Meal Prep Question...

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activefatgirl
activefatgirl Posts: 107 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Do you meal prep? If so how do you cook your chicken? What kind of spices and seasonings do you use?

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  • martyqueen52
    martyqueen52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    edited October 2014
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    - Get a crock-pot able to hold 3-5lbs. of chicken.
    - Buy 3-5lb. bag of boneless, skinless chicken breast from Wal-Mart
    - Buy two small or one large container of BBQ sauce (whatever flavor you like)
    - Dump chicken into crock-pot, then dump container or containers of sauce into the pot and onto chicken.... THE WHOLE CONTAINER

    - Cover crock-pot, let it cook on LOW heat for 8-9 hours. After time is up, take chicken ONLY out of pot and put into a large container. Most of the sauce will be in the pot so don't worry about it adding calories.
    - Now.... you can shred the chicken for wraps, sandwiches, or just eat it as whole breasts.


    You can also cook with salsa, hot sauce. A 5lb bag lasts me Monday to Friday for work.
  • gaelowyn_pt_duex
    gaelowyn_pt_duex Posts: 135 Member
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    I do. I make big meals on weekends, and use the leftovers as a base for new recipes through the week, or freeze leftovers in individual servings for quick grab lunches. Pot roast can become stew, soup, or the beef turned into taco/burrito filling or shredded bbq. pork roast turns into quick stir fry, taco/burrito filling, bbq. Whole chicken becomes soup, meat for taco/burrito fillings,bbq, chicken salad or just topped onto a green salad. I make BIG batches of taco meat, sloppy joe, spaghetti sauce, soups, chili's. freeze in some indi servings and also some "family" size meal servings. I put boneless skinless chicken breast, thighs and lean pork chops in marinade and then freeze. marinates as it thaws for easy grilling or broiling. Prep salad and veggies. I sliced up tons of peppers and froze in 2 cups/container. When I crock pot, I prefer chicken thighs and drumsticks, or bone in breast as the meat doesn't dry out as much as boneless skinless.
    for seasonings I use lots of latin and asian flavors. Garlic, cumin, chili powder, cilantro, sazon, lime. Ginger, soy, sesame, a little honey, lime, pineapple juice, chinese 5 spice.
    Easy stuff. I"m a mom of 2 school aged kids and I work full time. we rarely eat out now that I have all this go to stuff. even if i forget to pull something out to make.. I can find a container of pre-cooked frozen chicken breast, pull it out, quick defrost it and toss in a skillet with some sazon, cumin, chili and garlic powder, some water or broth and have taco filling. For me i then add some fresh frozen corn I put up, some drained and rinsed canned black beans and some cilantro and now you have "santa fe chicken". toss on some salad greens w/salsa and you have a naked burrito bowl.
  • dukesangel
    dukesangel Posts: 45 Member
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    I start the meal prep for the next nights dinner before I go to bed at night. So for example its chicken enchilada night tomm, so I'll make the sauce tonight and if I feel like it make up the chicken mixture tonight as well. (which is just cook and shred chicken and toss with salsa verde) Tomm morning before work soak the beans and then cook them in the pressure cooker while I get the enchiladas put together.

    Tonight's dinner is pulled pork. So its the pork shoulder in the crock pot for 9 hours or so in a pineapple habanero sauce. Then its just shred and throw on sandwiches when I get home from work. Could do the same with chicken instead of pork.

    I also use a lot of "Cajun spice" on my chicken as well as jerk seasoning. I use bottled sauces because I don't have the time to make my own anymore. Stir fry is super easy to make as well and you can prep all of it the night before.

    My freezer is usually full of chickens so I can't make too much ahead and freeze it. Working on a standup freezer but until then..
  • OnTheGround
    OnTheGround Posts: 78
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    I have a large electric griddle, so I grill MOST Of it on that. Otherwise I boil and shred.

    When grilling, my go-to seasoning is:
    olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, a squirt of sriacha, chopped garlic, a few squeezes of lemon or lime juice.
  • lgradyma6
    lgradyma6 Posts: 3 Member
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    I roast a whole chicken on the weekends, then use the meat for meals throughout the week. I use a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and Herbs de Provence. I sometimes use the carcass to make broth and use that for soups and to add flavor to quinoa, rice, etc.
  • derekj222
    derekj222 Posts: 370 Member
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    yeppers...I either cut up a bag or unthawed frozen chicken and marinade it for a few hours or cook it with some Mrs Dash spices on. I find that marinating keep more moisture locked in. I cook mine on George Foreman or bake in oven...
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
    edited October 2014
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    Yep I get my chickens at Trader Joe's (I'm not wholly organic but I do try to avoid antibiotics in food), drop it in the crock pot with:
    1 onion, half chopped up and half grated (just to be faaaancy)
    Some dried shallots (because someone gave me this big jar and I don't have anything else to use them for)
    1 can of cream of something soup
    1 few glugs of chicken stock (more stock if I'll be gone longer, to make sure the liquid doesn't dry up)
    A heap of chopped garlic (because yes)

    leave it in for 6+ hours on low and then just take out the chicken with a slotted spoon, it'll shred on its own and taste delicious.

    I also only cook (skinless) chicken thighs - can't stand white meat - just so you know it's no different with breasts or with a whole chicken.

    Oh AND I do the same thing whether it comes out of the shopping bag or out of the freezer. Usually I try to keep a bag in the freezer, then on Sunday I set up the crock pot and then go shopping and put the new chicken in the freezer. Which might possibly be crazy now that I see it in writing.

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