Why I Cook Meat Straight from the Freezer (& why you should too)

one of the most annoying and frustrating problems as a home cook is looking into the fridge on a weeknight and realizing either a the protein you got earlier this week is past the freeze by date B you have no protein in the first place or C the pack of chicken you did throw into the freezer is hours away from being thawed [Music] so in today's video I'm going to show you three different methods and subsequent recipes for freezing proteins that can be taken straight from your freezer and onto the stove to create meals in 15 minutes or less there will be no more waiting for thine Meats when you are starving and instead you'll be able to calmly open your freezer and be greeted by an abundant variety of meal components that are pre-portioned for one to four people and each method allows you to customize the flavor profile to your liking for each I've broken down when to use this method the basic blueprint and a recipe I made using them before we break those down let me tell you the four core guidelines I use when it comes to freezing meat so you'll actually use them rather than having a stockpile of chicken breast from last year freezing food is a modern miracle that most of us don't take advantage of even though it's one of the most useful skills a busy home cook can learn and when it comes to freezing food efficiently there are countless ways that it can be done but in my opinion here are the four Concepts that you should know first make the protein as thin as possible second separate the proteins into portions third remove as much air as possible and fourth use it within two months so you may be wondering why are these four so important and also can't you keep meat for a lot longer in the freezer than just two months while it is true that meat kept below zero degrees Fahrenheit or negative 18 Celsius can be kept indefinitely as noted in on food and cooking the quality of the meat will degrade over time in the following ways first you have cell damage and fluid loss which can lead to tough and dry meat then you have fat oxidation and rancidity which can lead to off-putting taste especially with frozen fish and then lastly you have everyone's favorite freezer burn which is caused by the sublimation of ice crystals on the meat surface that gives it a discoloration and a freezer burnt taste now those won't be an issue at all if you follow guidelines three and four example vacuum sealing is the gold standard when it comes to freezing meat for a long time because it seals the protein in in a bag that is completely devoid of air and then if you use it within two months it almost assures that you'll have zero clue these proteins were frozen in the first place the first two guidelines are more optimized for lifestyle considerations making it as thin as possible will allow us to cook the meat straight from Frozen and by separating it into portions it becomes very user friendly if you are making dinner for just yourself you don't have to defrost an entire pack of chicken but if you are making dinner for the whole family you know one bag will give you four good sized portions and with that being said let's hop into method number one the next time you have a package of chicken ground beef or a steak that has hit the freeze by date and you aren't going to be able to use it instead of just tossing that thing into the freezer where it's going to be forgotten until next year if you take three minutes of prep now you'll save your future self from Plenty of frustration and have a frozen protein that can quickly be turned into a weekday Caesar salad so here's the basic process using some chicken first separate it from the original packaging and now you have two options you can either thin out the breast or thigh flat or secondly you can turn these and slice them into strips to thin out the breast I take out my knife and flip the breast over I then cut into the thickest portion of the chicken and just kind of pull that flap back and we touched on this in my recent chicken breast video but the idea here is that we are turning the chicken to look a lot more like a steak with an even cooking surface once the chicken breast is thin just set it on a baking sheet to freeze now for the thin strips I actually did this with a steak and showcased cooking them in my kosher video but the exact same thing applies for chicken take the chicken thigh and thin it out a bit and then make cross cuts into slivers as thin as you can and these strips can be used for stir fries Taco fillings or sandwiches and once sliced up the key for freezing is to evenly spread them on a baking sheet rather than just adding them straight to the bag you want to leave plenty of space in between so they don't freeze into one big Clump and as you can see I have both a mix of thin breast and some slices of chicken thighs so we just tossed that entire sheet pan into the freezer for two hours after two hours as you can see they should be completely Frozen through and I just add those whole pieces of the chicken to one bag and the chicken strips to another bag and these are now ready and waiting to be used in my freezer for today's lunch I decided to use