This meal-prep hack shared on Instagram by the account Anyday (@cookanyday) will save you time and money — and make your life easier — when it comes to making dinner at home.
The scoop
The 10-minute hack is quite simple and perfect for the next time you bring home a rotisserie chicken for dinner. Follow these instructions to try it for yourself.
The first step is easy: Enjoy your rotisserie chicken dinner like normal. However, instead of throwing the carcass or any of the bones away, save them.
Once you've collected all the leftover chicken bones, throw them in a large, microwave-safe bowl and add any seasoning of your choice. The chef in the video keeps it simple with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Once seasoned, cover with water.
Next, microwave the bowl uncovered for 10 minutes. Once it's done, as Anyday wrote in the video's caption, "you'll end up with a deeply flavorful, no-waste chicken stock!"
To save the chicken stock for future recipes, they recommend skimming and straining the stock for bones before portioning it into half-cup trays (a cupcake pan would work, too) and freezing it. Once frozen, transfer to a freezer-safe bag for perfectly preportioned chicken stock to use in any recipe and make future dinner plans a breeze.
"You'll thank yourself later!" wrote Anyday in the caption.
How it's helping
Hacks like this one utilize food scraps that would otherwise be thrown away, reducing food waste.
Food waste is a massive problem because of the planet-warming methane it produces. When put in landfills, food waste is buried and loses access to oxygen — a critical component in the breakdown of food that creates compost. Without oxygen, food rots and generates methane gas, a byproduct that is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
🗣️ What's the most common reason you end up throwing away food?
🔘 Bought more than I could eat 🛒
🔘 Went bad sooner than I expected 👎
🔘 Forgot it was in the fridge 😞
🔘 Didn't want leftovers 🥡
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
According to the EPA, food waste in landfills contributes more methane than any other type of waste in landfills, accounting for approximately 58%. This statistic is unsurprising when you consider that approximately 38% of food in the United States is never sold or eaten, resulting in 88.7 thousand tons of food waste sent to landfills, according to a study by Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment.
Fortunately, reducing food waste in your home is one of the easiest things you can do to help reduce your impact on our warming planet. Properly storing food and utilizing your freezer, planning your meals ahead of time, using recipes with food scraps, and composting are all perfect ways to reduce household food waste.
For more tips, check out The Cool Down's guides on keeping food fresh for longer and using leftovers.
What people are saying
Users in the comments of the video praised Anyday's meal-prep hack.
"Love this!" wrote one person.
"Good idea," said another user.
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