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10 Healthy Freezer Meals with Chicken

Easy Healthy Freezer Meals with Chicken to prepare ahead and reduce stress throughout the week. Use two whole chickens to reduce cost by more than 50% for your meat.
Course Main Course, Side
Cuisine American, International, Peruvian
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings 10 meals
Calories 593kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 3 lbs chickens
  • 3 small onions
  • 2 1/2 cups chopped celery
  • 2 1/2 cups cubed rutabaga
  • 2 1/2 cups cubed sweet potato
  • 2 1/2 cups cubed potato
  • high smoke point oil (such as avocado oil, safflower oil, ghee, semirefined sunflower oil....)
  • sea salt
  • Pepper
  • 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
  • 1 cup chopped carrot
  • 1/2 cup frozen fresh peas
  • 1 cup wild rice blend or brown rice
  • 1/2 bunch cilantro
  • 1 3/4 cups water
  • sea salt
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 cup sliced leek just the white part! Discard dry green leaves.
  • 1 cup black or white quinoa
  • sea salt
  • 1 1/4 cups water
  • 2 Tbsp creme fraiche
  • 3 cups baby spinach

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 450F (230C).
  • In the meantime peel and slice onions, wash and chop celery, peel and cube sweet potato, rutabaga, and potatoes. Add veggies to a large roasting pan with rack. Add a splash of oil, sea salt and pepper and mix well with your hands.
  • Add rack to roasting pan and place two chickens on top. Oil, salt and pepper generously.
  • Place in preheated oven but IMMEDIATELY REDUCE HEAT TO 400F (200C)! (<- IMPORTANT!!!). Roast for 20 minutes plus 20 minutes per pound of ONE chicken. Don't add up the total amount of pounds of the 2 chickens for this math. Do the math with your bigger chicken. If it's a 3 lbs chicken it's 20 minutes + 3x20 minutes = 80 minutes (1:20 hours). 2 chickens take as long as 1 single chicken in the oven when placed one next to the other as shown in the video.
  • While chicken is roasting prepare rice and quinoa.
  • Wash and chop bell pepper and peel and chop carrots.Wash and shake dry cilantro and add to a blender. Add a bit of sea salt and 1 3/4 cups water and blend until no more cilantro bits are left and you have "cilantro water"
  • Add rice to a small pot, add cilantro water, chopped bell pepper and carrots and peas. Cover, bring to a boil and once boiling immediately reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 30-45 minutes or as instructed on package of rice of your choice.
  • Wash and slice leek.
  • Heat a small pot over medium heat and once hot add butter and sliced leek. Stir until brown and caramelized (about 10-15 minutes). Add quinoa, sea salt and 1 1/4 cups water to pot. Cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for approximately 15 minutes or as instructed on packaging of quinoa of your choice.
  • Once quinoa is cooked, turn off the heat, add crème fraîche and give it a quick stir. Then add baby spinach and mix well. Place lid on pot and let spinach wilt with the remaining heat.
  • Once chicken and root veggies are cooked through (use a meat thermometer to make sure internal temperature reached 165F (74C)) remove from oven and let cool down for about 30 minutes.
  • Cut off 4 chicken breasts, store in freezer safe containers and divide roasted root veggies in 4 to add to chicken breasts.
  • Shred the meat of the rest of the chicken. I got a total of 6 cups shredded chicken meat out of my 2x3lbs chickens.
  • Add 1 cup of shredded chicken per container and divide rice and quinoa between your containers.
  • Freeze :)
  • To defrost, either move from freezer to fridge 12 hours before consumption and reheat when about to eat or put frozen food into a sauce pan and defrost/reheat at the same time.

Video

Notes

[nutrition-label]

Nutrition

Calories: 593kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 69g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 175mg | Sodium: 1280mg | Potassium: 1001mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 5700IU | Vitamin C: 69.3mg | Calcium: 130mg | Iron: 5.6mg