Easy Healthy Freezer Meals with Chicken to prepare ahead and reduce stress throughout the week. Use two whole chickens to reduce cost by more than 50% for your meat.
Cooking not only one but two whole chickens can be intimidating. I promise you though and swear by the moon and my mother that it is easy! VERY easy!
And last time I checked here at my local Costco, a whole chicken was 60% cheaper per pound than chicken breasts. Mind you, there is bones in there that weigh but you’ll still get a lot more meat for your buck. I got 4 chicken breasts plus 6 cups of shredded meat out of my 3.25 pound chickens.
But for exacter calculations on chicken meat cost check out Kitchen Stewardship’s post about debunking 6 objections of buying a whole chicken. It’s an extraordinary post going into cost and quality detail like nobody else.
For more info on what to look out for when cooking two chickens you can check out my Two Whole Chickens Recipe post.
10 Chicken Freezer Meals
So now that we’re happy to use two whole chickens for our 10 healthy freezer meals prep, let’s get right into it!
Prepping two chickens for roasting takes maybe 3 minutes. Since they’ll be in the oven a while you want to take advantage of the energy consumption a.k.a. heat in the oven to roast a bunch of root vegetables.
For my recipe I chose onion, celery (not technically a root but aaahh), rutabaga, sweet potato and potato. The possibilities are endless though.
Add or exchange for whole garlic cloves, turnip, parsnip, beets, yums, kohlrabi, jerusalem artichokes, radishes….I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch. Oooh right, carrots!!
While the chickens and root veggies are slowly roasting you have plenty of time to prepare two sides to complement the roasted root veggies and to mix up your meals.
Here again, the possibilities are endless. I chose a Peruvian-style wild rice blend and black quinoa “risotto” a.k.a. quinotto. Use regular white quinoa if you can’t find black. No biggie ;)
10 Healthy Freezer Meals
The healthiness of your meals will always depend on the balance of nutrients (protein, complex carbs etc.) as well as adding a lot of veggies. We’ve added a lot of root vegetables to the roaster, including starches as carbs and now it’s time to prepare other sides.
Use wild rice or brown rice mixed with delicious vegetables and use quinoa and add baby spinach once finished cooking. The heat of the quinoa makes the spinach wilt and “cooks” it to perfection.
How long can chicken freezer meals last
This depends a lot on what kind of freezer you have but assuming it’s the on top of fridge freezer, 2-3 months. According to foodsafety.gov any soup or stew including meat is good for 2-3 months at an under 0℉ (-18℃)
If you plan on not freezing these meals but rather put them in the fridge, they last for up to 4 days. Cooked chicken lasts for up to 4 days in the fridge so you should aim to finish eating all meals by the 4th day.
What to store healthy freezer meals in
The big question! Plastic? No plastic? There is no doubt that the healthiest and environmentally most friendly materials are glass and stainless steel.
There are some pretty cool glass containers * suitable for freezing and also cool stainless steel containers * suitable for freezing. If you have the space in the freezer, by all means use those.
If you freeze in glass, mind you, you have to remember to put the frozen food in the fridge about 12 hours before planning to reheat. Both, to ensure glass doesn’t shatter with difference in temperature and to be able to remove the block of frozen food that stuck to the container.
With stainless steel you have the advantage that you can put the container in hot water for a couple minutes and the frozen food will lift itself off the container and you can dump it into a saucepan for defrosting and reheating.
WARNING: No stainless steel in the microwave though!! Your microwave may start a fire!
Freezer Meals in Freezer Bags?
My favorite way of storing freezer meals is unfortunately not the most environmentally friendly. I haven’t found any other way to deal with the lack of space in my freezer.
In order to buy animal protein the most environmentally friendly way possible I buy from farmers outside my city and I buy in bulk. That bulk obviously needs to be frozen. Hence, my freezer is almost completely full year round.
