Category: News

If you shop at Nino’s on a regular basis, you’ve surely come across a refrigerated case full of 5-lb bags of our boneless, skinless chicken breasts. And quite often, they’re on sale at an unbeatable price. Now, unless you have a large family or are planning on grilling out with friends, you might have asked yourself, “What in the heck am I going to do with a whole 5 lbs of chicken breasts?”

My answer to you is…. Plenty. And when they’re on sale, you have an additional incentive to take advantage of the best deals at Nino’s.

5 lb_chickenSince I’m a chef, I have lots of recipes and tips. But at the end of the day, I’m single, and there’s only so much chicken I can eat in a day–or a week. Yet, when our 5-lb bags of  chicken are on sale, I quite often buy 2, sometimes even 3 bags!

Here are some of my tips and strategies for taking advantage of Nino’s 5-lb chicken breast deals.

    • Depending on how much I buy, I take a portion of it and separate the 2 lobes of the breasts by cutting directly between them and trimming off all fats and cartilage. It’s VERY easy to do. Next, I individually double-wrap each breast and freeze them all in a plastic shoebox storage container (you can buy these for a couple of dollars at most housewares stores).
    • I also reserve a couple of breasts to cut for stir-frying. Now, you may have found it a bit tricky to cut a whole breast into very thin strips, but if you place the breasts in the freezer for about 30 minutes to give them a hard chill, you will find it amazingly easy to place them on a cutting board and cut them into 1/8” thin strips. Once you do this, wrap up packages of about a half cup’s worth of these thin-cut chicken strips, and you’ll have a no-fuss, pre-cut chicken to use in your next quick stir-fry. Speaking of stir-frying, if you’ve never tried Wok Stir-Frying, be sure to read one of my recent blogs to get the lowdown.
    • Another great idea is to take a couple of the trimmed breasts and cut them into large, bite-sized pieces; lightly flour them; and then sear them in vegetable/canola oil until lightly browned and cooked through. I then fill a pint- or quart-size Zip Loc® or similar freezer container about halfway with the chicken and top if off with some of Nino’s Country Gravy. Add some sautéed vegetables if you like and freeze for a great meal over biscuits or toast or with some roasted or mashed potatoes.

With the remaining (if any) chicken breasts, I choose a couple of my favorite recipes (usually casserole recipes) and prepare a large pan. I then chill, cut into single portions, and again double-wrap them for storage in the freezer. Here are some of my favorite recipes

Chicken Enchilada
Chicken & Mushroom Burgers
Coconut Chicken

You can even prepare my Chicken Quesadilla recipe and individually wrap and freeze the 6”-diameter ones for quick thawing and pan frying later when you’re looking for a quick and delicious meal. A 5-lb bag of chicken is an opportunity to save money, save time (in the long run), and create some delicious meals you’ll thank yourself for many times over.

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