I’ve said many times that I’m good at excuses. I can come up with some doozies. What makes them so good is that there’s always truth in them.
Usually, we have fajita meat left over from this meal. So normally I freeze the fajita meat/onions and then use it later to make quesadillas. Three meals out of the grilled chicken breasts! The only problem this time was that my boys are starting to suffer from hollow leg syndrome and I underestimated the number of breasts I needed for the fajitas. So no quesadillas.
I only pull out a little for the pizza topping, as I chop it even further, and it goes a long way.
How can I have an excuse to not cook when I have all this food ready to go in the freezer?
Zaycon is where I used to buy 40 lbs of chicken at one time for a great price , and you can see how I manage 40 lbs of chicken here.
I am so sorry to say that it seems Zaycon has gone out of business. I say “seems” because the information I’ve seen says they’ve “suspended” operations and I don’t fully understand what is happening. I’m so so sad about this since this will change how our family keeps our freezer stocked with meat. We’ve been ordering almost all of our chicken, bacon, and shrimp for them for more than five years. If you had ordered recently, I recommend that you call your credit card company or bank (for debit cards) to see what can be done. I’ve heard many people have had success doing this.
Check out other great ideas at Works for Me Wednesday!
Save
I do that too! It's a great tip. I usually bake 1/2 with a little water for about 35 min on 350 and then chop it up and freeze it and freeze the other 1/2 in 2 packs.
Wow, you sound super organized. I'm always so proud of myself if I remember to just bag up the large package of chicken into serving size ziplocs. I never thought of pregrilling some of it for future meals. Great idea 🙂
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Me? Super Organized. That totally makes my day! I do have some things that I do pretty well and am passionate about, but for some reason I can't keep my house from looking like it's been ransacked. That's why I put this post in the category of "survival techniques." THanks for your comment!
This is truly one of those why didn't I think of that moments!
Great idea..thanks for sharing.
🙂
Stop by and see me sometime over at Free2BeFrugal.
I do something similar, except I season and bake bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts or leg quarters at 375F for about 45 minutes. I allow it to cool then pull the chicken from the bone. I freeze this chicken in 2 or 3 cup portions in freezer bags. I prefer the taste and texture of roasted chicken to boiled chicken. This works out great for chicken soups and any number of items that call for rotisserie chicken.
I try to keep several bags on hand, and is possibly even cheaper than doing somethig similar with boneless, skinless breasts – but those definitely have a great purpose too.
I have never done this with ground meat, but I did read your post, and I will probably do that soon.
Hi, not sure if you check comments on your old posts. But, my questIon is, how long after freezing your chicken do you use? I find it goes in freezer, I forget, and then it’s freezer burned andyucky
Good question. I use frozen pre-cooked meat all the time in my meals, so it’s basically a habit to go through it. Also, be sure it’s completely cool before putting in bags and freezing. If not, it seems that ice crystals form and that can cause freezer burn.
i used to “make ahead” all the time when I was single…. not sure why I haven’t yet figured out to do it now that i’m married with kids… my problem is I like to be spontaneous with my recipes and it’s more versatile when it’s still raw. maybe if i could get into the mindset of menu planning, it would be easier to make some things ahead of time.
I did it today! I grilled chicken for my rosemary chicken pizza, and grilled extra chicken to freeze! it was totally worth it too, because grilling chicken inside makes a lot of smoke in my house, and i try not to set off the smoke detector more than once a month, lmao.
Go you!! You’ll love having that ready to go!
I love your little measuring cups.
I just had an epiphany that pre-cooking some beef and chicken will be very handy and make life a lot easier when my newest baby comes in a few weeks. I don’t necessarily have a lot of energy to do tons of full meals, but I can definitely handle something like this that will make putting a meal together easier, at least. Thanks for sparking the idea!
Also, I made my bed for the second day in a row, today! That is (perhaps sadly) my longest bed-making streak ever, haha!
In case you don’t know the USDA and CDC now recommend against washing raw chicken before cooking it.