Food Prep Help!

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Amanda82691
Amanda82691 Posts: 298 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Well I want to start food prepping all my lunches for the week to take to work with me. And I'd love to start cooking chicken especially however, I have tried cooking chicken in larger quantities before, for about four days, and my chicken always dries out and by the second day it taste AWFUL! I don't know if that is just because of how I'm cooking it or what!? I was hoping maybe you new because I really can't bring myself to make it again because I know I won't end up eating it because of the nasty almost iron taste the chicken gets after a day or two even while refrigerated. Any tips?

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  • fitnesspal1211
    fitnesspal1211 Posts: 1 Member
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    Was it marinated or anything first? There are as many as you could want to try with the flavors you prefer. <3
  • Janice2Shakira
    Janice2Shakira Posts: 257
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    How are you storing it? Make sure its good and sealed. Other than that, marinate and if you're heating it up later you can also slightly under cook it.
  • chad_phillips1123
    chad_phillips1123 Posts: 229 Member
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    If you grill it, it will be a bit drier. I'm currently eating a lot of chicken. What I do is rinse and dry it (pat it dry), rub a dry rub over them (or just whatever spices I'm trying), put a little olive oil in a pan (I do about 2Tbsp Olive Oil for 1.25lb chicken), set it on high (I don't like to wait), and cook each side for 3-4 min (maybe longer; depends on how you like your chicken). Afterwards, I stack them in tupperware and pour the leftover oil/rub/etc in the pan into the tupperware (after it's all cooled down).

    Shredding it and adding some sauce may help if the leftover's have gone dry.
  • SandyC04
    SandyC04 Posts: 32
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    I had the same issue with you with the dry chicken and the trick is to add to it... For me chicken is easy for make ahead meals... my problem now is I am getting bored with it! I am making homemade chicken stock once about once a month now as I use it a lot instead of oil for sauté and have started to poaching foods rather than bake of broil... Problem is I start with a whole chicken and have a lot of left over chicken... Did some googling and found great recipes like a chicken salad with grapes, walnuts and a little vegenaise, Pulled chicken can be had by shredding the chicken with a fork, add some BBQ sauce and now you have a nice moist pulled chicken that works great on a bun or on a salad,. Another favorite is to chop it up and sauté it with some garlic, scallion, ginger root, water chestnuts and hoison sauce - wrap it up in iceberg lettuce and you have some great lettuce wraps...
  • guidothecat
    guidothecat Posts: 141 Member
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    try it in the crock pot, seriously...put it on a rack (whole chicken) or on veggies or whatnot (just keep it off the bottom of the pot) throw it in for 8 hours (I normally throw mine in the morning and don't' get home until about 10 hours later) put on low, and then shred whatnot. peel the skin off an portion out to what you want that week. I do things like a chicken salad, throw in some black beans and salsa, etc. I live alone, so tend to freeze my size portions? But a pesto chicken, mexi chicken, Italian chicken for pasta, freezes real nice and then just chuck into the lunch bag the night before? (I just season it as I put the excess into the baggies for the week, put into freezer zippy's and label, keeps for 2 months)

    and I make stock out of the chicken carcass too.

    I have tried roasting (even with the celery inside) and I have found for the most bang for my buck and getting me through the week is cooking in the crock pot, don't add any liquid, just let the whole bird cook in its own juices. (but you have to keep it off the bottom of the pot while cooking) I think I got my rack that fits inside a few years ago with a roasting pan set, but if you don't' have a rack, carrots, celery, squished tinfoil, even crushed beer cans work.

    roast the bones with whatever veggies you need to use up for an hour, throw all that into the crock, season, add water and let it simmer overnight, and it is the best stock ever for anything! message me if you have any questions?

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