How to Fit 20 Pounds of Chicken Into a Small Freezer

This is mostly information for newbies to cheap cooking, not us old-timers who already know this. It takes some time, but it's worth it, and can be done on a weekend day once a month or so, to have enough chicken and broth to last awhile.

I buy chicken in 10 lb. bags of leg quarters when they are on sale, so I like to buy at least two. Unfortunately, two bags that large will not fit into my freezer. I leave them in the refrigerator to defrost overnight, then I prepare them.

I like to fry chicken legs, so I cut the legs off and freeze them separately. 4 legs will usually fit into a 1-qt. freezer bag, and there are 7-8 legs in the 10-lb bag, depending on the size of the pieces. I put those in the freezer, stacked, which takes up very little room.

Since I only use the thighs for soups and stews, I put those into a large soup pot (You can do this in any size pot, really, just a few at a time) and boil them just until they are done enough to pull the meat off the bones. You can also just cut the meat off the bones, but the leg quarters usually have parts of the back on them that make really good broth, so it's best to boil them.

Once they are done enough, cool them and pick all the meat off and put it into 1-qt freezer bags. One bag is enough for a dutch oven full of soup or stew.

I then break the bones and put them back into the broth, and cook it down to 1/4 its original volume, so when I get ready to use it, I know to add about 3x the volume of water. I then put that into the fridge overnight, skim the fat off in the morning, then pour (or ladle, as it will usually turn into a gel) 1/2 qt each into freezer containers and stack those in the freezer. You can also put it into ice cube trays and freeze it that way, but be sure to measure out how much you want and not how many ice cubes it makes, so you will know how to dilute it.

20 lbs of chicken leg quarters prepared this way gives me enough meat and broth for a whole month. Normally, the 10-lb bags of frozen quarters are about $10 each. I buy mine at Save-a-lot. I don't think Aldi has them, but they do have frozen chicken breasts cheap that you can do the same with.

You can also do this with pork or beef roasts you find on sale. I like to make pulled pork and freeze bags for sandwiches. I'll post a recipe for that soon.

Enjoy!