Freezer Cooking: Precooked Chicken

It never hurts to have some chicken precooked and waiting in the freezer.

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts (I prep them to stretch them farther)
• Oil or butter

You can cook the chicken a few different ways.  If it’s nice out you may want to grill it.  Or, this would be a perfect use for a George Foreman style grill.  I made mine in a large frypan with a stick of butter swiped on it.  I flipped them a couple times until they were cooked through.

When they are done cooking, put them on a plAdd New Post ‹ Married To The Farm — WordPressate and cute them in to bite size pieces.  Spread on a cookie sheet and freeze.  When they are frozen solid transfer them to a bag or freezer container.  That way they won’t stick together and you can pour out what you need.

I use these for a lot of recipes.  Two common ones are chicken tacos (just warm them in a pan with taco seasoning) and chicken alfredo (warm and serve over pasta).  Meals like that are great for stretching the meat since it’s usually the most expensive.

This wraps up my chicken breast freezer cooking series.  I’ve shared with you some of my favorite recipes that work well for us.  If you’re looking for more great ideas here’s a link to a search for OAMC (once a month cooking) chicken recipes, sorted by rating. If you have a recipe to share please share it or a link to it in the comments.  Now go settle in with a good book because a good share of your cooking is done.

Freezer Cooking: Lemon Chicken

This is one of my favorites.  Not because of the taste, although it is good.  It’s my favorite because we like to grill it and hubby does the grilling. i.e. less cooking for me.

Ingredients:

• Your favorite herbs (I use parsley and oregano)
• salt
• pepper
• Garlic powder or minced fresh garlic
• Lemon juice
• Chicken breasts (prepped)

I don’t measure for this.  Decide how many pieces you want for each meal and select the appropriate size freezer bag or container.  I put 3 or 4 pieces in quart bags.  Pour a generous amount of herbs and seasonings in each bag.  Add in enough juice to slosh the seasonings around.  Then add the chicken.  Press the air out and seal the bag.  Mush the chicken around to coat it.  Add more juice if you need to better distribute the herbs.  Lay flat and freeze.  You can stack them  sideways once they freeze.

For the bag: “Lemon Chicken: Set out to thaw in AM.  Bake in oven at 450 F for 35-45 min. or cook on grill.  Serve over rice.”

If you bake in it the oven be sure the pour the juice in to the dish with it.  If you grill it you can baste it with the juice.  We don’t and it still tastes delicious.

Freezer Cooking: Cheesy Chicken Bundles

From Don’t Panic: Dinner’s in the Freezer.

Ingredients

• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup grated or powdered Parmesan cheese
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• Chicken breasts (prepared as so)

Melt the butter in a small dish.  Don’t try to skimp, trust me.  I used less and was annoyed when I had to melt more.  Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a medium bowl (except the chicken!).  Coat the chicken in the butter and then in the dry mixture.

Fold the chicken into a nice little bundle.  My pieces were rather narrow and long so I just folded them in to thirds, one end over the other.  If your pieces are wider you can fold the sides in too.  Once they’re folded you have two choices on how to keep them that way:  wrap them securely in plastic wrap OR lay the bundles on a cookie sheet and freeze until they hold their shape.  Either way, bag them in a gallon freezer bag (or your preferred freezer container) when you’re done.   I made 12 bundles with one batch of dry mix.  12 fit perfectly in to a gallon bag as 3 rows 4 wide.

Write on the bag:  “Cheesy Chicken Bundles, Date, Place in baking dish.  Drizzle with butter and sprinkle on your favorite cheese.  Bake at 350 F for about an hour or until cooked through.”  I don’t thaw mine first and it still only takes about an hour for them to cook.

My husband LOVES these things…

Him:  Whatchya makin’?

Me: Oh you know… cheesy chicken bundles

Him:  Oh YUM!!  I love cheesy chicken bundles!  *smooch for me*

Try this one… maybe you’ll get the same results!