I have a secret trick I developed in an effort to prevent exactly the kind of disaster you outline, Morticia. I process all meats as soon as I get home-- cook up the chicken and pork and then freeze it in meal-size wraps. I usually ccok them with just a little pepper and olive oil, so that when I use them I can flavor them any way I like. I learned this from a wonderful Greek cook whose restaurant we regularly visit. Her menu is enormous because all the main ingredients are on hand for her to cook with.

Last night's meal took about 30 minutes to microwave-thaw 3 chicken thighs, pull off the meat, and warm it in a fresh onion/chicken gravy sauce made of the pan juices saved at the time of cooking.

A night or two before, it was pork steaks pre-cooked plain and then frozen pre-slathered with BBQ sauce. I put those up in foil and just chuck 'em in the oven till heated through.

Another trick I learned for thawing things is that if you set the frozen package on top of a flipped-over cast iron frypan, they thaw in about 1/3 the time and keep a nice texture, too. Steaks don't stand pre-cooking very well but I break down the large economy packages into meal-size packs. Sometimes I don't even open the origianl packaging, but just slice through it and toss the resulting portions into a freezer bag.

I usually keep one large bag for pork, one for beef, and one for poultry in the freezer, so I can tell them apart easily.

With this approach I can chuck a couple of baking potatoes or sweet potatoes in the microwave, open a bag of salad, and get it all ready to serve while the meat dish is heating.


Sometimes I thaw the meat to use it, and sometimes I don't-- depends on a number of factors. Also, I know one Mudcatter who repacks whole chickens (minus giblet bundle) and other roasts before she freezes them, and then chucks them in the oven frozen for a nice long cooking.

~Susan