There is one thing I really, really hate and that’s touching raw chicken. I won’t go into details, but I’ll just say that I try to do it as little as possible.
If you’re a regular reader of the blog you know that I always have really low prices listed for my boneless, skinless chicken breast. That’s because I pretty much only buy it when it is on sale. After I buy the chicken I immediately divide, individually wrap, and freeze the pieces for later use so that I can defrost one at a time as needed. When I first started doing this I absolutely hated the chore of wrapping and freezing the chicken… until I discovered this little trick!
This simple technique allows you to wrap each piece of chicken quickly and cleanly, with barely any chicken-skin contact. Woot! Prepare to have your eyes opened.
How to Divide and Freeze Chicken
Step 1: Get your supplies out. You’ll need fold-top sandwich bags and one gallon sized freezer bag (or two if you’re prepping a lot of chicken). Label the freezer bag with the contents and date so that if the chicken ever gets lost in the freezer you’ll at least know what it is when you find it.
Step 2: Get ready. I like to fold back the opening of the freezer bag so that I can just slide the wrapped chicken breasts in without touching the outside of the bag (I’m trying to spread as little raw chicken juice as possible). I also take out the number of fold-top sandwich bags needed (one per chicken breast), so that I won’t be reaching into the box of sandwich bags with sticky chicken hands.
Step 3: Protect your hand. Take one of the sandwich bags and invert it over your hand so that it is inside out and covering your hand. Open the chicken package and use the covered hand to grab one of the breasts…
Step 4: Now simply flip the sandwich bag right side out and around the chicken breast. Fold the flap in to enclose the chicken breast. Now it’s neatly wrapped in its own little package and you’ve had minimal contact with the chicken. Yay!
Step 5: Slide the wrapped chicken breast into the freezer bag and repeat the process with the rest of the chicken. The thin sandwich bag keeps frost from building up on the surface of the chicken and the thick freezer bag keeps air out and prevents freezer burn. Now you have a freezer full of chicken ready to be defrosted whenever you need it! And that whole process only took about five minutes.
Note: Even though this process is virtually mess-free, you’ll want to wash your hands well and disinfect your countertops afterward. Salmonella is not fun and you don’t want to chance small amounts of it contaminating other foods.
Got any cool tips for freezing your food? Share them in the comments below!
Ahh Beth, this is EXACTLY how I freeze my chicken. It just makes so much more sense to buy in bulk and always have it on hand. Love it! :) The only difference – I usually cut my chicken into smaller portions, so unfortunately I do have to get my hands a bit messy.
A great post! It’s wonderful to learn that others share my aversion to raw chicken. Decades ago — I was in college — I was given the task of preparing dinner for my roommates. I had a whole chicken and was simply unable to bring myself to break it apart. Since then I have never purchased an entire fowl.
How did I not think of this… perfect!
I don’t have any issues with touching raw chicken. When I buy a large package of breasts, I line a large sheet pan with parchment and arrange them individually and pop them in the freezer. When they are frozen solid, I transfer the chicken to a large zip lock bag. It’s easy to remove as many as I need because they do not stick together and I don’t waste all those plastic bags. I use them within a month or two so no issue with freezer burn.
Great idea for reducing plastic waste! I’m going to try this next time.
I do something very similar, but using plastic cling wrap instead of the fold top baggies. That way I can wrap it very tight to keep the air out. And the tight wrap helps to prevent them from folding together and getting stuck once frozen like another commenter mentioned.
As for freezing other things, I have started making my own vegetable broth. I simply save in a large ziploc bag in the freezer all the peels, ends and cores from all the vegetables I cook with…the parts I used to put down the garbage disposal. Once the bag is full, I empty the contents of the bag into a large stock pot and cover it with water. Bring it to a boil and reduce the heat and cover; continue simmering for another 30-45 minutes, allow to cool and strain it through cheesecloth. Add salt, if desired and find an awesome soup recipe on budget bytes to use it up. This makes a ton. I recently used this in place of the chicken broth in your potato soup recipe and it was amazing!
I buy more onion than I need and cut all of it. I put the extra onion into separate smaller bags and freeze for future meals.
Thank you! These how-to articles are very helpful :) I used to wrap them in wax paper and then foil, which was expensive, messy, and time-consuming. This is a MUCH better idea.
Zip lock makes bags just for this. I bought some unfortunately it was so long ago I don’t remember how much they cost. I think your method is probably less expensive. I will be using your method from now on.
I appreciate your dedication to not spreading bacteria through chicken juice by using gloves and baggies. If only the stores you purchase these from would be so conscience, we would have at least have somewhat healthier food.
When I read this, I busted out laughing because this is soooo me. Everyone around me thinks I’m weird because I really hate touching raw meat. It really bothers me and grosses me out. I usually use the fork method for moving my meats, LOL. Good to know there are numerous others like me out there.
I use a similar approach, but splurge on the zip-top bags. Then, rather than getting chicken juice all over a bowl, I use the same bag to thaw and marinate my chicken. When I pull a bag from the freezer, I just add whatever marinade I’d like (if nothing else, a healthy dose of Sriracha always does the trick), and leave it to thaw. And because I’m extra squeamish about touching raw chicken, I avoid cutting it up as much as possible. So to ensure even cooking, I use a mallet (with the chicken still in the bag…just let most of the air out first) to flatten the breast. Use your tongs to pull it out and put it on your baking sheet/grill. Ta-da! No-touch chicken!!! And if you get the bags on sale, it only adds 3-5 cents to the cost.
If one was truly budgeting then a bit more of cutting and prepping would help. Some 50 yrs. ago we were on very limited budget. When whole chicken was on sale $.19 (yes) I bought 6-10 and proceeded to get chicken breasts (skin and bones removed) and chicken tenders (that small muscle in breast), chicken wings (tips chopped off), chicken legs, chicken thighs. All of the above wrapped in portions for meals as desired. The backs, skin, trimmings would all go immediately in a stock pot with appropriate seasonings for a big batch of chicken stock, which also yielded some more chicken meat for the soup. For those squeamish in handling raw chicken the suggestion of thin plastic gloves should make it okay.
Upon defrosting there was no extras to throw away and the ‘whole’ chicken was used up.
Agreed! I buy a whole chicken at the farmers market and use the entire thing for meat and broth. Packaged broth is expensive!
My first thought was YAY!!! I have the some revulsion/concern about raw chicken. But I usually wash mine first before freezing. BUT, with this, after it thaws, I’m going to wash and trim. Makes sense.
I just wanted to add that there is no need to wash raw chicken. In fact, the splatter from doing so can spread salmonella around your kitchen. A couple scientists recently released a video illustrating this. One less step with touching raw chicken is always a reason to celebrate in my book. :)
What a great idea! I’ve been just using a fork and putting them in bags so I don’t have to touch the chicken but I am definitely going to try this technique!
I find I need a few tablespoons of tomato paste now and then. I don’t need a whole can and I don’t want to waste one by opening it. So I open a can, scoop out 1 tablespoon size scoops onto a plate with an ice cream scooper, and then put the plate in the freezer. Once the scoops freeze solid I pop them off the plate and put them in a plastic tub in the freezer. Viola! Individual tablespoons of tomato paste ready to go. I do the same thing with chocolate chip cookie dough. I can make fresh baked cookies a few at a time for weeks.
Great idea! I will try this.