Efficient use of the whole chook

Whole chickens were on special.

I removed the ribcage …

… by cutting the skin down the spine …

… and gently cutting flesh away from ribs, and severing hip and shoulder joints …

 … leaving ribcage …

… and the rest of the chook:

I cut off the legs (and wings) …

… leaving the breast and most of the skin:

I peeled the skin away, …

… then rearranged the breasts on the skin in a less biologically accurate, but more even, fashion:

I made stuffing by sweating chopped onion in lots of butter …

… until it was beginning to brown …

… picked some parsley and sage from the garden …

… and chopped it up finely …

… then added the onions, butter, chopped herbs, and salt, to a cup or so of white breadcrumbs from the freezer:

The stuffing went on top of the chicken breasts …

… and I got out Uncle Ted's old upholstery needle (Uncle Ted was the husband of Auntie Helen of the steamed pudding bowl) and threaded it with string:

Bit by bit I sewed up the chicken's skin around its breast and the stuffing …

 … until it was a nice neat parcel …

… which I put in an oven dish, sitting on the ribcage and wings, with the legs to the sides:

I cooked them for about 45 minutes …

… one leg was dinner, and the stuffed breast and other leg went into the fridge to be eaten cold.

The carcase and wings …

 … went into a pot of water with onion and some sliced shiitake mushrooms and were boiled for a couple of hours, making a delicious stock …

…  from which I removed the bones and strained the meat and mushrooms. I added the meat and mushrooms to cooked soba noodles and put stock and noodles in the fridge, ready to be reheated in portions and eaten together: 

The soup and noodles were three lunches worth.