Photo by Chris Lim.

Dish of the Week: Meals to last the week

Everyone knows that one of the easiest ways to save money is to cook your own food. And if you’re aiming to lose a few pounds, controlling your fat, sugar and salt intake can make a big difference. But cooking can sometimes be time-consuming, so ideally you’d like to cook something at the start of the week that can stretch across a number of meals.

Most people like to kick off with a rotisserie chicken from the store. But I highly recommend poaching your own chicken. This allows you to control the sodium levels and the quality of the bird — plus, you get a great pot of stock at the end. I throw in extra thighs, drumsticks or reserved wing tips in — these parts contain more collagen than the breasts — to ensure a richer stock at the end.

The first dish I usually make from my chicken is similar to Cantonese white cut chicken. It’s typically a straightforward poached chicken on rice, served with a ginger-scallion-garlic dipping sauce. Simply heat two stalks of chopped scallions, three cloves of minced garlic, a few coins of ginger and a teaspoonful of salt with a few tablespoons of sesame and olive oil. It’s a wonderfully fragrant and flavorful sauce that also goes well with meaty white fish like tilapia or leafy green vegetables.

There are some other obvious applications for your chicken, such as enchiladas, chicken salad, curries and stir fries. As for the chicken stock, I like using it to make congee or rice porridge with scallions and sesame oil.

There are numerous other options for great week-long meals, such as slow-roasted pork shoulder, chili and fried rice. What are some of your favorite ways to stretch something throughout a week?