How to Freeze Cooked Shredded Chicken
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If you are wanting to avoid eating the same boring leftovers and looking for the best way to avoid take out on a busy night, this blog post outlines how to freeze cooked shredded chicken in a way that makes mealtime easy!
In my home, the freezer in my kitchen is where I look first for quick meals. The deep freezer is where we have the majority of the bulk meat, like raw chicken, bulk beef, and pork. In my kitchen freezer I am able to quickly find already prepped frozen shredded chicken which is is an excellent choice for tossing into a soup pot, quesadillas, casseroles or chicken pot pie.
How to have quick and nutritious meals
In order to feed my family healthy and nutritious food, shortcuts and easy meals are a must! Freezing and canning are two of my go-to options to get dinner done quickly and easily. In addition to freezing shredded chicken, I also love to prep and freeze sweet potatoes, instant pot cooked beets or peas. Having food like this prepped in the freezer is a great way to cut down on cooking time, especially when I can easily grab a protein, carb and veggie from the freezer that is already prepped and ready to go!
Another way I love to get an easy meal on the table is to utilize canned chicken or canned beef. Here are 10 ideas to use canned chicken, and 10 ideas to use canned beef! You can learn more about my shortcuts for making homemade meals and cooking from scratch for easy meals in this blog post.
Roasting a whole chicken
Each week, we make a simple roasted chicken, but you would do the same steps to freeze the shredded chicken if you purchased a whole rotisserie chicken. To roast a whole chicken, we will add simple seasoning of salt and pepper and then roast in the oven in a Dutch oven. This method is so easy to do and then we will get multiple meals from it with our meal prep method. We use this method to make a whole chicken at least once a week. In the first meal we often eat the legs, chicken thighs and chicken wings. That saves the chicken breasts for a future meal. If that future meal is more than 4 days away, we shred the cooked meat to use another day! And don’t forget to save your bones to make a batch of homemade bone broth.
Purchase your whole chicken from Pleasant Grove Homestead
If you are local to Iowa, get your pasture-raised chicken directly from our farm! You can find us at local farmer’s markets, through local co-ops, or purchase directly from us. You can learn more about where to purchase from our farm store here.
How much meat do you get off of one chicken?
We find that a good general rule of thumb to estimate how much meat you can get from one entire chicken is for every pound that the whole chicken weighs you will yield about one cup. So for a whole chicken that weighs 5 pounds, you will get about 5 cups of shredded dark meat and light meat. This estimation will work for both homemade roasted chicken and also store-bought rotisserie chicken. You can learn more about how to make the most of your whole chicken in this blog post here.
How to freeze cooked chicken
After we’ve enjoyed our roast chicken, if I know that we do not need leftover chicken the next day, I will shred all of the chicken, pack a quart sized zip bag full of shredded chicken and toss it into the kitchen freezer. This reduces food waste, provides us with prepped proteins for future use, and is one of the best ways we make use of a whole bird, which saves us money!
1. Cool your cooked chicken to room temperature, or put it in the fridge overnight. It is important to let your chicken cool and not put warm chicken directly into the freezer because it causes condensation. Condensation inside the bags leads to freezer burn.
2. Portion your chicken into an airtight container in a size that makes sense for your future meals. For us, we use 4 cup glass pyrex freezer-safe containers, or quart heavy duty freezer bags. Freezer bags are an excellent choice because they pack flat into the freezer. You can portion it into a larger size that will work for a full recipe, or you can freeze it in small portions that would work for individual serving sizes.
3. Remove air from the freezer bag, label it and place it into the freezer.
How long does cooked chicken stay in the freezer?
If packaged according to the directions above, you’ll have cooked chicken in your freezer for up to four months according to foodsafety.gov. After this, the quality and nutrients may begin to decline, but we’ve eaten cooked chicken that’s been in the freezer much longer– even up to one year. Following the rules above about having it going into the freezer hot helps ensure it will be the best quality.
How to defrost cooked frozen chicken
You can learn our favorite method for defrosting cooked chicken with the link below!
Favorite recipes to use frozen cooked chicken
The best thing about having shredded chicken meat ready to go in the freezer is that you can use it in so many different ways! You can use it just like you would fresh shredded chicken, such as in chicken enchiladas, chicken salad, chicken tacos, or any other chicken recipes! Below are some of our favorite ways to use the frozen chicken for a quick and tasty meal.
Award winning chicken chili – This recipe has a slow cooker method as well as some short cut ideas. You can use frozen chicken to cut down on the cooking time and have the chili ready quickly!
Quick Asian Sugar Snap Peas and Chicken – Instead of using fresh chicken in this recipe, cut down on the cook time and use the frozen chicken!
Flexible Squash Soup – We love how easy this soup is and how you can customize it to use what you have on hand. Add the shredded chicken for a boost of protein!
10 ideas for chicken dinners – This blog post outlines 10 ideas to use canned chicken, but it can easily be swapped for frozen chicken instead!
