Chicken Tips

My little brother, who went to a (real) culinary school and works in a fancy restaurant, gave me an excellent tip when I was complaining about how I hate shredding chicken one day. So that is where this post comes from and I'll get to the tip later...

I wanted to use his tip and save myself some time/effort when its time to make dinner b/c 5:00 is the worst time to be making dinner b/c the kids are whiny and hungry and you're trying to get dinner on the table. It seems like I'm always defrosting chicken and chopping it up last minute or boiling it and tediously shredding it.

So I went to Sam's Club, and bought two 6 lb packages of fresh, boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.97/lb which is pretty good. I'll be honest, it did sit in my fridge for 3 days before I got to it, but now that its done I feel so accomplished and domestic and prepared for about 15 dinners!

I trimmed and cubed the chicken from one package and put it in Ziploc freezer bags - 1 lb per bag since most recipes seem to call for 1 lb of chicken. Label it, date it, and put it in the freezer. Even though the package said 6 lbs, I only got five 1 lb bags out of it...so either my scale is off or theirs is. ? Oh well, that's chicken ready to go in the skillet for 5 meals!

While I was doing that, I had the chicken from the other package boiling in some water on the stove. I also trimmed the extra fat off those breasts before throwing them in. Once they were cooked through I took them out of the water with tongs (don't pour the water down the drain!) and let them cool on a plate for about 10 minutes. And here is my brother's tip: Instead of shredding them with a fork or your fingers, which takes FOREVER, put them in your Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment and turn it on low speed! So much easier! I hate shredding chicken! I wish I had known this a long time ago or been taught it at my (not quite real) culinary school. Anyway, so then I packaged the shredded chicken in freezer bags - 2 cups per bag. And now I have shredded chicken ready to go for another 5 meals!

Those cans and boxes of chicken stock/broth aren't very cheap - so don't throw out the water from boiling your chicken! I supplemented mine with a couple tsp. of chicken bouillion powder, let it cool, then strained it into a pitcher. Once it was cool enough, I measured put 2 cups for each freezer bag and put those in the freezer too. So now I have chicken broth for 5 meals!

Yes, this was a little time consuming, but it will save me time and mess later when the kids are whining and hungry. Flatten out the contents of the bags before freezing them so they will defrost faster (and fit better in your freezer). And if you can find chicken for a really good price, this is a great way to stock up!