So I’m left with having to use freezer bags * for my healthy freezer meals. I make sure to let the food cool down completely before adding so nothing leeks into my food from the plastic and I also never reheat in the bags. I squeeze out the frozen block into a saucepan, wash the bag and reuse it as often as possible.
* the links above are affiliate links and I earn a couple cents commission if you buy the products through the link. All earnings go towards buying coffee and keep my brain running to create more blog posts for you :P
Are freezer meals worth it?
Are freezer meals worth the effort? I mean, making a bunch of freezer meals obviously doesn’t take 10 minutes. It takes time and dedication and a little bit of planning. Is it worth all that? I guess it depends.
If you don’t care about money, no. If you don’t care about nutrition, no. Maybe you prefer to spend double the time during the week cooking, then again no. If you DO care about money, time and nutrition it’s totally worth it!
I always try to meal plan. Because I always fall in the same pitfall when I don’t. “Ahhh, I won’t meal plan this week, I’ll just wing it and cook quick and easy dinners”. And 5 out of 7 times I will probably stick to it but the remaining two times? “Ugh, it’s 7:30, kids need to be in bed in 30 minutes, fridge is empty because I didn’t have time to go last-minute grocery shopping. Let’s just have cashews and bananas for dinner, shall we?” (<- true story :S )
Having freezer meals in the freezer saves you on days like this!!! If you are someone to order in food, it even saves you a LOT OF MONEY!
Now let’s get cooking ;)
10 Healthy Freezer Meals with Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 3 lbs chickens
- 3 small onions
- 2 1/2 cups chopped celery
- 2 1/2 cups cubed rutabaga
- 2 1/2 cups cubed sweet potato
- 2 1/2 cups cubed potato
- high smoke point oil - (such as avocado oil, safflower oil, ghee, semirefined sunflower oil....)
- sea salt
- Pepper
- 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1 cup chopped carrot
- 1/2 cup frozen fresh peas
- 1 cup wild rice blend or brown rice
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 1 3/4 cups water
- sea salt
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 cup sliced leek - just the white part! Discard dry green leaves.
- 1 cup black or white quinoa
- sea salt
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 2 Tbsp creme fraiche
- 3 cups baby spinach
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F (230C).
- In the meantime peel and slice onions, wash and chop celery, peel and cube sweet potato, rutabaga, and potatoes. Add veggies to a large roasting pan with rack. Add a splash of oil, sea salt and pepper and mix well with your hands.
- Add rack to roasting pan and place two chickens on top. Oil, salt and pepper generously.
- Place in preheated oven but IMMEDIATELY REDUCE HEAT TO 400F (200C)! (<- IMPORTANT!!!). Roast for 20 minutes plus 20 minutes per pound of ONE chicken. Don't add up the total amount of pounds of the 2 chickens for this math. Do the math with your bigger chicken. If it's a 3 lbs chicken it's 20 minutes + 3x20 minutes = 80 minutes (1:20 hours). 2 chickens take as long as 1 single chicken in the oven when placed one next to the other as shown in the video.
- While chicken is roasting prepare rice and quinoa.
- Wash and chop bell pepper and peel and chop carrots.Wash and shake dry cilantro and add to a blender. Add a bit of sea salt and 1 3/4 cups water and blend until no more cilantro bits are left and you have "cilantro water"
- Add rice to a small pot, add cilantro water, chopped bell pepper and carrots and peas. Cover, bring to a boil and once boiling immediately reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 30-45 minutes or as instructed on package of rice of your choice.
- Wash and slice leek.
- Heat a small pot over medium heat and once hot add butter and sliced leek. Stir until brown and caramelized (about 10-15 minutes). Add quinoa, sea salt and 1 1/4 cups water to pot. Cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for approximately 15 minutes or as instructed on packaging of quinoa of your choice.
- Once quinoa is cooked, turn off the heat, add crème fraîche and give it a quick stir. Then add baby spinach and mix well. Place lid on pot and let spinach wilt with the remaining heat.
