Cold Cooked Chicken Help

NeverWaining

Hi guys, hope you can help me out.

Like most I try to eat healthier when I can. For snacking I often buy cold cooked chicken from various supermarkets. It comes in a 150g/200g pack and comes either flavoured or plain. Lidl and Aldi do a plain and a tikka flavour. Supervalu do a very, very tasty Sweet Chili & Lime flavour (and others). I love the stuff but it can work out expensive.

I recently noticed cheapish frozen chicken raw breasts in Aldi and it got me thinking - surely I could cook my cold chicken snack pieces myself and save a few quid. So a few questions (I'm no great cook!):

1. How exactly would I go about cooking the chicken for best cold storage results?

2. Any recipes? If anyone could guide me towards something similar to the Supervalu Sweet Chili & Lime I'd be forever grateful! But the Tikka flavour also. I like to change things around.

3. How best to store cooked chicken and how long would it last? I'd like to store it in portion sizes rather than in one batch. Ziploc bags maybe?


Ideally I suppose I'd like to cook a big batch (different flavours) once a week and store it in the fridge for snacking on.

Any help, advice or thoughts greatly appreciated.

Mellor

Why don't you just buy fresh chicken breast if the goal is better quality food.

1. You could roast them, would be very straight forward either plain or flavoured.
2. The ingredients should give you an idea of the spices and flavourings used
3. It depends. There are a lot of variables involved. But fresh cooked chicken will keep a few days in the fridge. I can't be more specific than that as then thats straying into food safety advice tbh.

dee_mc

Try looking up marinade recipes, for example when you google 'chilli lime chicken marinade' you get this http://www.food.com/recipe/grilled-chili-lime-chicken-297408 (very American but you get the picture) and thousands of others... marinade for at least a couple of hours to achieve a good flavour.
Most recipes will be suitable for freezing.

Diamond Doll

How do you usually cook your dinner in the evenings?

If you fry up a bit of meat, it's not hard to throw a diced chicken fillet into the same pan afterwards with whatever spices you want (or the ones you've already just used), let it cool, then put it into the fridge for the next day.

If you usually use the oven, then do the same thing - while you're cooking your dinner, bang in a chicken fillet wrapped in tinfoil with some chili and lime or whatever you fancy.

So basically cook the following day's lunch meat along with your dinner each day. It works well for me, you just need to get yourself into the routine of thinking ahead each day.

(As far as I know, cold cooked chicken will keep for a couple of days in the fridge, however as I'm cooking each evening anyways it's just as easy to cook my lunch meat too and keep it fresh each day!)

phormium

Poach them, you will get juicier chicken especially if you want to eat cold, roasted can be dry especially for small cuts.

I poach a whole chicken every week and then take meat off bone when warm, messy job but lots of tasty moist chicken then for sandwiches, salads, curries or whatever. I would not keep it for longer than a few days in the fridge, a week might be pushing it.

To poach just put in cold water, add a few bits of veg if you have it, bit of onion/celery/carrot if you have it, not essential. Just bring up to simmer and turn down so bubbling gently only, fillets won't take long 15/20 mins max, time them the first time and then you'll know for future. A whole small chicken doesn't even take that long, I don't time them, when you can twist the leg bone around easily they are done. Leave in the water for a little while before taking out to cool, remove flesh once cool enough to handle otherwise it's much harder to get off the bone.

You can then use the stock as well, put in fridge overnight then skim off fat and use stock for soup/stews/gravies or freeze it for future use.

NeverWaining

Thanks all. Some good info to work with there.

Dial Hard

phormium wrote: »

Poach them, you will get juicier chicken especially if you want to eat cold, roasted can be dry especially for small cuts..

I was just coming on to recommend poaching if the OP is using fillets. I use a mix of stock and white wine for my poaching liquid, with a couple of halved garlic cloves and crushed peppercorns. Also celery if I have it, or an onion top if I've been chopping them for something else.

Rather than trying to keep a large amount edible for the entire week, OP, I'd poach a couple of pieces every two or three days. They'll be fresher and tastier.

For roasting, I'd use a meat on the bone. Aldi and Lidl both do trays of thighs (by far my favourite piece of the chicken) for buttons - about €3. Marinate these in a sweet chilli or tikka mix and they'll be gorgeous.

katydid

NeverWaining wrote: »

Hi guys, hope you can help me out.

Like most I try to eat healthier when I can. For snacking I often buy cold cooked chicken from various supermarkets. It comes in a 150g/200g pack and comes either flavoured or plain. Lidl and Aldi do a plain and a tikka flavour. Supervalu do a very, very tasty Sweet Chili & Lime flavour (and others). I love the stuff but it can work out expensive.

I recently noticed cheapish frozen chicken raw breasts in Aldi and it got me thinking - surely I could cook my cold chicken snack pieces myself and save a few quid. So a few questions (I'm no great cook!):

1. How exactly would I go about cooking the chicken for best cold storage results?

2. Any recipes? If anyone could guide me towards something similar to the Supervalu Sweet Chili & Lime I'd be forever grateful! But the Tikka flavour also. I like to change things around.

3. How best to store cooked chicken and how long would it last? I'd like to store it in portion sizes rather than in one batch. Ziploc bags maybe?


Ideally I suppose I'd like to cook a big batch (different flavours) once a week and store it in the fridge for snacking on.

Any help, advice or thoughts greatly appreciated.

You could buy a whole chicken and roast it, then pick every bit of meat from it. (and make stock with the bones, for soup). They've been selling cheap chickens in the supermarkets recently - I picked one up for €3 in Aldi recently, and got loads of meat from it. I had chicken pasta salad, chicken sandwiches, tom yum soup, as well as a couple of hot dinners from it.

I reckon it would definitely keep in the fridge in a covered container for five or six days

2xj3hplqgsbkym

Op, you sound like a very inexperienced cook, so maybe try this simple way first.
Buy fresh chicken breasts.
Sprinkle with tika masala powder ( buy ready made like curry powder) .
Fry breasts on both sides.
Cool.
Slice.
Put in sandwich bags.
Freeze some if the bags, take out night before .

Ryan Mac Sweeney

Hi there
I have a fantastic recipe for you here. Buy some chicken breasts in your local supermarket also pick up a bottle of thai sweet chilli sauce a lime and some soy sauce and a clove if garlic. For the marainade mix together two-three tablespoons of the thai sweet chilli sauce then add in the grated zest and juice if 1 lime crush two cloves of garlic and add in 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Mix everything together in a mixing bowl until everything is combined. Cut up the chicken breasts and place them in the bowl and coat them thoroughly in the marinade. Then cover with clingfilm and place it in the fridge for at least 12 hours or overnight. Then when ready to cook preheat the oven to 150degress gas mark 4. Remove the chicken from the marinade and place it on a baking tray. Place it in the oven and cook for about 20-30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. You can check to see if its done by placing a knife in the middle and if the juices run clear its ready. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. When completely cooledcut the chicken into bite sized pieces and there you have it.