No one doubts the importance of high-quality produce when it comes to cooking a high-quality meal. Organics, sustainability, ethics – all are watchwords in the world of home cooking, not least because, in addition to being better for the animal and the environment, they result in meals that taste better, too.

An undeniable aspect of this is nose-to-tail eating: the avoidance of food wastage, which costs Australians alone an estimated $10 billion a year, is an ethical consideration, too.

But many people are still unsure how to use a whole animal – a chicken, to start with smaller, easier example – in a way that also maximises flavour.

This is the delicious. guide to using the whole bird, a guide to beak-to-plumage eating, if you will, that will ensure you get the most out of your purchase both ethically and gastronomically. We suggest Lilydale’s free range birds. Choosing free range chickens means you’re already putting your money where you mouth is.

Break down the whole chicken

The first thing you have do is avoid buying individual parts where possible. Luckily, after it’s been cut up, a Lilydale whole chicken yields two rib-in breasts, two drumsticks and two thighs, which can easily feed a family of four for a couple of days, not including the long shelf life of the stock you’ll also be making from it. The trick is to mix and match your recipes so every piece gets its moment in the spotlight.

The first thing you’ll want to do is cook any piece of the chicken (excluding the skin) that’s not one of the aforementioned cuts. Anything that has meat on it will do. Put all of these together in a slow cooker and cook them on high for about four hours. When they’re done, you’ll be able to get the meat off the bone far more easily than beforehand. The carcass – including the spine –wings and any other random scraps should fill about a cup.

Of course, there are plenty of recipes that call for chicken wings – but if you want to stick with the whole bird approach, you’re going to have to buy multiple chickens to pull them off. Here are a few of our favourites nonetheless.

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Make chicken stock

With as much of meat accounted for as possible, take the skin and all the leftover bones (both from the original carving and from the cooking of the carcass) and make chicken stock.

Combine all the bones, four litres of water, a quartered onion, two chopped carrots and three chopped celery sticks in a slow cooker. Cook it on low for 24 hours and then, ten minutes before you’re done, chop up and add a bunch of parsley. Turn the slow cooker off, skim the surface liberally and allow the result to cool. Strain it once it’s done so and whack it in some freezer-friendly containers. One Lilydale chicken should result in about two litres.

There are other methods you can use as well, such as this one. But that’s perhaps for another day. We have bits and pieces to use!

Keep the bones

Here’s the best thing about this whole deal: you can re-cook those bones from the stock cook any time you want. The resulting stock will be less intense, but that’s okay, too: it means you’ve got a hearty chicken broth or soup. (Add some bread and you’ve just added a day or two to the length of time this bird can feed you.) As you work your way through the other cuts, such as the rib-in breasts, you should be adding them to your stockpile for future stock-cooking sessions. Don’t throw anything out. The bird (and your stomach) will thank you.

Cook the breast meat

Here are a few of our favourite recipes involving chicken breast. Remember that you can always break down more than one chicken to ensure you have enough of everything (and that you’ll be eating for weeks).

Cook the thigh meat

Here at delicious., we’re thigh people. No, no, not like that. It just happens to be one of the most versatile cuts of chicken – indeed, of any meat – going. As such, we have a whopping 33 recipes for you to choose from.

Rock out with the drumsticks

As with the wings, it’s worth remembering that a single chicken only wields two drumsticks. While what we’d suggest is treating the drumstick meat like thigh meat – these are, after all, complimentary dark meats, and the bone stockpile you’ve got going in the freezer would doubtless like some company – these recipes should appease those of you who want to go out and breakdown ten birds at a time.

Cook the rest

So at this point there’s not much left to go around. You have a little bit of shredded chicken meat left. Maybe some leftovers (though we would certainly hope not). What to do? There are countless options: shredded takeaway chicken with rice noodles, chicken coleslaw, chicken, capsicum and ricotta mini-pizzas. This is our personal recommendation:

But that’s just because we really like bao but you could easily make this using Lilydale chicken mince any time you like.

And that, dear reader, is with just one Lilydale chicken. Feeding the whole family with one ingredient has never felt so easy, or good.