Chicken & rice... Chicken tetrazzini... Quesadillas & tacos... Chicken alfredo... chicken pot pie...
What do these dishes all have in common? Obviously, they all have 'chicken' in the name. They are also all go-to dishes that are staples at our house, and they all call for precooked, cut up chicken breasts.
These are all pretty easy meals, but cooking the chicken is just one more step in the process (and one more pan to clean!). My solution: I use the lowest-maintenance way of cooking the meat, that requires the least attention, so that I can get the other ingredients for the recipe ready without worrying about the chicken. For me, that means flipping on the George Foreman grill (that we got for $5 at Goodwill last year!), plopping the not-quite-defrosted chicken breast(s) in it, and letting them sizzle while I prepare the rest of the meal. So easy. And my favorite part: the grill gives the chicken a flavor that goes particularly well in Chicken Alfredo or Chicken & Rice, as well as other meals. Grilling is healthier than sauteing in oil, or other options for cooking the chicken, so that makes me happy too!
Something I do less often, but am glad when I do: precook, cut up, and freeze the chicken, to make any of these meals really quick and easy. I do this more often with ground beef or ground turkey, to freeze taco meat for tacos, quesadillas, dips, and refried-bean casserole. I also will brown & freeze crumbled sausage for dishes like pizza, omelettes, or Italian Sausage soup.
Check out more tips at Works-for-me Wednesday!
6 comments:
I love my George! We use it several times a week!
I also love my George...but had never thought of doing chicken to use in another dish on it. Thanks for the tip! I also do the 'precook' hamburger and put it in the freezer thing...makes life so much easier. I also buy the big bag of chicken(legs & quarters) when it is on sale cheap, and boil it up with some veggies. Then I debone/skin it and put the chicken into 2 cup baggieg...and freeze. This way I have cooked/shredded chicken ready to go. But I have discovered that the flavor given by the veggies doesn't go well in certain recipes.
Thanks for the tip-Andie
Silly question! do you brown the ground meat in the george foreman grill?
Not a silly question, and I realize I wasn't clear... No, I don't brown the ground meat on the George Foreman grill, I just mentioned that as another pre-cooked meat ingredient that I freeze as well.
Though there was this one time that I have leftover cooked hamburgers in the refrigerator, and didn't want them to go bad, so I crumbled them up to use in a meat sauce. That was a weird way to do things, but it worked...
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
I love my GF Grill. My favorite thing is grilled sandwiches like fake Monte Cristo or paninis, or the frozen fish sticks or the breaded chicken nuggets we get through AngelFood Ministries.
It is fabulous for that. I recently was advised to try fish like salmon and tilapia in foil packets on the GF. Just season the fillet and make it into a packet. Drop on the GF, being careful not to scrape it around on the teflon, and steam away!
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