Every few months or so you can find a great deal on boneless, skinless chicken breasts if you buy them by the case.
At least two stores in my area are running this deal now. $1.39 a pound is a screaming HOT deal for me. So I like to grab at least one case when the opportunity rolls around.
But how to handle all that chicken?!?!?
Here’s what I do.
The whole breasts come out of the box like this:
I trim them up nicely, reserving the scraps as I go along.
Lay the trimmed breasts out in a single layer on a waxed paper lined tray. Having them individually frozen allows me the greatest flexibility for meal planning.
At this point I put them in the freezer for several hours. When they’re almost completely frozen, I put the breasts in ziploc freezer bags and return them to the freezer to use as needed over the next few months.
I got about 33 pounds of trimmed and ready to use chicken breasts out of that 40 pound box.
But what about all those scraps I trimmed off? I ended up with a 6 lb bag of scraps. Waste?
No way!! I threw them in a big stock pot with a couple gallons of water, a carrot, some celery stalks, onion, garlic, peppercorns, salt and bay leaves.
Let it simmer for several hours and I ended up with 19 cups of chicken broth which also go in the freezer in usable portion sizes.
I paid $8.34 for the scraps and made the equivalent of about 11 cans of broth. That’s about 75 cents per "can" of homemade chicken broth.
A really good deal all the way to the very last scrap. At it only took about an hour of hands-on work.
If freezer space is an issue for you and you own a pressure canner, you could bottle the chicken. I’ve done that before too. It’s a great thing to have on hand for casseroles, salads, soups, etc. And it’s great for emergency preparedness because it isn’t reliant on having electricity.
Go buy some chicken!
Anonymous
where did you buy yours so I can go look!
Ginny
Where in the Savannah, GA area would I find a 40 box of chicken? Sam’s is the only place I could think of….
Couponperson
Kicking myself for 2 reasons:
1. I paid $1.50/lb last week for the same case.
2. I threw out all the scraps!
Anonymous
What stores have the case of chicken for $1.39?
Anonymous
Which stores can I find this deal at? This sounds great!!
kristin
What stores have that right now?
Thanks
Anonymous
Where did you find this deal on the chicken?
Emily
This is how I always freeze my chicken. I have never made home-made chicken broth though. THANK YOU! What a fabulous idea! I am going to do this tonight!
DId you just throw the onion, celery and carrots in the pot whole?
Cheryl
Where did you get that deal on chicken? I would love to stock up on some.
Anonymous
Hi,
I am just wondering what store are having the chicken sale? Are they fresh and not frozen? What the size of boxes that you can get?
Thanks
Jill