Whew! Chicken all done!!

So I am FINALLY done prepping and freezing all of that chicken!  The chicken breasts came whole, so I had to trim them down (skin, etc.) which is why it ended up taking so long!  All in all, I think I spent about 10 hours cutting and cooking and shredding and making marinades, etc.  My son actually helped A LOT with the marinades and made most of them which was a huge godsend!  Funny little side note-I had ordered some new Kitchen Aid knives from Rue La La a week or so ago (they ended up being $17.65 SHIPPED for a block set of 4 prep knives-regularly $89.99!) and they came in the mail half an hour after I had finished cutting all the chicken.  Go figure!  :)  Anyway, this is exactly what I did with all of my 60 pounds of chicken:

About 7-1/2 pounds was trimmed and cut in thirds and frozen in freezer bags plain with 1-1/2 pounds in each.
About 20 pounds of it was cubed and cooked and frozen in freezer bags by the pound.
About 6 pounds of it was boiled and shredded and frozen in freezer bags by the pound.
And about 13-1/2 pounds was trimmed and cut up into various cuts (cubed, chunks, breast halves) and marinaded in freezer bags with 1-1/2 pounds in each.

These are the marinades I ended up using (you can find the recipes in "What to do with 40 pounds of chicken-Part 2":

Sweet and Sour Chicken Marinade
Refreshing Lemon and Herb Marinade
"Make Ahead" Chicken Marinade
Tandoori Chicken Marinade
Honey Orange Chicken Marinade
Greek Chicken Marinade
Balsamic Chicken Marinade

And these store bought marinades:

Soy Vey Island Teriyaki
World Harbors Island Mango















I know that all that only adds up to about 47 pounds.  I think I accidentally gave the woman I split a box with a little bit more than 20 pounds (I was under the assumption that each bag in the 40 pound box had 10 pounds in it, so I gave her two bags. This was not the case, and so I think I actually gave her around 23 pounds, oh well!) and the skin/veins, etc., weighed a bit, especially since I wasn't being super anal about getting ALL the meat off of the skin.

I have not eaten any of the chicken yet, so I am hoping it is good.  I am probably going to make some of it soon, though, so I will keep you posted!  :)

What to do with 40 pounds of Chicken! PART THREE-Recipes

The chicken will be here this week!  I am actually not prepared for the chicken at all.  I was going to be, but then I fell and sprained my ankle on Monday night.  So, Saturday should be a fun day of trying to prep chicken on crutches!  Maybe by then I will be able to walk again.  That would be nice!!  Let me tell you, though.  These meals I have in the freezer have DEFINITELY come in handy this week!!

So, here is a list of freezer meals you can make with all your chicken.  I will link the recipes up to the list instead of actually trying to list all the recipes on here.  Hope you can find one or two that you like and can use!  :)

Cheddar Chicken
Chicken Cacciatore
Salsa Chicken and Rice Casserole (freezer friendly)
Curried Coconut Chicken (freezer friendly)
Sweet and Sticky Orange Chicken  (freezer friendly)
Chicken and Pesto Lasagna
Colorful Chicken Casserole  (freezer friendly)
Creamy Chicken and Mushrooms (freezer friendly)
Chicken Taco Quiche (freezer friendly)
Green Bean Chicken Casserole (freezer friendly)
Honey Dijon Chicken (freezer friendly)
Chicken Potpies (freezer friendly)
Wild Rice Chicken (freezer friendly)
Peachy Barbecue Chicken (freezer friendly)
Italian Chicken Roll Ups (freezer friendly)
Crescent Chicken Bundles (freezer friendly)
Simply Parmesan Chicken

I am sure there are SO many more!  Please post your favorite chicken recipe.  I would love to try it out!!

What to do with 40 pounds of Chicken! PART TWO-Marinading

This "article" will be about marinading your chicken.  I have found several recipes for marinades that look awesome.  I am really excited to try some of them out when my chicken comes in!  :)  They are listed below.

