How to Make Chicken Broth and Have Cooked Chicken for the Freezer; A kitchen hack to be prepared; cooked chicken in the freezer ready for a quick meal and homemade healthy broth in the freezer or canned.
I love to make chicken broth and have cooked chicken in my freezer! Sometimes I freeze the broth and sometimes I can it but either way, it is a great feeling to know it is all prepared and ready to grab when I need it. It makes preparing dinner so much easier and quicker. Even if it is frozen solid when I think of it or run in the door, a few minutes in the microwave quickly makes it usable.
This is something you can do in an evening, on a Sunday afternoon, or any time to have home cooked chicken in menu sized portions waiting in your freezer and healthy, homemade chicken broth in the freezer or canned and in the pantry.
Here are some great recipes that this chicken will be ready for!
Low Carb Chicken Broccoli Alfredo Casserole
Spinach Artichoke Chicken Casserole
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What you need:
About 6 pounds of split chicken breasts–you want especially the bones but the skin is good too
8 quarts of filtered water
1/4 cup dried minced parsley
1/8 cup Adobo or your choice of seasoning
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar to bring out the good stuff in the bones
Add all of this to a large stock pot
Bring it to a boil and then turn down the heat, cover loosely and let it simmer for 2 1/2 hours or more.
Use a slotted spoon and scoop out the chicken pieces so they can cool.
When it is cool enough to handle, remove the chicken from the skin and bones. It easily shreds with your fingers as you do this. You could also cube it with a knife and cutting board if that is how you would like it to be ready for your recipes.
Turn off the burner and let the broth cool too.
To freeze:
Allow to cool completely and then put into containers in the portions you will use. I strain mine by pouring it through a strainer as I package it. That makes sure I didn’t miss any small bone and makes it nice and smooth with no chunks. That is totally optional.
If you are going to can it, put it in the refrigerator overnight or until the fat has firmed up on the top. It can then be scooped off the top. This needs to be done for canning, as the fat could keep it from sealing correctly. To learn how to can your broth, look here. (Coming soon!)
In 3 hours, while doing many other things between, I had 3 containers, 1 pound each, of shredded, cooked chicken.
And after canning the next day, I had 7 quarts of canned broth and 1 quart for the freezer (because my canner holds 7 quarts). See here for instructions on how to can your broth.
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If you want nutritional information for a recipe, I suggest entering the recipe into my fitness pal or your favorite calorie counter page and that will calculate it for you. You can put in exactly what you used so it is the most accurate.