Batch {Bulk} Cooking with Chicken

I’m back with another batch cooking session to share with y’all. This week I’m sharing what can be done with whole fryer/roaster chickens, family packs of chicken parts, or even a 10 lb. bag of leg quarters. First off I thoroughly wash my chicken before I start cooking it. Next, I either put the whole fryer in the crockpot (you can cut it up into parts if you prefer to) or cut my leg quarters into halves. If all my pieces can’t fit into my 6-quart slow cooker at once, I put the rest in a pressure cooker (this is the fastest way to get the job done). For this cooking session, I used a family pack of bone-in skin-on chicken legs and a family pack of bone-in skin-on chicken thighs.

I put a little lemon pepper and seasoned salt on the chicken (this is a little added flavor for the broth. I’ll talk about this later on). In my slow cooker, I add to the chicken about 6 cups of water, a big chopped carrot, a bay leaf, and a big onion I quartered to it (if I had a celery stalk that would have went in too). In my pressure cooker, I added to the chicken the same veggies but only 3 cups of water. I programmed the slow cooker to cook for 3 hours on High, and selected the chicken setting on my pressure cooker. Before I continue let me say that this post will be done in 2 parts with this being part 1.



Since the thighs in the pressure cooker are the first to be ready I go ahead and work with those. I carefully take out the thighs and lay them on a platter to cool a bit. I put on disposable gloves, and get to work pulling off the skin and separating the meat from the bones on each piece. It’s best to have separate containers set out to keep the meat in and collect your bones/skin. I don’t throw away the cooking liquid, skin, or the bones (I will talk about that tomorrow.). I cover the container with the meat and put in the refrigerator to work with after it is fully cold. I proceed to do the same with the chicken legs once they are finished cooking in the slow cooker. Once the meat is completely cold I take it out and do two things. First I take some pieces of meat, place on a cutting board, and carefully cut into bite-size cubes. I set those aside in the container while I work on the rest of the chicken. The rest is the pieces that are easy to pull apart (shred up). Once all of that has been shredded I sit it aside in a separate container. I separated the cubes and shredded chicken into 2.5 cup portions each and put into quart-size Ziploc bags.

As you can see I got 2 bags of each that I pre-labeled, squeezed all the air out of them before closing, and placed in a flat single layer on a baking sheet to freeze. Once it was stiff enough I take the baking sheet out and stack the bags on top of one another in the freezer. Remember I explained before about the need to save on space to put other things in there. Now, what can I use these bags of cooked chicken for? I have a list for each type here.

Cubed Chicken ideas:

* Chicken Helper (I do a homemade version)

* Chicken Fried Rice

*Chicken Lo Mein

* Chicken Pot Pie

* Chicken Alfredo

* Chicken and Noodle/Rice Soup

*Chicken and Corn Chowder

* Chicken Stew

* Chicken Wraps

* Chicken Fajitas

* Chicken Salad/sandwiches

Shredded Chicken ideas:

* Pulled Chicken (ex: BBQ sandwiches)

* Buffalo Chicken Dip

* Chicken, Spinach, and Artichoke Dip

* Any type of Chicken Sliders

* Any type of Chicken Casserole (ex: Chicken and Stuffing)

* Chicken Pizza (ex: BBQ or Chicken Alfredo)

* Chicken Tortilla Soup

* Chicken Chili

* Chicken spaghetti

* Stuffed Baked Potatoes, Lasagna Rolls, or Shells (ex: chicken and broccoli)

* Tacos, burritos, or Taquitos

* Loaded Nachos

* Enchiladas, Tostadas, or Quesadillas

These are just examples of the many things you can do. If any other things come to mind, I may come back to add them to this list later. Some may wonder why cook up all this chicken at once and then freeze it. Think about how in some meals you have to cut up and cook the chicken before you add it to the rest of the ingredients in a dish. This is one step or two you won't have to worry about. You just add in the cooked chicken to make the process of getting the meal cooked quicker. What can you think of that I haven’t added to the lists? Please feel free to let me know in the comments below. I will be back with you tomorrow to share part 2 of this post.