a whole breast for a weekday chicken Caesar salad take a chicken breast out from the freezer and make a little mayo marinade for this I added a squirt of mayo followed by a big pinch of salt a Sprinkle of fresh cracked black pepper sprinkle of oregano and a Sprinkle of red pepper flake spread the seasonings uniformly over the chicken and then just add it to the griddle over medium Heat with a thicker breast trying to cook it from Frozen like this would be a nightmare the bulbous breasts would have less contact points with the grill and would cook very unevenly leading to a burnt exterior and a still frozen interior however with the thin breast we have increased the contact points for the heat to move Inward and it raises the temperature much more uniformly and faster from out to in this breast took 10 minutes to reach 155 degrees internal and as you can see it's nice and browned on the exterior but when you bring it over and slice it you can see that it's nice and juicy just like a regular fresh chicken breast now to assemble this into a lunch I made a caesar dressing that I drizzled over some romaine lettuce sliced red onions tomatoes and croutons then just threw that grilled chicken over the top add a little more dressing and we are eating now foreign lunch that started from Frozen which is pretty cool but like I said this can be done for any kind of RAW Protein like this you guys told me use it with a steak which is another really great option but this one is great if you're just kind of want to quickly get some plain protein in the freezer however method number two is probably my favorite of the three so I use method number one when I want to save my proteins from going bad but when it comes to Method number two the freezer sausage this is when I want to create something new and flavorful and something that I really look forward to having stocked up in my freezer and here's how it works first pick any sausage recipe secondly mix that sausage third add it to a freezer bag and then fourthly portion it out into squares and now you have a five minute sausage that can be used to make any number of things but today I'm going to show you a northern Thai inspired sausage that makes amazing stir fries however before we do let me tell you about today's video sponsor which is me and potentially you because we just launched a new paid Community now if you are like me you probably want to know two things what's the price and what do I get so in short there are two tiers six dollars a month for community and then ten dollars a month for Community plus extra content and I should note that absolutely nothing is changing with the main content you see here on this channel and actually my hope for this paid Community is that it makes the content here on YouTube even better the community will be a place where you can influence the content seen on this channel and additionally it will be a place to interact with myself and the team but also with other like-minded Home cooks with discussions content suggestions and recipe inspiration where you can share what you and others are making then for the content tier we just tried to pack as much in as we can you'll get two podcast episodes per month two bonus newsletter letters and all of our illustration downloads and my hope is this is an easy yes or no value decision we'd love to have you and our goal is to provide as much as we can each month and kind of our first order of business actually is figuring out a name we don't have a name it didn't feel right just to kind of come up with something so if you want to become a founding member head to the link below you can read more and sign up there and thank you again for listening to me Spiel but now let's make this Thai sausage unbelievable let's get it so to start I prepped all of the aromatics ahead of time and set them on a tray so to a food processor add 14 grams of cilantro 21 grams of shallots 14 grams of garlic 14 grams of fresh ginger 3 grams of diced Thai chilies 2 grams of curry powder and 2 grams of black pepper and then just blend that up into a paste now more traditionally you would use a mortar and pestle but I'm feeling lazy and just like that you have an insanely aromatic blend for sausage to finish add one pound or 450 grams of ground pork to a bowl along with the aromatic paste and very importantly 29 grams of fish sauce which is going to act as our salt in this case and once it's mixed the sausage could be cooked fresh but one of the best things is to freeze this no caseins necessary so take the sausage and add it to a freezer bag then just push it to the edges doing the best you can to remove all the air from the back then as a bonus you can add meat perforation lines to portion it out into four servings or however many you want I'm just using a smoothie straw here but a chopstick or any utensil you happen to have on hand will work and this also allows you to kind of fold the bag for easy packing and storage so you can keep your freezer organized to make this into a meal all you have to do is pull a portion of the sausage from the freezer bag and then pair it with a stir-fry vegetable of your choosing with some leftover rice to start set a pan over medium