If you read my shopping post from this week, you know that I purchased 20 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast that was on sale. We also purchase the 40 lb boxes of chicken from Zaycon Foods on a regular basis. So what do I do with all that meat?
Rather than putting all of the meat directly into the freezer, you can do a little prep work. (Note these proportions are for 20 pounds of chicken. When I purchase the 40 lbs of chicken from Zaycon Foods I double the amounts for each of these meals except for the Italian Chicken salad–unless we want to eat it twice that week!)
Marinate It-I cut 3 chicken breasts into strips and marinated them with Italian salad dressing for Italian Chicken Salad. I find that it is better to use fresh chicken for this recipe rather than frozen. If I am feeling industrious I will make Parmesan Chicken Strips instead, which are a little more work.
Freeze It- I put four chicken breasts into a freezer zipper bag and placed them on a cookie sheet to freeze for BBQ chicken nachos later in the week. Frozen chicken is fine in this recipe because it cooks all day in barbecue sauce (yum!).
Bake It- I placed the remaining six chicken breasts in a large glass casserole dish and baked them at 350 degrees for one hour. Once the chicken is finished baking, I let the meat cool a little and I shredded it.
I will put 2/3 of this shredded chicken in the refrigerator to use this week. I will use 1/3 of the baked chicken in Chicken Enchiladas and 1/3 to make Crunchy Chicken Salad (better with freshly cooked chicken). I will put the remaining third of the cooked and shredded chicken into the freezer for Chicken and Black Bean Chili, Chicken Pasta Salad or Spicy Chicken and Black Bean Soup next week.
In under an hour I did most of the prep work for our meals for next couple of weeks. That’s what I call Easy Meal Planning!
