Let Roast Chicken Save Your Work Lunches

As a defiant response to Sad Desk Lunches, the Food52 team works to keep our midday meals both interesting and pretty. Each week, in partnership with Earthbound Farm, we'll be sharing our happiest desk lunches -- and we want to see yours, too.

Today: Food52's Assistant Editor Kenzi Wilbur explains how roasting a chicken at the beginning of the week will save your work lunches.

Roasting a chicken at the beginning of the week is one of my favorite things to do. It's one of the most practical ways to spend a Sunday afternoon (leftovers galore! soup! stock from the bones!), but that's not why I do it. (My socks don't match. I often fail to make my bed.)

More: Here's our preferred way to roast a chicken.

I do it because it feeds into my pioneer-like, old-fashioned fantasy of self-sustainability. Roasting off a chicken is like making your own bread, in that way -- it feels a little primal, a little olden-days, a lot living off the land.

If you're wondering, yes I went to Sturbridge Village camp.

Make your first meal roast chicken and this farro risotto. The life of your roasted bird should proceed as follows: leftovers for lunch the next day, then salad, then soup -- all of which you can pack up and take with you to work. See how self-sustaining you are?

We're partnering with Earthbound Farm to bring you always fresh, never sad lunch ideas. Because dinner shouldn't be the only time that you put care into what you're eating.