Cheap and easy chicken meal prep
If the idea of “meal prepping” makes you roll your eyes, then this post is for you! A mostly hands-off process yields lots of rich chicken stock and shredded chicken that allows you to be flexible with your week’s meals while also being prepared for busy weeknights.
October is Hunger Awareness Month and it’s honestly kind of embarrassing that we even need an “awareness” month for a problem that’s so huge. According to the USDA, in 2019, over 13 million households experienced food insecurity including 2.4 million households with children. On top of those stats, unemployment in the US hit an all-time high in April 2020, so that’s a lot more people facing food shortages this year.
To that end, over on Instagram, Chelsea from The Dancer’s Pantry has created a new account which highlights original meals from different food bloggers, each costing less than $10 and aiming to serve at least 2 adults, but most serve 4 or more. There are vegetarian and carnivorous meals; breakfasts, lunches, and dinners; and I’m contributing this meal prep strategy! Check out Feed for 10 to see more.
I finally wrote down the ratios and cooking times for my favorite (and basically only) weekly meal prep. I don’t like rigid meal planning because, while I’m a devoted rule follower most of the time, when it comes to food rules, (even ones I make for myself!) I have a real “burn it all down” vibe.
Also, with kids it’s important to be able to pivot when suddenly they HATE something that was previously a favorite.
Enter: This easy, cheap, and mostly hands-off meal prep strategy. You come away with a huge amount of rich chicken stock that is so much more delicious and filling than the boxed stuff or a bullion cube. It freezes well and lasts frozen for 6 months. It also makes soups and stews much richer, which is helpful when you’re trying to make things stretch. I use this stock in any recipe that calls for stock, obviously, but also to cook these super easy and fast one-pot pastas because it really boosts their flavor.
The shredded chicken is also a lifesaver on busy nights. Throw it into tacos or enchiladas (if you’re feeling ambitious), stovetop mac and cheese or any other simple pasta dish, or smother it with your favorite BBQ sauce and have some messy but delicious pulled chicken sandwiches. The chicken also freezes well if you want to save it for later dinners.
$10 Meal prep (chicken stock and shredded chicken)
Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes, mostly hands off +15 minutes for straining
Yield: 11 cups stock, 4 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1 chicken, cut into pieces (about 3½-4½ lbs) $11.95 from Trader Joe’s (I bought a pre-cut chicken, but there were whole chickens available for $7-$9)
1 large bag frozen veggie and aromatic leftovers (save everything from the previous week’s cooking in a large bag in the freezer including onion skins, garlic skins, tiny cloves of garlic, leek and fennel fronds, lemon rinds, dried up fresh herbs, unused parts of celery, carrot peels, potato peels, etc)
14-18 cups water (enough to cover the chicken and veggies entirely, but the full amount will depend on how much chicken and veggies you use)
3 Tbsp kosher salt
Place everything into a large stockpot and bring to a boil over a high flame, about 20 minutes.
Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low or just high enough to achieve a low rolling boil. Cook, uncovered, until the water has reduced by ¼, about 1 hour.
Add enough water to return to roughly the original amount (about 4 cups) and turn the flame back to high. Stir the mixture and check the seasoning. Add more salt if necessary. Bring the mixture back to a boil and then reduce back to a low rolling boil.
Boil for 20 more minutes. Let cool.
Remove the large pieces of veggies and chicken bones. Strain the broth into a large container. Save all of the cooked chicken meat.
Warm potato salad
Potato salad might be the perfect transitional food: It’s reminiscent of the BBQs and long summer days that we’re leaving behind, but as we head towards fall, what’s more comforting than a bowl of starchy goodness?
Phew. I am in the thick of this motherhood in a pandemic thing, y’all. (While also trying to be okay with what we have [in-person school half of the time; outdoor, distanced playdates], and what we don’t [travel, grandparents without preplanning, sports, activities]. I was about to actually start this blog post asking, “from where is our worth derived?” And then I said to myself: GET A GRIP BECCA, THIS IS JUST A FUCKING FOOD BLOG.
One thing I’m really missing, and I think we can all relate to this somewhat, is that sense of having discreet portions of the day. I blame the pandemic, the world being both literally and figuratively on fire, and being home all the time, but having a 5.5 month old baby who is, thus far, schedule resistant, also doesn’t help.
Whatever the cause, I miss those few downbeat moments every day where you could switch from one mode to the next. Now I feel like I’m never able to focus on one thing completely. I can’t just test a recipe or take some photos. Instead, I’m doing that while comforting a crying baby and finding a very specific episode of Paw Patrol on the DVR and getting some water and searching for a missing Lego and nursing and and and.
