Deep Freeze 101

I buy stuff in bulk. A lot, and that applies to meat. So to have roughly 35 frozen chicken breasts in there is not exactly unheard of. My parents got me a vacuum sealer for Christmas a few years ago, but I forget that I should not put them in the bottom of the freezer packed in like little sardines, and that putting things in the freezer, even when really cold, unless they are frozen, will bring up the temp of the freezer, causing condensation to form, drip, and re freeze on things packed like sardines in the bottom of my freezer.

After defrosting my beloved freezer, and getting the chicken block apart, I had to cook them. All of them. There are seven bags there that average 4 chicken breasts each. So I lined them up assembly line style.

And I started to play.

I had five pans and I seasoned them like this:
Pan 1
Orange zest
Orange juice
Nutmeg
Garlic
Ginger
Onion powder
Salt
Olive oil

Pan 2
Lime zest
Lime juice
Garlic
Cumin
Salt
Olive oil
Onion powder

Pan 3
Orange zest
Orange juice
Garlic
Salt
Olive oil
Celery seed
Onion powder
Cinnamon (I know, but go with me on this one here)

Pan 4
Lime juice
Salt
Celery seed
Nutmeg
Olive oil

Pan 5
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Onion powder

We’re gonna need a bigger oven.

Now that these are fully cooked, I can freeze them again and use them anytime. Plus, since they are fully cooked, I can make all kinds of things at the drop of a hat. With minimal (sort of)dishes.

The first thing I made was a barbecue chicken pizza. When I was in college, in Stillwater, there was a place called Hideaway Pizza, and they made a BBQ chicken pizza that was awesome. Before this place, I had never had or heard of such a thing, but man was it good.

So I rolled out the new gf Pillsbury pizza crust, baked it for a few mins, then spread some barbecue sauce on it and sliced up fresh mozzarella cheese and half a red onion. I diced up 1/2 of a chicken breast from pan 1. Yeah I’m REALLY going to use up this chicken quickly if I’m using a half a boob a night huh? After the chicken was added I asked my munchkin helper what else it needed and as usual his answer was “BACON!!!” So I threw some chopped up bacon on it, a little more sauce, and stuck it back in the oven.

It was easy, the dishes were minimal, and it was delicious!

This next dish has a little more of a story. When I worked down town, on the way there, I would pass this place every day. It just had a sign over the door that said “PUPUSARIA”. I grew curious, and asked a coworker what that was, it could have been a laundromat for puppies for all I knew. Anyway, she didn’t know, so I googled it and found out that 1) it was gluten free -and this was back when I gave up gluten the first time 2) it was a stuffed corn tortilla from Central America, &3) I HAD to have one. The problem was, this place was in a part of town where it had bars on the windows, payday advance places on three corners, and a super pale white girl by herself who only speaks English, would stick out a little. I was, however, obsessed. I researched them like crazy, and tried to find another place that would sell them. Every day I drove by, and it mocked me, fueling my obsession. Then I had a baby, and didn’t go to work anymore and forgot about it. Cut to two weeks ago, durning my final, and I made fish tacos, I had all the masa mixed up already left over from the tortillas, and I thought, why not? I mean I had all my dishes in, the rest was just gravy, so lets swing from the rafters. I made my own interpretation of a pupusa. With chicken left over from another dish, I went for it. It wasn’t great, but my instructor was interested too. The masa was too thick, and the heat was too high on, so they were raw in the center. Chef sliced it open bc he wanted to see what the inside looked like, and I wanted to see too. This was my first attempt, and it had kinda failed, but only in a “I don’t know what I’m doing and have never done this before” kind of way. That means, it can only get better. And we threw it in the oven and baked it after that to finish it off. Btw, I got an A on my final for those wondering!
Here’s what I did the second time around:
I took a chicken breast from pan 4, diced it up small, and set it aside, then I melted two tablespoons of butter, and sautéed the other half of that red onion, a clove of garlic that I had minced, and 1/3 of a jalapeño, seeds and membrane removed and diced small.

Then, after these were softened, I threw in a little cumin and salt, then I added the chicken

Oh and a little tomato too. Again diced. You are supposed to throw all this in the blender here and make sort of a paste, but I had reached my limit on what I was willing to wash, and the blender is never a dish I feel like washing. So I just made sure my cuts were small to begin with. I’m not lazy, I say I’m practicing my knife skills!

While this was going, I made the masa.

I really have no idea what I’m doing here and making it up as I go along. So I took a couple cups of masa, grated a lime into it, added salt, and the juice of the lime then I added enough water to make it dough like. You want it to be wet enough that working with it, doesn’t make it crack, but still dry enough to form a tight ball.
When this is done, take a section of the dough and roll it into a ball. Then poke a hole into the ball, and press the inside back to make a hollow cavity inside the ball. Fill this with the chicken mixture, close up, and then press flat. You want to have it thin enough to cook through, and thick enough that the stuffing doesn’t poke out. Cook this on a griddle on medium low until it is cooked through.

Cook these low and slow. I grated some cheese, and then diced up two tomatillos and added them to the remaining chicken mixture and let that cook down for a min, then I topped my pupusa with the cheese and chicken/tomatillo mixture.

I think these could be better. Don’t get me wrong, they were tasty, and tomorrow morning I think I may have to put a fried egg on top for breakfast. But I will also keep playing with this!