Freezing Cooked Chicken, Hamburger, Taco Meat, Rice & Beans for quick meals

 Cook and Freeze plain Hamburger, Taco Meat, Chicken, Rice, and Beans for future meals.  

How many recipes start with "brown the hamburger"? Do it once a month instead of daily.

Years ago an older and wiser mother in the neighborhood (Thanks Brenda) told me that she would buy 5lbs of hamburger at Kent's and just cook the whole batch at once with taco seasoning and then package it up in the freezer for quick meals later. This was genius, I applied it to regular hamburger, chicken, even rice and it has changed my life as a busy young (and now older and busier, haha...) mother who still isn't good at managing time for meal prep. 

I learned that cooked hamburger takes a lot less time to thaw than frozen raw hamburger so it's no big deal to snag a frozen container of hamburger, dump out of the plastic and microwave for a few min to thaw and dinner is almost done! 

A large batch (4 cups uncooked rice & 7 1/2 cups of water, 1/4 olive oil, 2 Tbl Salt) of brown Jasmine rice takes 40 min to cook and freezes really well.  Herbed rice can be minutes away (if you also froze the chopped herbs while they were fresh in the summer.)

Canned beans are expensive and dry beans are cheap, so I buy 50lb bags of dry beans, keep them in a spin top bucket and pressure cook them in large batches, and freeze them in 12-16 oz containers which is just about the same size as a can of beans from the store. 

Buying meat in large quantities and freezing it is also nice when you just need 1lb of meat but don't want it already cooked so I tend to cook most of the meat 3/4 and leave 1/4 of it raw.

16 oz Reditainer Extreme Freeze containers are the ONLY brand I will buy. Others (Ziplock brand containers) will shatter when you drop them frozen. Trust me on this one! I learned the hard way. You can write on them with a sharpie (preferably black as it comes off best) and just rub it off with your finger or a paper towel when you need to re-label. It will also wash off eventually in the dish washer.

When I thaw any of these frozen foods, I either get them out the day before and thaw in fridge (haha.... like that ever happens), put in sick with water when I realized I need them and I'm getting other things ready for the meal, or run water over the container until the food dislodges and turn them out onto a plate and microwave to thaw. The latter is what happens 99% of the time, and it works great.

DO NOT MICROWAVE the plastic containers. I haven't done the research, but I believe heating up food in plastic is bad for you. It definitely ruins the containers if you heat them with food in them that has fat in it, that's what makes the plastic bubble and peel.

Prepping, Freezing, & Cooking Chicken in large batches for quick meals

 Freezing cooked chicken for future use. 2 hrs of prep, months of quick meals!

I used to cook chicken in the crock pot and shred it and freeze it, but I didn't love the texture of shredding it for everything. A few years ago I decided to try baking it (since I previously had not really ever put raw chicken in the oven) and WOW! It changed my life! 

I buy my chicken through a Food & Meat Co-op every few months. It comes in a 40 lb box and I generally find someone to split the order with. Once cooked, the original 20lbs becomes about 15 containers of 1lb each.

This Chicken is amazing quality, always juicy and mostly trimmed. I just separate the breasts,  remove the tendons, pound them flat so they will cook evenly (in a plastic bag to reduce the mess), sprinkle seasoning on them — Montreal Steak Seasoning, Tony's Creole are favorites — and cook on the air fryer setting in my oven (or regular bake setting works too). I use the internal temp thermometer and just watch the setting on my oven and stop when it reaches 165 Farenheit. This takes about 20 min at 400 setting for Air Fry. 

When using my air fry setting, I use the air fryer tray and place a regular cookie sheet underneath to catch juices. This cleans up easily afterwards with water while it's still warm if you let it sit for a few minutes before cleaning.

Once cooked, remove 1 batch of chicken to another tray or platter and let it rest for 10-15 min before cutting so the juices will stay in with the meat. If you cut right away, all the juices will spill out.

Cut to desired size and bag or put in Extreme Freeze Reditainers. Let cool a bit with lids off before freezing so it doesn't heat up your freezer sticking it in hot.

When ready to use, thaw in fridge or run the bottom of the container under water till the contents loosen and put on a microwave safe plate to thaw quickly. You'r chicken is ready for SO many dishes now!