Family packs of chicken

A good price for boneless, skinless chicken breast is $1.99 a pound. A great price is $1.79. When I can get it for this price, I buy 4 family packs. Here's what we do with it.

You will need:

Quart size freezer bags, large sharp knife, cutting board.


Starting with the first piece, trim visable fat. Then lay the breast flat on the cutting board. Put your hand over the top to steady the piece, and carefully run the knife through lengthwise to remove the top portion. One side is thicker than the other, so move your knife at an angle.

Take the chicken tops and place into freezer bags, leaving space between each so they can be taken out while frozen if needed.

The bottoms get cut up into chunks and cooked in a skillet with a little oil, salt and pepper.

Once cooled, put into freezer bags, freeze flat.

We use this for quick meals. Chicken soup, fajitas, quesadillas, stir fry, casseroles, etc.

The top filets of chicken can now be cooked very quickly and evenly, won't dry out and is a better portion size. You can put them in the oven frozen, or thaw and cook in skillet or oven or grill. You can also put some marinade in the bags before freezing and they will be nicely marinated once thawed.

This is a very frugal way to eat the best cut of chicken. We ended up with 32 chicken fillets and 8lbs of cooked chicken. Eight family packs cost us about $35, and gets us 20lbs of quick, healthy, easy meals. Buying pre-frozen chicken and pre--cooked chicken strips would cost $70. It would also have a lot more visable fat and additives.