Topic: Precooked Chicken: Freeze before or after cooking?

[joshallen2k]

Hi All,

I'm sure this question has come up in another thread before, but a quick survey of this category came up blank.

Up until now, I've always pre cooked my chicken for a few days/curries worth at a time. I've started buying chicken breast at Costco (bulk warehouse) as its about a quarter of the price of my local grocery. There is so much of it though, that I need to freeze it.

Would I be better off freezing the fresh breasts? or precooking the chicken in bengali spices etc and freezing then?

Just wondering what others have found...

Thanks!

-- Josh

[Stephen Lindsay]

Josh

Assuming you are buying chicken that is not frozen then I think either method would work well but for convenience I'd go for cutting to your usual size, pre-cooking then freezing as you have your portions ready to pop into a curry.

Steve

[Naga]

+1

[natterjak]

Hi Josh

Different approaches will suit different folks but my preferred method at present is to pre-cook a big batch of chicken (4kg using IFFU's method here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7611.0) then freeze into a big 2.6 litre lock n lock box. Here's the batch I cooked yesterday going into the freezer this morning:



(In fact that's about 3kg, I keep some in the fridge to use in the next week)

Of course it will stick together as it freezes but with the handle of a tablespoon wedged into the gaps and a swift twist I can dislodge as many chunks of frozen precooked chicken as I need at a time (usually about 160g per portion). Here's one I made earlier:



For me this is the most convenient and space efficient way to have a ready supply of pre cooked chicken in the freezer and 20 to 30 secs in the microwave helps take the frost off it, following which 7 or so minutes in boiling curry sauce seems to bring it up to temp nicely.

PS. This section of the forum is for posting recipes only. You should really have posted your question in one of the discussion sections such as here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?board=1.0

[Stephen Lindsay]

serious preparation Naga - very impressive!

[976bar]

Hi All,

I'm sure this question has come up in another thread before, but a quick survey of this category came up blank.

Up until now, I've always pre cooked my chicken for a few days/curries worth at a time. I've started buying chicken breast at Costco (bulk warehouse) as its about a quarter of the price of my local grocery. There is so much of it though, that I need to freeze it.

Would I be better off freezing the fresh breasts? or precooking the chicken in bengali spices etc and freezing then?

Just wondering what others have found...

Thanks!

-- Josh

Hi Josh, I do a mixture of the two as not all my chicken breast will end up in curries. I freeze two breasts at a time in one bag (i.e. 2 portions) I also chop chicken breast and either make chicken tikka or pre-cooked chicken, marinade it for whatever time you wish to marinade for, then cook it, let it cool, then I freeze individual portions (about 5-6 pieces) in separate freezer bags.

This makes it easy when you want to make a curry and don't have to try and separate from a large batch

[joshallen2k]

Thanks all for the input.

I suppose there isn't much of a taste difference, more a question of practicality.

I made a batch of pre cooked chicken yesterday and froze it in portion size freezer bags. I'll see if I can pick out any difference between frozen and fresh.

Thanks again,
Josh