4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer…Day 12 Herb and Spice Rubbed Chicken
I really dislike dealing with raw meat. So when I prepare meat, I like to have the meat pan ready or crock pot ready right out of the freezer. So I thought I would share my recipe for Herb and Spice Rubbed Chicken. Crystal at Money Saving Mom will be making Lasagna Casserole. I don’t have a good dairy free substitute for cottage cheese or ricotta cheese so the lasagna casserole recipe just won’t work for us.
Herb and Spice Rubbed Chicken
Ingredients
The ingredients are the same as my steak rub except I use thyme in the chicken rub too. Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Make sure to break up any hard pieces of spice or sugar. This amount of rub will season 3 whole chickens or about 12 chicken breasts or pieces.
I take the neck and organs out of the inside of the chicken and rinse the chicken. I loosened up the skin on the breasts, thighs and leg. Try to do this carefully to avoid tearing the skin. If this is just too gross for you just put the seasoning on the outside of the chicken. Loosening up the skin does gross me out a bit but by having the seasoning under the skin the flavor is so much better and worth it to me.
I then sprinkled some of the seasoning into the cavity of the bird. Then I take some of the seasoning and rub it under the skin of the breasts, thighs and legs. It is a little hard to get the seasoning distributed but just do the best you can.
After you get some seasoning under the skin take some more seasoning and rub on the outside of the bird. This does get a little messy as you can see.
I put the whole seasoned chicken into a zipper gallon freezer bag. I usually try to buy about 4 pound chickens and they fit well into a gallon bags. Then I press as much air out as I can and seal it up. I label the package and place in the freezer.
To Prepare
Thaw the chicken in the refrigerator for about 8-12 hours until thawed. My refrigerator takes more like 24 hours to thaw a chicken.
For Oven Cooking
Place chicken in a roasting pan and bake at 375 degrees for 1.5 to 2 hours or until juices run clear.
For Crock Pot Cooking
Place chicken in crock pot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours until done.
I hope you let me know how you like this recipe if you prepare it. We really like chicken prepared this way. One chicken will give us at least two dinners. The first night I prepare it with mashed potatoes and salad or vegetable side dish. The second night I might use the left over chicken in tortillas for an easy chicken taco dinner or use the chicken in a cream of mushroom soup over noodles or leftover mashed potatoes.
Tomorrow’s freezer cooking will be Pizza Dough. Â You can see the recipe here if you want to join in.
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I love the idea of this Shell! It would be great to have a chicken all seasoned and ready to go into the crockpot on a busy day. And I bet the leftovers would be great in tacos! I will give this a try soon and let you know how it turns out for me 🙂
That is what I do with the chicken thaw and cook in the crockpot. I hope you like it.
I am totally doing this. Thanks for sharing the steps.
Chrissy, I hope you and your family like this recipe.
Love this idea! I have been visiting your blog a lot these past weeks bc you are linking up w/ MSM! Good job w/ all your freezer cooking!
Thanks so much for visiting. I am glad you like the chicken rub idea. I have been making it for a while and it is our family favorite way to eat chicken.
The plastic bag idea is great!
Thanks Lydia.
I have a different rub recipe that I use for this. You can get the one I use by googling “sticky chicken”. I am going to try your rub and see what my family thinks. After we eat a meal from the chicken I pick off the remaining meat and then put the carcass in the crockpot along with the skin and simmer it all day. I strain out the bones and skin and use the broth for tortilla soup. The recipe I use for the soup is the one appearing on the Rosarita refried beans can and the soup freezes well too.
I made up this rub recipe by modifying a few different recipes to make this combination we like. I also like to make broth from the chicken carcass. I freeze it for use later in soup too.