high heat and no need to wait just toss the Frozen portion of Thai sausage right in and that fat from the pork will start to melt and then crisp everything up so you want to let this cook for about four to five minutes next just toss in the stir-fry vegetable in my case I use some baby broccoli which is one of my all-time favorites for pastas stir fries or to just roast on their own but the fat from the sausage is going to transport all those aromatics to the broccoli making this a super fragrant and delicious stir fry as always give it a taste and then I added a little extra pinch of salt to serve heat up some leftover rice and then create a bed of it in a bowl spoon over that Thai sausage stir fry and lastly top with some prick Nom pla which is a mix of fish sauce lime juice and diced Thai chilies two very important things I want to point out with this method and that is one the sausage is really acting as three important characters one it is a fat source that can be used to crisp and render vegetables and provide mouthfeel secondly it's going to be a salt Source there's generally some type of salty ingredient added to sausage and then third it's a way to provide an aromatic profile to a dish and because of those three elements number two any sausage will work for this so I use a northern Thai sausage great for sauteing with vegetables throwing over rice I could have done an Italian sausage kept it in the bag make it for a quick pizza topping or throw it with some Tomatoes make a quick pasta sauce or you could do this with breakfast sausage then you render it out add some onions potatoes you have like a sausage breakfast hash truly customizable to your liking and it's all at your fingertips in the freezer like that is so cool you just grab it out break off a piece you're good to go with that being said this amazing method let's go into method number three which utilizes an already cooked protein so after watching my brazing framework video you may have been tempted to free some by throwing it into a big container and I made this mistake too but when you want a little bit then you end up having to defrost the entire container so what we're gonna do is use that same portioning technique that we learned about in method number two which is an absolute game changer for this I brazed an entire chuck roast and if you want all the specifics just check out that other video but after six hours I brought it out and shredded it all I seasoned with just some salt before letting it cool a bit then you can add the braised beef to a freezer bag with a couple spoonfuls of the juices and again spread it out very thin then make the meat perforation lines and just toss it into your freezer and the best part about braised meat is that you can customize it into something completely new each time and this might be one of my new favorite sandwiches I took a portion of the braised beef out of the freezer and then to turn this into a meal I paired it with a sesame seed bun some carrot ginger slaw Japanese barbecue sauce and Sriracha mayo to make it set a pan over medium heat and toss that braised beef right in and the fat is going to start to melt down in the pan and crisp up the beef just like the sausage and again we thin it out so this is only going to take a couple of minutes let the beef cook on one side and then flip it over to the other and then you can break this up and let it all crisp for about two to three minutes lastly add the Japanese barbecue sauces to make everything coated and nice and Saucy and then let's assemble into a sandwich first toast the buns and spread a thin layer of Sriracha mayo to both sides next come in with the carrot ginger slaw on the bottom before loading it up with that seasoned beef add another little drizzle of the spicy mayo to the beef before topping with the other half of the bun and this sandwich right here is a beautiful blend of both textures and flavors [Music] have I ever made this before this video no will I be making it again yes very very good flavor profile the sweetness of the Japanese barbecue sauce mixed with the meat pairs so nicely with that spicy Sriracha mayo and then the Crunch and freshness from the carrot ginger dressing slaw I mean that right there is the beauty of all of this I've never thought about making this I just kind of paired some freezer meat with a fridge sauce and then was like oh what would go well with that a slaw and here you have a new creation that I will definitely be making again so anyway hopefully you guys have enjoyed I will leave recipes up for the exact versions that I made in this video but really the takeaway is use these Frameworks to fit the ingredients that you happen to have on hand in your fridge in your pantry in your freezer and truly I think this is one of the most valuable videos that I've ever put out so hopefully you guys have enjoyed that will wrap it up for me in this one I will catch you all in the next one peace y'all

Channel: Ethan Chlebowski

Views: 2,062,287

Keywords: Ethan Chlebowski, how to freeze food, how to cook frozen chicken breast, meal prep ideas, how to meal prep

Id: YQc4vxdHmpY

Length: 15min 52sec (952 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023