To marinade your chicken, you will need plenty of gallon size freezer bags and a good amount of space in your freezer (enough to put a cookie sheet with bags of chicken and marinade stacked on it).

Choose the recipes that you would like to make.  After you make the recipe, label your freezer bag with what the marinade is, how it is to be served (salad, kabobs, with rice, etc.) if you want, and the date.  Prick whole chicken a few times with a fork to allow the marinades to penetrate the meat.  If you are making strips or cubes of chicken, this isn't as important because they are smaller "cuts."  Combine the chicken breasts and the marinade in the freezer bag(s) and knead the meat to circulate the marinade.  Put the bag into another freezer bag to make sure it doesn't leak all over your refrigerator when it defrosts.

Lay bags flat on a cookie sheet.  You can stack the bags on top of each other if you would like.  Doing this causes the bags to freeze in a way that is easy to stack.  You can also use old cereal boxes and put a bag in the box and freeze it.  Then remove the box and you have a square frozen block.  Place the pan (or boxes) in the freezer.  When frozen, you can remove the pan and/or boxes and put them in the freezer any way you would like. 

When you are ready to use the chicken, defrost it in the refrigerator.  Put the bags in a pot or pan just in case there is a leak in both bags.  Use thawed chicken within two days.  Discard the marinade or boil it for 5 minutes and use as a sauce.  NEVER eat uncooked marinade.

Some other marinading tips from about.com:

• Reduce oil in the marinade for more flavor. The best marinade (unlike the best salad dressing) is about half oil and half acid. 

• Use fresh herbs whenever possible. If you are using dried herbs, crush them between your fingers to release aromatic oils before adding to the marinade. 

• To cook marinated chicken, just lift out of the marinade and place on the grill or pan. Don't rinse or dry with paper towels. 

• You can brush some of the marinade on the chicken as it cooks, but be sure to stop adding uncooked marinade 3-5 minutes before cooking time ends for food safety reasons. 

Here some marinading recipes.  If you have any to add, please do!  Put your recipe in the comments section.  I would love to try it out!


Basic Marinade For Chicken (from allrecipes.com)

• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely minced fresh parsley

 Citrus Chicken Marinade (from Cooks.com)

• 1/2 cup orange juice (juice of 1 orange)
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (juice of 2 lemons)
• 1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage or several leaves fresh, chopped
• 1 1/2 inch section fresh ginger, peeled, minced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• a few drops of Tabasco or 1/4 teaspoon hot salt

Jack Daniel' BBQ Chicken Marinade (from chickenmarinades.net)

• 1 1/2 cups of olive oil
• 3/4 cups of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons of dry mustard
• 2 teaspons of salt
• 1/2 cup of Jack Daniel’s whiskey
• 1 tablespoon of black pepper
• 1/2 cup of wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup of lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of parsley
• 3 clove of minced garlic

Amazing Chicken Marinade (from food.com)

• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons whole grain mustard
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• ground black pepper

Refreshing Lemon and Herb Chicken Marinade (from chickenmarinades.net)

• 1/2 an onion
• 3 teaspoons of oregano
• 3 teaspoons of thyme
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 cup of lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of oilve oil

Chicken Fajita Marinade (from allrecipes.com)

• 1/4 cup beer
• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt to taste

South-East Asian Marinade (from chickenmarinades.net)

• 2 sticks of lemon grass, finely chopped
• Juice of 2 limes
• 2 red chillies, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2.5 cm/ 1 inch piece of fresh root ginger, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons soft dark brown sugar
• 2 tablesoons chopped fresh coriander
• 150 ml/ quarter pint coconut milk

Balsamic Marinade (light)  (from food.com)

• 1/4 cup tamari soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh pepper
• 2 garlic, minced

Citrus Spice Caribbean/Cuban Marinade (from food.com)

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 -4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 dash ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon chili powder

Hawaiian Chicken Marinade (from chickenmarinades.net)

