Ready to save money and make dinner faster? Here’s how I use a slow cooker to meal prep chicken breast ahead of time!
In a Nutshell
As you by now know, I am on an eternal quest to find ways to make healthy foods for my family faster and cheaper. In the last few months I’ve discovered how to do just that by using a slow cooker to meal prep chicken! This technique has allowed me to buy chicken in bulk at lower prices, cook it with very little work and then freeze it to be easily ready for soups, and casseroles.
Saving Money on Chicken Breast
My current lowest prices for boneless, skinless chicken breast are $2.67/# for the family size generic brand at Walmart. Thankfully, Aldi does have sales relatively regularly on their family size boneless skinless chicken breast for $2.19/#. That’s a $0.48 savings on every pound of meat and most of these packs are about 5#. That’s a $2.50 on every pack.
I’ve started buying enough chicken at these lower sale prices at Aldi (or any other store thats sale can match that price) to last me for about 2 months. That has been getting me through to each next sale. When I get home I use my slow cooker to meal prep chicken for the freezer. This way I’m never paying full price and there’s always chicken on hand!
Using a Slow Cooker to Meal Prep Chicken
Here’s where the real magic happens. When I bring my chicken home, I immediately throw an entire family pack into my slow cooker (crockpot). Now the chicken is cooking without any work on my part and I can go about my day. When the chicken is done, I pull it out of the slow cooker and cube or shred it. I then divide the chicken into quart size freezer baggies with 1-2# in each. Leave the bags open to cool to avoid condensation. Don’t forget to put into the freezer, though, within 2 hours to avoid the food “danger zone.” Now you’ve got pre-measured, pre-cooked chicken ready to be thrown into soups, casseroles, and other recipes!
I know I said I was buying multiple family size packs, but my slow cooker only holds 1 package at a time. Usually I do just cook 1 package per day as long as the “use by” date on the packages allows. While I use my slow cooker to meal prep most of my chicken, I do freeze some chicken as individual, whole breasts. I’m usually cooking 3-4 packages over 3-4 days total.
Learn From My mistakes
The first time I tried to use my slow cooker to meal prep chicken, I left the chicken in the crockpot too long and it became dryer than I wanted. It also became difficult to cube and would only shred. Shredded chicken can work great for pulled chicken sandwiches but I found that in casseroles it often soaks up additional fluid and in soups it almost disintegrates. There was no real issue with taste, but the textures of some meals like chicken pot pie were off.
Start small. The first time you buy chicken on sale to meal prep, make sure you only buy what you’re actually going to use. If you end up having to throw anything away because you didn’t cook it in time, you’re losing money. Make sure you also have room in your freezer for as much as you’re planning to add.
Pointers for Using your Slow Cooker to Meal Prep Chicken
The best thing you can do to make sure you don’t overcook your chicken is to get a meat thermometer with a long probe. Set it to 165 degrees (the proper cooking temperature for poultry) so that it beeps at your when the chicken is up to temp. Chicken cooked to 165 it will cube up easily. If you let the chicken cook too long, it will become dry and only shred when you try to cut it.
Sometimes I like to make sure the chicken is done cooking at about dinnertime. That means I can use some of the chicken for pulled chicken sandwiches that night. That’s one super easy meal plus a couple pounds of chicken prepped ahead for the freezer!
Make sure to label your freezer baggies of chicken as “pre-cooked” before you put them in the freezer. This is especially important if you have other cubed chicken that is uncooked in the freezer. You’ll need to also make sure you label the baggie with the date you cooked the meat so you know how long it’s been in your freezer.
Other Methods to Meal Prep Chicken
Like I mentioned above, I do sometimes freeze entire chicken breasts individually. This has made it easy for me to have chicken on hand for roasting or for recipes that require the chicken to be cooked with other ingredients. You could also pre-cube uncooked chicken if you find that your family prefers.
My sister has also started buying up chicken on sale but instead of pre-cooking it, she has been using her food processor to make ground chicken. She then freezes the ground chicken uncooked in 1# portions in freezer bags. This is a great option for anyone avoiding red meats or working on lowering fat and cholesterol from ground beef! To take it a step further, you might cook the ground meat before putting it into the freezer so you have one less step later on.
Let me know what ways you’ve found to meal prep chicken or buy it at a lower cost. We’ll learn from each other!
More Resources for Saving Time and Money
- Did you know you can meal prep onions and celery? Make a Great Dinner Faster with Flash Freezing
- Learn the basics of grocery shopping How to Compare Grocery Prices to Get the Best Deals
- Here’s how to make a meal out of what you already have at home 26 Pantry Clean Out Meals to Save You Money