- Once chicken and root veggies are cooked through (use a meat thermometer to make sure internal temperature reached 165F (74C)) remove from oven and let cool down for about 30 minutes.
- Cut off 4 chicken breasts, store in freezer safe containers and divide roasted root veggies in 4 to add to chicken breasts.
- Shred the meat of the rest of the chicken. I got a total of 6 cups shredded chicken meat out of my 2x3lbs chickens.
- Add 1 cup of shredded chicken per container and divide rice and quinoa between your containers.
- Freeze :)
- To defrost, either move from freezer to fridge 12 hours before consumption and reheat when about to eat or put frozen food into a sauce pan and defrost/reheat at the same time.
Easy Lemon Garlic Chicken
Grandma’s German Potato Salad
Chicken Fajitas Meal Prep Bowls
Alice Shrader says
I have bought all the ingredients and read and reread the post. My question is this: once I follow all the ingredients and bag each of these, how do I heat/cook and serve? I’m leaving for the beach and making these for us to eat off of at the beach. Can you tell me how to determine what is a ‘meal’? There are just two of us.
Thanks!
Lorena Grater says
These are meant to go in the freezer and to defrost you put them in the fridge 12-24 hours prior to reheating. You can reheat on a plate in the microwave or what I prefer to do is reheat in a frying pan on the stove. You can also eat them cold if you prefer, my husband always eats them fridge cold. 1 “meal” is a balanced plate including protein, carbs, healthy fats, and vegetables. So you’ll get 10 meals or servings out of this recipe. 10 lunches or 10 dinners. They are full meals that are meant to keep you full for at least 5-6 hours. You can also make them a rather small meal because at the beach one tends to want to eat less I feel. You could share one meal with your partner and that should keep you full for 2-3 hours
Alice Shrader says
Perfect! Thank you so much. Can’t wait!!
Alice Shrader says
Last question-what are the onions for? I chopped them and never used them
Lorena Grater says
Step 2 explains it. You peel and cut the veggies (including the onions, 3 small or one large) and put them in the roasting pan at the bottom, then place the rack on top and the chickens on the rack. You can see what I mean in the video.
Lisa says
Hi Lorena, that means each freezer meal is one portion? Do you prepare 3 or 4 for your family? Thanks for the great recipes. Best_____ Lisa
Lorena Grater says
Yes, each freezer meal is one portion. I like making this to have in the freezer for busy evenings. Usually, it gives me two dinners for the whole family (we are 4) and 1 dinner for half the family (just us adults).
Linda Welham says
I have boneless skinless chicken thighs. How can I cook them , to include them in this recipie?
Lorena Grater says
Cook them on a separate baking sheet seasoning to your liking (sea salt and pepper can be enough, too) 25 minutes at 400F. When you put the veggies in the oven take advantage of heat and add the second baking sheet with all the thighs in the oven for the last 25 minutes. Without two chickens on top, the veggies should cook faster. About 45-50 minutes should do the trick.
Manal says
Thank you so much .. English is not my first language but it was very easy for me to read and understand everything you wrote.. I enjoyed reading it and it was so informative. Regards❤️
Lorena says
Your English is great! English isn’t my first language either :)
Robyn says
Hi—I was wondering how the posted calorie count was broken down? Is the 593 inclusive of all the ingredients listed? Thank you!!
Lorena says
Hi Robyn, the nutritional info for this is a bit weird. I included ALL ingredients and then divided per serving. Of course depending on which of the meals you choose there will be a difference but if you eat all 10 meals yourself you’ll have on average the calories per meal as shown in the nutritional info.
Mary says
Not only do I search your recipes but also enjoy your reading your blog.
Lorena says
You cannot imagine how happy this makes me Mary!! Thank you for your lovely comment!!!
Laura says
Hello! I am looking forward to trying these recipes!!
