I like to categorize my recipes just like I have done with all of my mega-cooking/freezer cooking recipes for the past twenty-five years…according to type of meat/main ingredients. For freezer cooking, this is ideal because I can cook up twenty, thirty, or forty pounds of that type of meat and put a lot of entrees together quickly.
So….I thought I would share on the blog some ideas and recipes that I have put together in the past. So….here is the general information for Shredded Chicken. Watch for recipes soon!
(1) You can cook boneless, skinless chicken thighs and/or breasts in a variety of ways. My personal favorite is putting breasts and thighs in the crock pot overnight (an hour on high then the rest of the night on low) then when I get up in the morning, I take two forks and stir/shred all the chicken. I often put some of the chicken back in the crock pot and make one of the entrees below. (You can also put the chicken in before work/school then do the shredding and use part of the chicken that evening.) The rest of the chicken I put in zip lock quart bags and label. I like to put a half a cup to one cup of broth in the zip-lock bags to keep the chicken moist. (If you don’t need the broth when you make your meal with the meat later, you can drain it and pitch it.) Oh, I put a half a cup to one cup of broth in with the raw chicken when I cook it in the crock pot.
Use shredded chicken for chicken noodle soup!
(2) You can boil your chicken to use in shredded recipes, but I never do this as I’m always afraid it will boil the taste out of them. Others do though. You can also prepare your chicken three other ways: “poach” it in the oven with lots of broth covering it–be sure you check it with a meat thermometer if you do this as you don’t want to overcook it; microwave it–kind of poaching it like in the oven–again, don’t overcook and in this case, be sure the chicken is completely covered with broth and plastic wrap so it doesn’t have tough edges.
Important Note: If you do not shred your chicken while it is warm (after it gets cold or after it is refrigerated), it is ten or twenty times or harder to shred– and will take a lot longer (and will probably need cubed, not shredded). It is a five min job if you do it while chicken is warm.
(3) Shredded chicken is good in tons of ways–I will list some below. It used to be a staple for me when the olders were little–in chicken tetrazzini, chicken lasagna, hot chicken sandwiches, chicken rice casserole, soups, etc. It is an inexpensive way to make a meal because it is not very expensive to start with AND it is often used as part of a dish rather than the main entrée.
(4) A lot of recipes call for chicken or mushroom soup–it is better if you can make your own, but I would start out just buying it and using it as is. It helps make a lot of meals really fast. A lot also call for chicken broth. I use chicken base to make my broth, but you can buy cans of broth and then make it richer by adding some chicken base or granulated chicken bouillon.
Watch the blog for upcoming shredded chicken recipes, including chicken noodle soup, chicken strata, arroz con pollo, hot chicken sandwich filling, BBQ shredded chicken, chicken tacos, and more!
Recipes:
Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sauce [Sugar-Free]
