I know that picture has nothing to do with meat or cooking, but it does show what freezing looks like 🙂  That was our Mickey head antenna topper last year during the ice storm.

The forecast is for snow here.  I’m writing this post a few days early, so by the time you read this we could have several inches of snow.  My kids have their fingers crossed!

Now, onto cooking.  One of the questions I get asked often is how I cook meat for freezing.  I use a lot of chicken and I like to cook it up and keep it in the freezer for casseroles and soups.  It really speeds things up when I pull fully cooked chicken from the freezer.

Here’s how I do mine.  I usually cook boneless chicken breasts that come frozen in large bags.  I’m in the habit of buying those, so that’s what I use.  I put the chicken, still frozen in a casserole dish, cover it tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 – 2 hours.  Sometimes I put a little water on the chicken before covering it with foil.

I do the same thing with chicken that has bones.  Usually, I buy that fresh and cook it right away instead of freezing it first.  You can use a whole chicken or just chicken pieces.

Once it’s cooked, pull it apart with a fork.  Cool it a bit and freeze it in ziplock bags in 2-3 cup quantities.

For ground meat, like hamburger or sausage, I brown it on the stove top.  Rinse it under very hot water to remove the grease.  Freeze in ziplock bags.  Sometimes I brown diced onion with it.

Here are a few great tutorials from around the blogosphere:

Tami’s Tips and Tricks – Cooking a lot of ground beef at once for the freezer

The Happy Housewife – Cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot

This is Reverb – Bacon – cooking, storing, eating and a fantastic salad recipe