My Latest Kitchen Secret, In More Detail

A week or two ago I posted one of my kitchen secrets; did you get a chance to try it?  Since then I've had several emails asking for more details about how I prepare my chicken, and one email in particular was from a sweet friend.  She said:

I LOVED the idea about grilling chicken and storing it in freezer bags. What a great time saver! Whenever you have a minute, I was hoping you could share with me how you prepare your chicken. Usually when we grill chicken, it is BBQ chicken legs, so I was looking for an idea on prepping the breasts.

It never occurred to me to share more details about my "fill the grill" secret. These reader questions are certainly worthy of a follow-up post!

It all began three or four months ago, when our local supermarket ran a major loss leader sale on bags of Perdue frozen boneless skinless breasts.  I don't usually buy these, but at just a little over $3 a bag (and each bag is about three pounds) I could not resist!  This was a great price for boneless, skinless chicken where I live.  Needless to say, I bought probably fifteen bags total.  The store had a limit of 3 per visit, so I made many trips to the store that week :)

I began to wonder how to use up all that chicken economically, and that's when my "fill the grill" experiment began. 

Here's my process:

The night before you plan to grill, take one or two bags of chicken out of the freezer and place them in the fridge to thaw.  I know, I know..... you can throw them onto the grill frozen, but I don't think it tastes as good when it's cooked that way.

The next day, about an hour or two before you begin grilling, set the bags of chicken out on the counter to get the chill off, then trim the chicken and fire up the grill.  I usually start mine on high.

Place the trimmed chicken in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil, turning to coat.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.  Sometimes I also add a bit of garlic powder.  Turn again, making sure chicken is evenly coated.

Grill the chicken, turning occasionally.  I keep the temperature at medium high for most of the grilling process, since we like our chicken with some char.

(If you will be sneaking a few of these breasts off the grill for dinner, brush on some bbq sauce the last minute or two that they're on the grill.) 

Remove the chicken and let cool on a cutting board, then chop into one inch pieces.  Fill sandwich bags about 2/3 full with the chicken, then add the filled sandwich bags into a larger freezer bag to store in the freezer.

When you know that you'll need a quick meal, pull a small bag of chicken out, and it thaws in just a couple hours.

Some ideas for the diced chicken:

Pitas (with a spoonful of plain yogurt, greek olives, tomatoes, etc)
Burritos (with cilantro, lime, rice, lettuce, etc)
Chicken salad sandwiches
In a pasta dish
On top of a pizza
In a taco shell (with some veggies, cheese, and sour cream)

What are your ideas?  What would you thaw the diced chicken for?



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