Thrifty Thursday-Freezer Chicken Mix

I am so excited to share this Thrifty Thursday with you. My family has been practicing low cost eating now for a while. We have found that sometimes it is cheaper if you find a sale on chicken breasts and stock up or buy them in bulk. My favorite is boneless skinless chicken breast. I know they actually cost more, but sometimes I find that I am in a rush during food preparation. At times, I have found bones in my chicken while eating if I buy whole chicken or bone-in chicken breasts. For this reason, it is actually worth buying boneless skinless chicken breasts for us. My children are very small and will choke easily if I accidently miss a small bone.

Our children start to get restless about an hour before dinner time. It is sometimes hard to keep them entertained and make dinner at the same time. So, I buy chicken breasts on sale and boil about 14 chicken breasts at one time. I got this idea from my Make-A-Mix book. It has a recipe for “Chicken Mix.” You can follow their recipe or boil chicken with the spices you like. After the chicken is boiled, pull the meat apart, wait for it to cool and then place it in labeled quart size freezer bags. If you need a quick meal like chicken tacos, chicken and dumplings, chicken casserole, etc. just thaw the chicken and you can have a quick meal in no time.
One of the best things about making a “chicken mix” is that you can save all of the chicken stock. I strain the chicken stock and put it in the refrigerator to let it cool. Then, skim any fat off the top and save the stock in labeled freezer bags. This is a great money saving technique as canned chicken stock is expensive.

Here is a list of suggestions to add to your boiling chicken for great chicken and tasty stock.

Chicken Mix

14 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Carrots
Parsley
Garlic
Dried Basil
Salt and pepper

Stock up while chicken breasts are on sale and do some meal preparation ahead of time.

-Robin

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