We all knew this one was coming didn’t we? Have we ever done a Once A Month Meals menu without chicken on it? I don’t think so! Chicken is a major staple in our diets, so you should be seeing it on menus for a long time to come. 
Over the last year I have always had people commenting that when they were cooking chicken, they had too much chicken or not quite enough. Usually, it is too much. That isn’t such a bad thing, you can always just freeze the extra for use at another time. However, consistency is important to me, so I thought it would be great to do research of my own. Here is what I came up with:
As you can see, depending on what you use as your starting point for cooked chicken, you get different results. (See the recent post on making your own rotisserie chicken). For this reason, I have decided that when I write menus that I will list the pounds of chicken needed rather than the number of breasts needed. If an original recipe only lists numbers of breasts, I will make the conversions as I feel necessary so that we are only dealing with pounds, instead of quantity. I think that this will make for a more consistent menu. And you don’t have to worry as much about the weight of your chicken. Keep in mind that we will be using these size references from now on for Once A Month Mom menus. And as we started last week with Cilantro, now is your opportunity to share your favorite recipes that include chicken. Here are a few of my favorites from this site:
9 Comments
Join the discussionI posted savory chicken wings for the grill… just in time for Memorial Day!
We eat chicken a LOT! I am always looking for unique and interesting to prepare chicken. I just linked Peking Chicken Wraps which are my new favorite chicken wraps at the moment! Thanks!
I saw that link and thought they looked great! I haven’t had a chance to comment on your site bc I’ve been on vacation.
The conversion from ounces to cups (per method) is very interesting, thanks! However, chicken breasts from my local stores vary GREATLY in terms of ounces per breast. I’ve gotten breasts before that were over 1 lb (for one breast!). We purchased a no-frills kitchen scale that has helped out immensely in the kitchen….I would recommend one for everyone.
All these chicken recipes call for “cooked and shredded” chicken. What is everyones reccommended way to cook their chicken? I’m a beginner, so will take any tips!
Hi Rachel! We are HUGE fans of our slow cookers so we always recommend to cook it in the slow cooker and then shred. If you have a KitchenAid mixer, shredding chicken in it is the BEST. I’ll never go back to shredding with a fork again! Good luck and we can’t wait to hear how your big cooking day goes!
What do you add to the chicken in the slow cooker? I have a crockpot. So, if I put in 4 chicken breasts or 10-12 chicken thighs, what do you add so the chicken turns out good, and easy to add to other recipes? Thank you:)
Hi Rachel, I just add about a cup of water to the slow cooker. Then I can use the chicken in any recipe and use the spices from that recipe to season it. If you wanted, you could add some spices to the crockpot but then it would limit the meals you use the chicken in. For example, you could add italian spices to the crockpot and use the chicken in italian recipes. Good luck!
Ok, great! Thank you Katie!