Left Over Magic - BBQ Chicken on the Run

   You may have noticed that I seem to go on and on about making my dollar stretch.  For those of you who are sick and tired of reading about it, to you I apologize.  Making the dollar stretch should not however feel like "making the dollar stretch".  I like to eat well, and savour every single bite of food that I take.  This may sounds slightly mental, but I like to make a game out of how to stretch a meal without being skimpy.  I like to live large on a small budget.

    This week chicken breasts were on for a phenomenal price.  I bought two family packages.  I cooked them all up.  For that night's dinner I made roasted chicken breasts, roasted potatoes and baby carrots. They were large breasts so we needed only one each, and for some of the kids (o.k. and me) a whole breast was just too much.    This left lots of extra meat.  Waste not want not.  I broke the remaining chicken into small bits and stored it in a tupperware container.

    For the next night's dinner I mashed up the left over roasted potatoes and made a mashed potato salad (maybe later this week I will share that recipe).  I cut up raw vegetables for a vegetable tray with dip.  I also made a double batch of barbecue sauce.  I LOVE this barbecue sauce!  I would like to make you think that I am ever so clever and came up with this recipe, but I got it from my favourite cookbook series Company's Coming Cookbooks.  Honestly they are the only cookbooks that I use.  I have never ever had a failed recipe from those books. http://www.companyscoming.com/

    To make the barbecue sauce you will need...

1 Tbsp of butter                                              1/2 Cup of chopped onion

1 Cup of ketchup                                            1/3 Cup of vinegar

1/3 Cup of water                                             3 Tbsp of brown sugar

1 tsp Worchestershire sauce                            1 tsp prepared yellow mustard

Melt the butter in pan.  When it is melted, add the onions.  You want to cook these until they turn a little yellow and get soft.  At this stage I recommend taking your pan off of the heat while you add the next ingredients.  I say this because I get very easily distracted, and more than a few times I have feared that I would burn the onions, it hasn't happened yet, but honestly it's just a matter of time for me.  Next you add the ketchup.  I really like this recipe because you don't need the "good" brand named ketchup to make it taste amazing.  I just use the store brand ketchup, and it always tastes great.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Here's another quick note, the recipe calls for Worchestershire sauce, but it's one of those items I use the last of and forget to add to my grocery list.  I am pleased to tell you that you can use soy sauce in it's place and it does not effect the outcome.

When all of the ingredients are in and mixed let it simmer for about twenty minutes on medium heat.  You will want to stir it so that it does not stick to the pan.  This makes about 1 1/4 cups of sauce, so I will double it.

    When the barbecue sauce was finished I poured the previous night's left over chicken into my beloved Pampered chef dish.  I then poured in the barbecue sauce and gave it a little stir.  I threw a layer of tin foil on the top and popped it into the oven at 250 degrees to heat, but not over cook.  When it was heated I served it on a nice soft bun.
    The nice thing about this recipe is that the chicken bits go farther than the chicken breast, so it's a perfect meal for left overs.  I was being thrifty, but no one in my family even knew they were eating leftovers ... score!