Chicken Big Batch Cooking

Make up a lot of chicken and then make it into 3 different recipes that save money and time.

The basic chicken recipe
1 bag 2 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 cup water
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves of minced garlic
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

This is all about using your resources to good advantage and about saving time. So we are starting with a budget bag of chicken thighs. From that we will make three meals.

Thaw the chicken and put into a stew pan. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer until the chicken is done and a bit tendar. 20 to 30 minutes Allow to cool.

Dice chicken to make 3 cups. Freeze one cup is for the Paella, and freeze the other two cups are for the Chicken Pot Pie.
Shred the rest of the chicken back into the broth. Freeze with the broth. Note: This set of recipes work well with leftover turkey .

Freezer Paella

1 cup frozen cooked Chicken
1 box saffron Rice
Water as specified on package
1 cup frozen Shrimp
1 cup frozen Peas
2 tablespoons Butter

In a large skillet, combine the rice and water as specified on the package. When it starts to simmer add frozen items and butter. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the rice is done, stir every few minutes. Keep the lid on the pan in between stirring. Serve with a salad or fruit.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
½ can of milk or water
1 can mixed peas and carrots
1 tablespoon sage
1 ½ cup cubed cooked chicken
1 Pie Crust or biscuits

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix soup, vegetables and chicken in 9" pie plate. Top with Crust. Freeze. Thaw before cooking. Bake 30 min. or until golden. Serve with a tossed green salad. For dessert serve pineapple tidbits


Shredded Chicken Sandwich

Okay this is the easiest of the three recipes. Thaw Chicken. Heat and serve on buns. This is a great rush night recipe. I generally have at least three to four sandwiches from the shredded chicken.

You can add stuff to it to give it different flavors, ½ cup of BBQ Sauce. You can also thaw drain and add the meat to a salad. This is also a great soup starter, add canned veggies more broth, serve with buttered bread or biscuits and you have really quick supper.

Freezing Tips

Freezer bags, rigid containers, glass dishes, ceramic dishes, foil pans. They all work fine. Just be sure that you are using containers suitable for the freezer. Remove as much air from them as possible before you put them into the freezer.

Label everything! It’s a Murphy’s Law thing. All food looks the same once it’s frozen. I once thawed a crumb cake instead of a meat loaf. It was still a good supper but from then on I used labels.

I’m a last minute person who likes to thaw everything at 5:30 in the microwave hence I use freezer bags almost exclusively. Other cooks like to plan out their meals ahead of time and freeze in their serving dishes. These highly organized people usually have 2-3 entrees thawing in the refrigerator at the same time.

If you choose freezer bags, don’t skimp. Use FREEZER bags! Double bag everything to help prevent freezer burn. Especially double bag your meats that you have added marinade. One little puncture and you’ll have marinade all over the place.

A trick for freezer bags is to freeze them in thin, flat layers. You don’t want a jigsaw puzzle in your freezer.

If you choose rigid containers, use good quality freezer containers. Your serving dishes work fine as long as you slide them into a 2-gallon freezer bag. Try to remove as much air as possible.

If you don’t have enough serving dishes to freeze your casseroles combined, you can freeze the components of the casserole individually and combine the ingredients just before baking. Like I did with the chicken paella in class. This is sometimes called bundling. I had all the food for the paella in separate bags, then I put all the ingredients into a larger bag. That way all of my recipe is ready to cook.