On the flip side, I find myself not tuning in to my kids entirely either, which makes me really upset with myself and this fucking situation we’re in. I think that fear, anger, resentment, and frustration makes it hard for me to find the bandwidth for a really involved pretend game or art project or science experiment. But that sucks for my kids because they aren’t responsible for the pandemic. But I’m also human and I can’t be the perfect mom all day, every day. * PRIMAL SCREEEEAAAAAMMMMM *
But anyway, time marches on and suddenly summer has turned into fall. I don’t know what we did with the warm months. Did they even happen? Who knows.
We did celebrate summer produce thanks to our prolific cucumber, zucchini, and basil plants AND our favorite farm stand. Now that fall is bearing down on us, there’s nothing like a meal to mark the changing of the seasons and this potato salad is the culinary equivalent of a light jacket: A nod to both warm and cold, casual and cozy.
While potato salad might seem relegated to side-dishery, I topped this with a runny egg for an unexpectedly fab breakfast. Try it!
Warm potato salad
Time: About 15-20 minutes, mostly active
Yield: about 3-3.5 cups of salad
1½ lbs small potatoes (new, fingerling, red, etc; cut any larger ones so that most pieces are about the same size)
¼ cup mayonnaise or Greek yogurt
3 Tbsp dijon mustard
¼ cup chopped red onion (about 1 thick slice from a medium or small onion)
2 Tbsp finely chopped chives
1/4-1/2 tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp smoked paprika
Dash of red wine vinegar or 1 tsp of chopped capers
Microwave the washed potatoes in a glass bowl covered with plastic wrap on high for 10 minutes. Or cover the potatoes with cold water until they’re just submerged. Heat over a high flame until boiling. Boil, lowering the flame slightly to avoid the water boiling over, until fork tender, about 12-14 minutes.
While the potatoes are cooking, combine the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Once the potatoes are fork tender, add them to the mixture and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
Chicken burgers with pub cheese
These easy, fast chicken burgers are packed with flavor and ready in under 30 minutes. They’re what I cook on nights when it’s suddenly dinnertime, everyone’s hangry, and I need a quick, crowd-pleasing meal.
Guess what?! Change is hard! I sent my little off to Kindergarten on Monday (we’re on a hybrid schedule so he’s in school one week and at home the next) and then wandered around my house for 5 hours like I’d never been here before. (And he went back to Pre-K for almost two months this summer, so I don’t know why it felt so weird!)
That happens to me any time I go through a big transition. The edges suddenly feel a little fuzzy and I temporarily forget how to negotiate my day. It’s no wonder my kid struggles with change too.
How do you deal with change? Is there something that anchors you when the seas get rough? For me, it’s cooking. When I feel off kilter, I need to cook something. It focuses my mind, forces me to think about the present, and following a recipe is really helpful when I just want someone to tell me what to do.
So, here is a fab recipe for chicken burgers. If you’re feeling strange as this new school year starts, I’ll be the grown up telling you, “Make these for dinner. Here’s how.” Problem solved.
A couple of notes:
The heat of the skillet is important. A good sear on both sides and then covering the pan and letting the meat steam as it cooks seals in the juices as well as cooking the meat pretty fast.
I try not to handle the raw meat mixture too much; the more you mix the meat, cheese, and spices, the tougher and more rubbery it can get.
DO NOT, I REPEAT: DO NOT use another bowl to mix these ingredients. Use the container that the ground chicken came in. Save a dish.
Chicken burgers
Time: 25 minutes, mostly active
Yield: 4 burgers
1 lb ground dark meat chicken (I like to use leg meat)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp coriander
pepper to taste
¼ cup pub cheese
2 Tbsp olive oil
Sprinkle the seasonings and plop the cheese onto the ground chicken in the package. Using your hands, mix thoroughly, but try not to over mix. I like to make sure that there aren’t any pockets of dry spices, but if there are still blobs of cheese, that’s fine.
Heat a skillet over a medium high flame. Add the olive oil and heat until the oil slips easily around the pan. Add patties with ¼ of the mixture in each one, trying to shape them into rough circles.
Get a good sear on one side. If the pan is hot enough, this should take about 3 minutes. Flip and sear on the other side, 3 more minutes.
Turn the flame to low and cover the skillet. Cook until the burgers are firm and have reached an internal temperature of 165, about 10-12 minutes.