Today is chicken day. I have a love/hate relationship with chicken day because while I love having the freezer stocked with chicken, the doing part is not my favorite thing in the world to do. I have done a few different things with the huge amounts of chicken I get and finally settled on how it is of best use to me.
At times I buy my chicken here, https://www.zayconfoods.com/refer/zf66110, but my local store had the same deal on chicken this past week and since my freezer is nearly void of all meat, I just stocked up this way. I cannot speak highly enough of the chicken from the above link, though, it is all organic, the chicken breasts are huge, there is very little waste, and it is the most fresh chicken we have ever had.
When buying with Zaycon, you have to order in 40 pound increments, which sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t when you actually look at it. When my family was smaller, I split an order with my mom, too, which is another way you can take advantage of the great prices while not keeping the whole 40 pounds yourself.
When I order from https://www.zayconfoods.com/refer/zf66110 I usually order 80 pounds for a family of my size, and that usually lasts about nine months. What I have to work with today is 60 pounds.
As you can see in the pictures, I process it in different ways.
I leave some breasts as is, just double wrap each breast individually in plastic wrap and then put in a freezer gallon bag (make sure to suck out all the air with a straw to minimize freezer burn), other breasts I pound into cutlets, maybe about 10 pounds worth.
As pictured above, I grill some to cut into bite size pieces for recipes and salads, and I also cook some in my crock pot for shredding.
Tip: Shred it in your mixer. I have a Cuisinart work horse of a mixer, but it could very well work with other brands as well. Do it while it is still hot, it takes less than 2 minutes—huge time saver!
Both the grilled and shredded chicken I put in individual quart freezer bags in the amount I would need for recipes. Then, it is all ready to go when you need it. I probably grill and cook/shred about 25 pounds total.
In actuality, if I have uninterrupted time, I can process through the entire batch of chicken in an afternoon except for the chicken that I have to shred after it has cooked all day. I already established about how long that takes so it is no big deal once that needs to be done later in the day.
You can process it however it works best for you, but trust me, the prep work you put in ahead of time will make for months of easy meal components for you!
Through the above link you will also find that Zaycon Foods has numerous meat products to choose from: all kinds of chicken, pork, beef, turkey, and fish, too. Stocking up on meat from Zaycon is one of my best frugal tips!
Have you bought meat from Zaycon Foods before?
