Dinner Recipes, Winter Meal Plan #4

Meal prep for tonight and for the rest of the week:

1. Roast three chickens. The recipe below offers two methods for super simple roast chicken. Both require minimal hands on time; however, one method requires soaking the chicken overnight in buttermilk so plan accordingly.
2. The easiest way to roast all three chickens at once is to put two chickens in a 9×13 baking dish and the third chicken in a square 9-inch baking dish. (The single chicken will be finished roasting before the two that are roasting together in the 9×13 dish.) Eat one for dinner tonight.
3. Pick the meat from the bones of the other two chickens (plus any leftover meat from the first chicken). Reserve 2 cups chicken in a zip top bag or container and put in the freezer for Chicken Chopped Salad. Reserve 2 cups chicken Enchiladas Verdes. Reserve 3 cups chicken for Chicken Salad Sandwiches.
4. Optional: After picking the chicken meat from the bones, use the chicken bones to make simple chicken broth, letting it simmer in the slow cooker overnight.
5. Sauté red bell peppers and any other vegetables you’d like to eat tonight. For a family of 4, sauté 6 red peppers; serve half of the peppers tonight and reserve the rest for Chicken Chopped Salad on Day #5.

Optional meal prep for the rest of the week:

1. Two recipes this week call for Salsa Verde: Enchiladas Verdes and Potato Corn Chowder. You can use bottled Salsa Verde (I like Herdez) or make some from scratch. Here's my favorite Salsa Verde Recipe.
2. Cut up some of the bread into small ½-inch cubes – about 2-4 cups of bread cubes – and use to make homemade croutons, for Chicken Chopped Salad on Day #5. Reserve remaining bread for Open Face Chicken Salad Sandwiches on Day #4.
3. If making homemade tortillas for tomorrow’s Enchiladas Verdes, make them today. This is optional. Homemade tortillas are fantastic, but packaged tortillas will work just fine.
4. Slice 1 English cucumber and 12 radishes into paper thin slices. If you have a mandolin, now is the time to use it. Put the sliced vegetables in a zip top bag or other airtight container and reserve for Open Face Chicken Salad Sandwiches on Day #3.
5. Sauté the bacon, hard boil the eggs, and chop all the vegetables except the avocado for Chicken Chopped Salad on Day #4.
6. Dice 2 red bell peppers, storing them in a zip top bag or other airtight container in the refrigerator for Potato Corn Chowder on Day #5.

Use 2 cups of leftover Roast Chicken for these super easy chicken enchiladas.

Use 3 cups of the leftover roast chicken to make the chicken salad, and several slices of the leftover bread for the sandwiches. This is a quick, simple meal, especially if you chopped the cucumbers and radishes on day 1.

If you chopped the veggies, boiled the eggs, sautéed the bacon, and made the croutons for this salad earlier in the week, tonight's dinner is simply a matter of defrosting the chicken you put in the freezer earlier this week, and assembling the salad.

Use If you made Chicken Broth earlier in the week, now's the time to use it. Smoked Gouda and Bacon Biscuits are an optional but highly recomended accompaniment.