Sizzle your way to fantastic summer meal plans by firing up the grill and letting it do the work for you.
Typically, we all love summer grilling because it keeps the heat out of the kitchen and allows us to enjoy freshly grilled meat, fish and veggies to our hearts content. But why not take it one step further and enjoy the ultimate benefit of C.O.S.T. cooking (Cook Once, Serve Twice…or in my case, three times). An earlier post, with a detailed video, showed you how to save your meal time madness by preparing ahead “4 meals in 4 minutes.”
Now, this next simple step of planning ahead by grilling in bulk can save you additional hours of prep time in the kitchen. Wouldn’t you rather spend that time enjoying it with family and friends?
If you ever observe our grill, you’ll often find a variety of meat grilling. We are known to have chicken breasts, steak, burgers and pork all sizzling away at the same time. Do we eat it all at one sitting? As much as my teen boys attempt to do just that, I ration it because they know that meat will show up in a variety of recipes later in the month.
Let’s look at some specific examples.
Cooking fifteen chicken breasts at one time takes approximately the same time as cooking five. For variety, I season or marinade them with a variety of spices and flavors based on the recipe I plan to use later.
I will chop, shred and dice the chicken and then put them in Ziplock bags. Some of the baggies go in the fridge for a meal I’m making with in a day or two, while the other bags are frozen for a later time.
Meal One Possibility: Grilled Chicken breasts, steamed broccoli with cheese, and fresh dill bread. (This would be the day I did the grilling.)
Meal Two possibility: Best Ever Asian Citrus Salad and my Quick Homemade French Bread ( I would use the sliced chicken breast from the fridge.)
Meal Three possibility: Stir Fry with the freezer bagged chicken, Quesadillas, or my Five minute Chicken Pot Pie
I could go on and on with the endless ideas that can come from grilling in bulk and then freezing the meat. How many of us buy the prepared sliced chicken?
Why do we do that? It’s SO convenient, but convenience comes at a cost of approximately $6.99 – 8.99 per pound. If you stock up on chicken when it’s on sale or marked down, you can make your own convenience food for a fraction of the cost, while ensuring it’s not filled with tons of preservatives.
The next time you fire up that grill, remember to let it work for you and accomplish next week’s meals at the same time.
So what about you, do you grill in bulk and have tips to share?
(See what else I accomplished during my one hour kitchen experiment.)
I have never thought to grill in bulk – I love this idea! Thanks.
Thanks for the reminder. I WILL be doing that this weeknd
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We have been grilling in bulk — ever since the time when *I* didn’t shut the freezer door all the way one night. I think DH grilled 38 sausages that weekend….
I grill in bulk a lot of the time. I love having the meat already cooked to use in other meals. I actually did buy the precooked chicken the other day because I wanted to make chicken quesadillas quickly that very night. I cringed when I put it my cart. haha I made a mental note to myself to precook some chicken so I’d have it next time we wanted quick quesadillas. 🙂
I need (want) a grill – and am waiting to find one at the right price! I actually saw a single guy neighbor of mine do this with his grill so he only had to cook once a week! But I LOVE making extra meat for later meals – my hubby even bought 20 pounds of ground beef on sale and browned it all with several seasoning variations b/c he knows how much I like to have it ready to use – tacos, lasagna, mexican lasagna, chili, beef stew, cheeseburger pie, spaghetti, spaghetti pie, taco salad, more?
I love filling the grill. I hate seeing all the good charcoal smoke going to waste. We only have a small grill so my plan is generally to cook the quick-quicking sausages or burgers first, filling the grill and have that as my meal for the night. While we eat, longer cooking food like chicken leg quarters, legs or thighs are on the coals. This sort of cooking cuts down on marshmallow roasting, but it’s better for us in the long run. COST is great on the grill with roasts like pork shoulder and london broil cuts of beef.
I know this post is old, so I’m not sure I’ll even get a response! I’m challenged by your Power Cooking Hour, and want to take it on–I think I’ll add bulk grilling as part of it. BUT I have the worst time defrosting/reheating chicken. It always seems to taste…hmmm…weird. Any ideas?