This is a great time-saving tip to prepare chicken for meals. If you try this, I promise you can cook your family a delicious meal quicker than going through a drive-thru, and your family will think you are amazing. I have been doing this for years. When you have your chicken already cooked and shredded, and stored in the freezer, you can pull it out of the freezer and make a meal in about 15 minutes. Think about all the meals you can make quickly. A chicken casserole, chicken tacos, chicken soup, and many other dishes can be made in about 20 minutes. Also, this makes it so easy for your spouse or an older child to prepare supper.
Preparing freezer meal can take a whole entire day. I have found that this way works so much better for me.
I will usually prepare about 8 chicken breasts at a time. I place the chicken in a crockpot and let it cook 4 to 5 hours on low. Do not overcook your chicken because you are going to reheat it or cook it again.
after it has cooked for hours, I will remove the chicken and place it in my mixer. Your chicken can be hot or cold, it does not matter. Use the paddle attachment.
Turn it on low to medium for only a few seconds for chopped chicken, and mix for a few more seconds for shredded chicken.
TaDa!! Perfectly shredded chicken in under one minute!
I place the chopped chicken and the shredded chicken in freezer bags and place in my freezer. Be sure to label your bags of shredded and chopped chicken so you will know the difference.
When I am ready to cook, I remove my chicken from the freezer and defrost in the microwave or run the bag under hot water. Here is a quick idea, you can put the chicken in a pan with BBQ sauce and have BBQ chicken sandwiches in about 5 minutes. Also, I defrost my chicken and heat a tortilla with chicken and cheese and have chicken quesadillas in 5 minutes. I like to put small amounts of chicken in bags and make myself a chicken salad for lunch. I am telling you that this is a game-changer! Preparing supper sometimes causes stress on the cook so anything to make mealtime less stressful is a win for me!
Try this time-saving tip to prepare chicken for meals and let me know what you think!
Lydia Dennis says
This is an awesome post! Such a great tip… and I am going to start doing this when my family is FINALLY together!
Bobbie says
Thanks for the great ideas….I have another one for you. Cook your spaghetti ahead of time, rinse the noodles in a colander and pack in ziplock bags. Freeze the bags flat on cookie sheet…for easy storage n the freezer. When you need noodles for a recipe all you have to do is put the frozen noodles in a colander and run warm water over them and they are the same texture as when you first boiled them.
Sherry says
That is a fabulous tip! Thanks, I will be doing this!
Ilka says
Great tip Sherry! I can totally see how this saves you a lot time for dinner preparation!:)
Michelle says
This is awesome, thank you!! I’m going to do this for sure 🙂
Linda at Mixed Kreations says
Great idea Sherry! We eat a lot of chicken and I am really short on time a lot of the time. This will help out on those days that I need something quick to cook. Thanks for sharing!
Carol says
Great suggestion, Sherry! This is awesome to use the mixer to save more time.
Beverly says
This is a great time saving tip, Sherry. I’m going to make a point of doing this.
Becky says
What a good idea! I usually split a large package of chicken breasts and then freeze, but this is so much easier!
Why not to do this with other meat then freeze?
Sherry says
Becky, I also do this with ground beef. I am posting it later this week. You can make meals like tacos in 5 minutes.
Chloe Crabtree says
I am a big fan of poaching my chicken. I hadn’t thought about doing it in the crockpot. This is a great idea. I love the idea of shredding it in the mixer, too! I am pinning this and want to thank you for stopping by and sharing at the Celebrate Your Story! link party!
Pamela Thielen says
Great tip! I’m always looking for ways to spend less time in the kitchen. Plus living in AZ in the summer I need all the quick meal ideas. I don’t need extra heat in the kitchen.
Sandra Garth says
I am all for having back up in my freezer especially when the temps start to rise.
Linda at Mixed Kreations says
I tried this great tip out yesterday when I was cooking stuff for our weekly lunches. I have two bags in the freezer now for a quick dinner when needed. Thanks for the great tip, makes things quick and easy.