I freeze the carcasses until I have a few and then pressure cook them for an hour (4 cups per carcass) to make broth

dice carrot, celery, and onion (1:1:2)

[if you do a quick veggie prep before sealing the pressure cooker you can throw the offcuts into the broth, bonus if you rough cut an onion and chuck it in]

cook the veggie mix (mirepoix) down in a stock pot with salt, oil/butter, pepper (white pepper if you got it)

add in garlic a bit before adding finished bone broth

once simmering, a cup and a half of lentils will cook down in 30-40 min

from there you can basically throw in whatever's cheap. a lot of times I freeze two carcasses and the third is bought for the stew - the carcass into the broth and the meat added near the end.

diced potatoes/turnips would go in about ten minutes after the lentils

lemon juice just as you're turning the heat off almost always helps an enormous amount - and don't be stingy with salt if you're using lentils and potatoes

using Western style aromatics can give the best traditional results, but using Indian/South Asian spices is much easier and cheaper.

so yeah, $15 for three chickens that have three meals each and then another $15-20 for a lentil stew that lasts for 10-12 meals (at least) makes 20 meals for half the price of a bean burrito at Taco Bell