Sweet Love and Ginger

Pre-made Breaded Chicken for the Freezer

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This is a simple and healthy recipe for breaded chicken as well as instructions on how to freezer and re heat it for last minute weekly meals.

Sometimes I just don’t have the time to cook a wholesome dinner from scratch. Other times I simply don’t have the energy, and while take out pizza is always a great alternative we are trying desperately here to save our pennies (for that house!), and get a little healthier (for that wedding!).

 Lately I have been making a lot of extras to freeze, so that I can prepare healthy home cooked dinners in a flash. Things like soup, meatballs, cooked chicken and blanched veggies are easy to defrost and heat up. Today I wanted to share with you a pretty basic recipe for what we call Freezer Chicken. It’s lightly breaded chicken that is baked and then frozen to be used as needed at a later date.
My basic breaded chicken recipe is below. However the key to making this idea of frozen breaded chicken work is first freezing it on a sheet tray without allowing any of the pieces to touch and then putting it in a reseal-able storage container. Freezing the chicken separately helps prevent them from sticking together in the bag. This way it’s easy to pull out just one piece of chicken and heat it up in the oven or microwave before serving.
Italian Style Breaded Freezer Chicken
Author: JC
Ingredients
  • 1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
  • 2 tbsp melted butter
  • 4 boneless skinless Chicken Breasts
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Combine bread crumbs and spices in a large shallow dish and set aside.
  3. On a cutting board place one hand on top of a single chicken breast. Carefully slice the meat horizontally midway up the chicken, cutting almost to the other side. Open it like a book and finish cutting it through. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the chicken and working from the center out begin to pound the chicken with the smooth side of a mallet until it is about ¼ inch thick. Repeat this process with the remaining chicken.
  4. Brush the chicken with butter and dredge in the bread crumbs until well coated.
  5. Place on a greased baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken and bake for another 10 minutes until cooked through.
  6. To Freeze: Remove from heat and let cool until room temperature. Freeze on a flat sheet tray without touching for about 30 minutes. Remove from tray and place into a large freezer bag and return to the freezer.
Now that you have freezer chicken readily available to you here are some of my favorite ways to use it:
  • Dip them in Honey Mustard, or another favorite dip
  • Chicken Parmesan
  • Chicken Salad 
  • Chicken alfredo
  • BBQ or Buffalo chicken sandwich or wrap
  • Bacon Ranch Sandwich
  • Chicken Caesar Salad
  • Pizza toppings
  • Quick Chicken & Waffles

Got another suggestion? Lets hear it in the comments! I’ve got a ton of these so I’d love to try something new with them.

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