How to pack chicken for freezing (Raw & Cooked)

When cooking large amounts of chicken such as when you meal prep for a week or when you freezer cook with chicken to prepare meals in advance, it’s important to pack chicken for freezing correctly. Not only for the convenience but to make it easier when it comes to defrosting your frozen chicken.

The last thing you want to happen is to have large quantities of chicken frozen together like a brick, making the time it takes to defrost much longer.

So today I’ll be going through the process that we use to pack chicken for freezing the correct way. Making it easy to take individual serves or whole meals and defrost them quickly.

Packing chicken for freezing

If you’re dumping chicken into a container in the freezer it’s going to be tough to separate. Unless it’s a single serve, you’re making it difficult on yourself when it comes time to defrost and serve in a timely manner.

With just a little bit of pre-planning during your meal prep session, you’ll be able to portion control all your meals by simply packing them into the appropriate size Ziploc bags or freezer proof containers.

Never put hot chicken straight into the freezer. It needs to cool down completely before you pack it. Not only does it create moisture in the bag or container, It will also bring down the temperature of your freezer which is not good. 

Chicken can be frozen for 6 months which makes it excellent for cooking large amounts of food.

Equipment you will need to sucsesfully pack lots of chicken.

• Zip lock bags
• Freezer proof Containers
• Baking paper
• Sharpie / permanent marker
• Kitchen scales
• Knife 
• Chopping board

Packing chicken pieces in a zip lock bag

Packing cooked chicken pieces or individual raw pieces of chicken for freezing in a Ziploc bag, would have to be the simplest and quickest method.

Whichever method you use it’s important to not overpack the chicken.

make sure you have your Ziploc bags ahead of time and it’s also a good idea to have several sizes, to have a mixture of individually portioned meals as well as a few days worth of meals.

Raw chicken in a ziploc 

Start by rinsing with cold water and cleaning any fat from the chicken as you normally would if you were going to cook it. 

For chicken pieces such as breast fillets, thigh fillets and even schnitzel, we’re going to layer the pieces in a Ziploc bag. Pieces such as drumsticks, merrylands, wings or breasts on the bone, I wouldn’t recommend layering the chicken. It’s best to use large ziploc bags otherwise it becomes a huge brick and takes longer to defrost.

We regularly pack Ziploc bags with 500g, 1 kilo and 2 kilos worth of chicken pieces. We use a separate stand up freezer that allows us to lay the chicken flat in a separate compartment. If you don’t have the luxury of a separate freezer, using one that comes with your fridge is absolutely fine. Start with smaller quantities such as 500g to 1kg if you have the room.

1. Using a sharpie or a permanent marker label your zip lock bags with the cut of chicken, date and weight.
2. Individually weigh your chicken into the different sized lots and have them ready on the chopping board or separate bowls.
3. Place your chicken into the bags and flatten, making sure no to very minimal overlapping.
4. If there is more chicken to place into a bag, put a layer of baking paper on top and then put another layer of chicken. This helps the chicken not stick together.
5. Close the ziplock bag making sure to remove as much air as possible.
6. Placed into the freezer flat. Once they are frozen, you can stand the packets up or keep them laying flat.

Cooked chicken in a ziploc

Cook your individual chicken pieces as you normally would, such as on the frying pan or in the oven. 

If you cook chicken that has been marinade or cook crumbed schnitzel, you’ll need to be a bit more gentle and accept that some of the marinade and crumb will stick to the baking paper. Personally when I freeze marinated chicken I only ever have one layer of it in the ziplock bag. Schnitzels are fine to layer. 

1. After you’ve cooked your chicken pieces, let them completely cool.
2. Add one layer of chicken making sure no pieces are overlapping.
3. If you are going to be placing more chicken pieces in the bag make sure to place a piece of baking paper in between each layer to prevent sticking.
4. When it’s time to close the Ziploc bag, remove as much air as possible before closing.
5. Freeze flat and when completely Frozen you can stand it up to save space.

Packing chicken meals in a container

Containers can take up much more space than a Ziploc bag because they simply can’t get into the weird shapes that you may jam into the back of your freezer. They also take up more space and you can’t freeze as much.

With that being said, they will hold large amounts of frozen chicken, if layered with baking paper. You can remove a layer at a time to defrost quickly.

It also has the advantage of allowing you to freeze cooked marinated chicken pieces and a meal for a whole family, where you can simply defrost within the container and then warm up in the microwave. Be there in individual portions or in the container itself.

So the decision you need to make would be the type of meal or quantity you’re going to freeze. You can freeze large quantities of raw and cooked meals of chicken. We like to freeze chicken meatballs, cooked schnitzels and a dinners worth of food in a container.

But please remember when placing your packets or containers in the freezer, place cooked chicken and uncooked chicken in separate places, to prevent cross contamination. 

For raw pieces or even cooked pieces of chicken the technique is going to be similar to a Ziploc bag with the one exception is that you can really lay it up depending on how deep the container is and the type of chicken.

For lunch, you can use a 1 Liter or slightly smaller containers as a single serve. 

A meal for a family of 4, a 2 litre container will hold enough food such as chicken stir fries, chicken pasta and chicken soups.

For individual pieces such as breast fillets, thigh fillets, chicken meatballs and schnitzels a 2L container will work just fine.

1. Cook a weeks worth of family dinners or lunches.
2. Let the food completely cool down before adding to the containers.
3. Prepare the containers by writing the name of the dish, and the date on the lid.
4. Add the appropriate amount of portions to the container.
5. Place flat in your freezer for future use.

Note: If you’re going to layer the chicken it’s still important to not overlap the chicken on each layer, it’s fine if they touch but don’t overlap too much to make it easier to defrost.

Faq on freezing chicken