• 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 3 tablepsoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of wine vinegar
• 3/4 cup or 190mls or pineapple juice
• 1/4 tablespoons of sherry
• 1/4 cup or 60mls of soy sauce

Honey and Orange Marinade (from chickenmarinades.com)

• 2.5cm/ 1 inch piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and very finely grated
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• Finely grated rind and juice of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons honeyG

Greek Chicken Marinade (from food.com)

• 1 cup olive oil (or use 1/2 cup each vegetable oil and oilive oil)
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons fresh minced garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 -2 teaspoon Dijon mustard (or 1 teaspoon mustard powder)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon pepper (or use 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper)
• 1 -2 teaspoon honey (do not substitute sugar for the honey!) or 1 -2 teaspoon pure maple syrup (do not substitute sugar for the honey!)

Finger Lickin' Chicken Marinade (from food.com)

• 1 cup oil
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Miracle Whip or 2 tablespoons Miracle Whip light or 2 tablespoons Mayonnaise 
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon salt (to taste)
• 1 tablespoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons thyme
• 1 tablespoon garlic salt

Chicken Tikka Kebabs (from chickenmarinades.net)

• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 2.5cm/ 1 inch piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 150ml/ quarter pint natural yoghurt
• 1-2 red chillies, deseeded and chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Half teaspoon turmeric
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon salt

Honey Peanut Chicken Marinade (from food.com)

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon ground allspice

Tandoori Chicken Marinade (from about.com)

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or malt vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon peeled and grated or crushed ginger root
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

Sweet and Sour Chicken Marinade (from food.com)

• 3/4 cup oil
• 3/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried ginger
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• salt and pepper  

Apple and Honey Mustard Marinade (from about.com)

• 1/3 cup apple jelly
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

"Make Ahead" Marinade (from food.com)

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped fine
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt

What to do with 40 pounds of Chicken!

For those of you who are buying the 40 pound box of Zaycon Foods chicken breasts, I thought I would do a mini-series on how to prepare, cook, and freeze your chicken over the next few weeks.  Today I will write about how to prepare and freeze your chicken.  Next Monday I will talk about different marinades and give you some great recipes to use for marinading your chicken.  The following Monday (the week the chicken comes!), I will put up some easy chicken recipes to make while you are prepping and freezing all that chicken!

Before you can do any freezing, you need to make sure you are going to have room in your freezer for the chicken, room in your refrigerator to store the raw chicken while you are prepping and cooking it and a bunch of Ziplock freezer bags on hand. You will also need a fairly good block of time to cook and prep the chicken before freezing.  Make sure it is within a day or two of receiving your chicken so that the chicken does not grow harmful bacteria.

What I normally do to make meal time much quicker is prep and cook some of my chicken when I get it and it is still raw.  A lot of the recipes I make call for cubed cooked chicken or shredded chicken.  It takes A LOT more time to defrost frozen raw chicken, then cube and cook it or cook and shred it, then it does to do it before hand and defrost chicken that is already cooked.  It does take more time at once to do this, but I promise you, it will save you time when you are ready to cook your meal.  And you can cook double or even triple batches of chicken at once if you do it ahead of time and split between freezer bags.

When buying bulk chicken it is hard to determine how much a pound is.  You can either weigh your chicken with a food scale (I use a postage scale if I absolutely need to know how much it weighs) or you can do it the way I normally do it.  I have found that most of the time, a large chicken breast weighs about half a pound and a medium one about a quarter of a pound.  The chicken breasts from  Michael's Meats (where I usually buy my chicken) are on the larger side and weigh about half a pound each.  I don't know how big Zaycon Foods' chicken breasts are, so I don't know how many breasts per pound.  I will weigh it when it comes in with my scale and let you all know.

If the chicken breasts I buy have any skin on them, I take all the excess skin off before doing any of my cooking.  I am sure that it would be okay to not do this, but I just really don't like how the skin looks, so I take the time to remove it.

