When chicken goes on sale at your local grocery store, it is a perfect opportunity to create some easy chicken freezer meals to have later. I have been freezer cooking for a while and it definitely saves time and money. If you prefer you can also do breasts or even a whole chicken cut up. If you shop at several grocery stores you might find 99 cent sales often. I try to always have the ingredients for the marinades on hand just in case, so this week I will only need to buy the chicken and 1-2 things since I have most of it in my pantry!
Here is my shopping list:
chicken legs (1 package)
chicken thighs(1 package)
chicken breasts (if also on sale)
soy sauce (in my case I use the Gluten Free soy sauce by Kikkoman).
lime juice
honey
white wine or apple juice
seasons/pantry items:
garlic salt
brown sugar (I use Splenda brown sugar)
dried ginger (I use ground ginger)
pepper
garlic powder
I do interchange the garlic powder and garlic salt so if you don’t have both you can use one or the other.
Here are the recipes for the actual marinades:
Honey Lime Marinade
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 cup honey
That makes one marinade but sometimes I have used it for two packages.
Easy Teriyaki Chicken Marinade (found on www.momsbudget.com)
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white wine or apple juice
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1 chicken cut up or equivalent amounts of chicken pieces
This makes a LOT of marinade so I definitely use this for two packages
Lemon Chicken
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 pound of raw chicken pieces (again your choice)
1. Make the marinades into three separate bowls.
2. Put the number of chicken pieces you want into a ziploc FREEZER bag. I put 4 legs, 3 thighs, and one breast into each bag.
3. Pour the marinades into each bag and label each bag with the kind of marinade.
4. Close the bag, but not all the way. Leave a small opening to squeeze out the air. I hug the bag until I get out all the air and then finish zipping it up.
5. One way to freeze the bags s to lay them flat stacked up on each other. I also just roll them up and stack them next to each other in the freezer basket.
I make these marinades year round. During the hot summer months I grill. During the colder months I use the oven.
Next week I will show you what I do with a package of chicken breasts that will make several easy freezer cooking meals.
