I failed to mention that the chicken fat I skim off the top of the reserved chicken stock can also be used in other cooking instead of using cooking oil, butter, etc. It adds extra flavor to a dish when using it to saute onions or other vegetables you are going to serve, especially when you are serving them with chicken or in a chicken dish. It is also great to use if you are browning up some boneless skinless chicken breasts, instead of using cooking oil.
During tough economic times it can also help with the grocery budget. You can use all the rendered fats from cooking your meats such as bacon, sausage, turkey and chicken as a substitute for cooking oil or butter in many recipes. I like to use them mainly for sauteeing onions and other vegetables, but my grandmother often used rendered fats for other things as well. She sometimes used some rendered chicken fat to make her crusts for her chicken pot pies, so the flavor of the chicken would also be in the crust of the pie and not just the filling. Her pot pies were the best you have ever tasted!
I strain any rendered fat and pour it into small jars that I label with the date and they type of rendered fat (chicken, bacon, sausage, etc.) I keep them in my refrigerator and use the oldest jars first, so it never has a chance to go bad. If the fat has solidified before you had the time to strain it and pour it into jars, you can warm it gently on the stove so you can strain it and then pour it into the jars to use at a later date.
I especially like to use the small jars I have saved from store bought pimentos for my fat renderings, since they are small and don’t take up much room in the refrigerator.
I also save the carcas from the roasted chicken to use the next time I make chicken stock, and save any leftover chicken to use for another dish as well. I usually throw the carcas in a zip lick freezer bag and throw it in my freezer until the next time I make stock. Any leftover chicken or even the chicken that falls off the carcas when I am making stock, I add to my chicken soups, stews, Chicken and Dumplings, or Chicken pot pies, so very little gets wasted.
You can also puree any leftover roasted vegetables thinned with a little chicken stock if needed for a roasted vegetable soup the next day. Just heat it up and serve with some nice croutons, crusty french bread, or even a grilled cheese sandwich and you have a wonderful lunch.
Thank you very much.