While I love cooking and having family centered around the kitchen, I’m also very aware that there are not enough hours in my day to cook three meals. In this article I share how a whole chicken prepped once a week can give us three meals. Let me share how to power cook with chicken and how it will save you time and money in return!
Why cooking is my love language
Cooking food is my love language. Some people buy gifts or make elaborate crafts. Not me… For the most important people in my life, I cook. I’m sure this comes from being raised in my grandparent’s restaurant, The Newton House. I have treasured memories of serving customers meals lovingly prepared by my grandmother, aunts, and uncles. Every family gathering was centered around the kitchen and dining room. It was exactly what you might expect from a large Irish Catholic family: loud, messy, and absolutely delicious!
Our cooking tradition with a twist
I have tried to carry on this tradition in my home (the loud and messy parts are perfected), but there are just not enough hours in the day… Between homeschooling, running a farm, and my own business, I barely have time to eat, let alone cook three square meals a day.
My solution is POWER COOKING.
What’s power cooking? It’s prepping/cooking several meals at one time to use in the next few days or freeze for later (I actually do both).
Our meal prep staple
One of the staples of every week’s meal prep is…. you guessed it, a whole chicken (or two with my family). Why whole chickens? Besides the fact that we grow them right here on our farm, whole chickens are economical, nutrient-dense, versatile, and delicious! Did I mention they are ridiculously easy to cook? My go-to method for cooking these chooks (that’s Aussie for chicken) is my crockpot…. Go ahead and laugh… In the new age of fancy pressure cookers and insta pots, I still reach for your grandma’s crockpot.
Why? Two reasons:
#1 it’s so easy! I literally take a chicken straight from the freezer, put it in the crockpot, turn it on, and I am done! Three to four hours later, I have a perfectly cooked, falling off the bone chicken that shreds in minutes.
#2 I don’t have an “insta-pot”. If I did, I might be writing a different post…. Who knows?
Power cook using a 5-pound chicken
Our five-pound chickens give us approximately 12 cups of shredded chicken. Sometimes, I will use all of it to make one huge meal that I can split up and freeze, but more often I make 3 different meals for our family of 5. That’s right, 15 servings from ONE chicken. At $4.25/lb, that’s less than $1.50 per serving of pasture-raised, happy chicken. It’s more nutrient-dense than conventional store-bought chicken and because there’s no water or saline solution pumped into our meat, a little goes a long way.
Will you give power cooking a try?
If you love having homemade meals for your family, but don’t have the hours to be a full time chef, give power cooking a try. And don’t be afraid to enlist all of the family in this effort. As my Nana used to say, “many hands make light work”.
No experience necessary,
Kelly