Cooked cubed chicken is usually measured by the cup in recipes.  Two cups of cubed chicken equals about 1-1/2 pounds of boneless chicken breasts.  I cut up the chicken breasts into one to two inch pieces and cook them.  Normally, I do not season the chicken or put anything with the chicken since I don't know what recipe I am going to use it for.  If for some reason I do, I will go ahead and do what the recipe says when cooking the chicken (i.e. add onion, spices, etc.).  After it is cooked through (no longer pink in the middle), I drain any liquid and let the chicken cool.  Label the bag with what it is, what quantity and the date.  Put the chicken in the bag and get as much air out of the bag as you can while you are sealing it.  Air contact with food in the freezer is what causes freezer burn.  I try to eat my cubed chicken within two months of cooking it.


As far as shredded chicken goes, the weight and cup measurements are about the same as the cubed chicken.  I normally pound the chicken breast a little before I cook it so that it is easier to pull apart after cooking.  Bring a large pot of water to boiling on the stove.  Add the chicken breasts (do not season or add oil).  Boil the chicken until it is fully cooked, no pink in the center.  This is usually about 15-20 minutes.  You don't want to overcook the chicken, though, because it will be kind of rubbery if you do.  Let the chicken cool for about 5-10 minutes.  Don't let it cool too much or it will be hard to shred.  Hold the chicken in place with one for and pull pieces of the chicken off with another fork.  Label the bag with what it is, the quantity and the date.  Place the chicken in the bag and try to get as much air out of the bag as you can when sealing it.  As with the cubed chicken, try to eat it within two months of cooking it.    

I also prep the chicken breasts that I am going to freeze without cooking.  I cut them into individual portions so that when I am defrosting, it doesn't take as long.  I usually freeze two large chicken breasts (about 1 pound) cut into four portions per bag.  I label the bag with what kind of chicken (chicken breasts), how many portions there are (in case I have to add a couple more per bag), and the date.  Again, make sure to get as much air out of the bag as you can when sealing it to avoid freezer burn.  This raw chicken can be frozen for up to 9 months before you eat it. 

You can also add marinade to a bag with chicken breasts.  Always double bag these bags, though, in case one bag gets a hole.  Cleaning marinade with raw chicken juice that leaked all over your refrigerator when defrosting is NOT fun!  Next week I will give you some great marinading recipes to try out.  Again, label the bag with what is in the bag, what kind of marinade, how many portions and the date.  I try to eat these within 6 months.

Normally, I do not list what kind of chicken I have in my freezer (like I do with freezer meals) because I can usually see it all.  Normally I just buy about 10-15 pounds at one time.  However, when the Zaycon order comes in (I will be getting 60 pounds of chicken!), I will need to list what I froze and when I need to eat it by.

Defrosting is pretty simple.  If you have a microwave that has a defrost mode on it, do it that way.  My microwave is AWESOME when it comes to defrosting.  I can tell it what kind of meat it is and how much it weighs.  It normally defrosts it just right!  I do open the bag up a little bit to let any steam/air escape as it is heating.  Make sure you cook the chicken you are defrosting in the microwave immediately since some of it may have become warm and can grow bacteria if placed back in the refrigerator.  Also, I DO NOT defrost chicken in marinade in the microwave.  I am sure it can be done but I have had too many messes to do this anymore!  NEVER, EVER, under any circumstance, defrost your chicken on the counter!!  If you defrost your chicken in the refrigerator, use it within a day or two to ensure no bacteria growth.  If you are not going to be able to prepare it before then, you can safely refreeze it.  Here is a good reference for how to handle chicken safely:  http://www.foodreference.com/html/artchickensafety.html.

Hope this article helps some of you who were wondering how to do all this.  It may seem kind of overwhelming and if so, take it slow.  I went from preparing a few pounds of chicken at a time to 10-15 pounds and now 60 pounds here in a couple of weeks!