayenne, or Italian mixed spices while it cooks, if you really want to. I think it's better with fresh parsley and/or basil added at the table, along with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and soy sauce or Mrs Dash for those who prefer them. This started out as an Italian dish and seems at home with Italian bread or pasta (rice pasta, maybe), but it also goes well with rice.

11. Irish Saint's Day: Definitely not what comes to mind when people think of Irish food, but someone dug up an old text that mentioned a quaint, sweet, medieval chicken dish served on a special occasion. The way I recreated this treat is to parboil the chicken, then reheat it in sweetened commercial rice or soy "milk" with rice, sliced or slivered almonds—one pound each of chicken, rice, and almonds—and dusts of cinnamon. Unusual, surprisingly frugal, and surprisingly good. It should be slightly, blandly sweet, not sugary, but you could add dried fruit, candied citrus peels, or preserved ginger if you wanted them and preserve the cultural background of the meal.

12. Minestrone: Parboil the chicken, then reheat it in a little water, a quart or so of tomato juice or V-8, with any and all vegetables you want to use up. It should taste like vegetables more than spices, but garlic is a vegetable, and sprinkles of red pepper and thyme won't hurt.

13. Down Home: Where I live, "down home cooking" tends to imply styles that turn me off. Great-Grandma used far too much saturated fat and cooked all the vegetables to death to kill the germs to which they'd been exposed in the garden. Nevertheless. Great-Grandma did know how to serve her free-range chickens in a way that brought out their flavor. Bake a pan of real Southern cornbread (no sweetening—real Southern cornbread is made exactly like real Southern biscuits, only with cornmeal instead of white flour). If using an electric stove, fill up the oven by surrounding the cornbread with potatoes. Parboil the chicken. Wilt some fresh greens by heating them up in just the water that's left on the leaves after washing, or heat up cans of greens, as indicated. To finish cooking the chicken, reheat it in just a little water with sprinkles of red pepper and sage; stir and watch it until it starts to dry. Slice a bunch of scallions or wild garlic, tops and all (remove any dried ends from the tops), and put it on a table in a separate bowl. If you have them and have enough company to eat everything, other things traditionally put on the table with this meal were fresh milk, fresh homemade butter, and sliced fresh tomatoes and cucumbers on separate plates. Don't mix anything; pass everything around so people can make their own choices about what they want on their plates at the same time. Great-Grandma would probably complain about the low saturated fat content of this meal, but I find it satisfactory to the palate and the soul.