So, I just started getting meat in bulk as well, fresh, then I separate it out into bags and freeze it all in my big freezer. The boxes of chicken I get are 40 lbs (not sure if you have heard of Zaycon, but that´s who I buy from)! Is that, being raw and just bagged and frozen (I try to squeeze all the air out), only good 2-3 months too, or is it just once you cook it or add other things to it for cooking later? I can´t imagine us eating up all this chicken in 3 months… Just wondering what success you´ve had with that.
Lorena says
Hi Laura, raw chicken can last quite long in the freezer 9-12 months. It’s the cooked version that only lasts 2-3 months.
Leisa Rundle says
Hi Lorena,
I saw your 10 healthy meals that Gina from Skinnytaste shared on FB. I am interested in making these, and following your blog. Two questions. Do you not find that too much fat from the chickens drips down into the vegetables?
Also, can you microwave the dinner? Not in the plastic bag of course. Thanks!
Lorena says
Hi Leisa, both the juices and the fat drip into the vegetables but I like that. I’m not concerned with fat consumption. I’m more of a sugar avoider and have been doing really well with that. If you can’t stomach the fat you can definitely roast the vegetables separately on a baking sheet next to the roasting pan with the chicken and then discard the juices and fat. Whichever way you do it, I recommend to NOT remove the skin to avoid fat from dropping. It’ll terribly dry out the chicken breast. You need the skin as protection of the meat to keep it moist. You don’t have to eat it, you can discard but AFTER roasting, not before. And yes, you can microwave it later. To defrost I recommend putting in the fridge 12 hours prior and then you can put it in a plate and microwave :)
Jan says
Thanks for posting )
I’m gonna try this today. But did you say set the oven to roast and not bake? I have used roast setting for later stages of cooking but should I set it to roast from the get-go?
Thanks again,
Jan.
Lorena says
Hi Jan, um, my oven just has temperatures, I don’t have “bake settings” or “roast settings”. I’m sorry I can’t be of help here. I simply preheat the oven to 450F and then reduce to 400F when I put in the chicken. Then I “roast” at 400F. I call it roast because that’s what one calls “cooking a chicken in the oven” one “bakes” pies and muffins and cookies but one “roasts” meat and vegetables even though you’re essentially doing the same thin “cooking in the oven”. For whatever reason. At least that’s what I learned in terms of cooking jargon.
Trish F. says
I stumbled over this post on Facebook and I would really like to give it a try. I have a couple questions though. Is there a substitute for creme fraiche? I don’t want to buy a whole container for 2 Tbs. Also, I don’t have a roasting pan with a rack for the chickens. Can I place the chickens directly on top of the veggies or should I just pile them around the bird? Thanks!
Lorena says
Hi Trish, I’m so happy you like the freezer meals. Ok, so ups, here in Montreal I can buy little 1/2 cup glass containers of creme fraiche but if you can’t find those where you live, sour cream works fine or simply leave out completely. It’s just a flavor booster but not necessary for consistency or anything other crucial. You don’t need a roasting pan. You can simply put the chicken on top of the veggies. The skin on the back of the birds won’t be crispy because it’ll sit in the chicken’s juiced but simply remove the skin and you’re good :)
Sheila says
On potato soup can i frozen it , i cooked potato and the potato where mushy
Lorena says
Hi Sheila I’m not sure I understood your question. You want to freeze potato soup?
Consuelo Chanaganaquí says
Ya lo hice dos veces. Es bastante trabajito pero vale mucho la pena y es riquísimo. Tal vez podrías, para los que no quieran hacerlo todo, poner la receta de la quinoa como acompañaminto de comidas sola porque realmente es extraordinaria. Orgullosísima de ti mi Reina.
Lorena says
Que bueno saber que te gustó Ma!! Y que bueno saber que la receta de quinoa se merece un post aparte. Lo pondré en mi lista. 😘
Lori Carter says
Love your post!! Question, how many people does each meal feed?
Lorena says
Hi Lori, thank you :) Each ziploc is supposed to be ONE meal for ONE person. By making the recipe as instructed you end up with 10 servings in total.