Freezing Chicken

M and I eat a lot of chicken.  It's pretty much the main dead animal we eat.  M also enjoys processed pork products, but with the exception of an occasional bit of sausage on pizza, I don't eat pork.  Neither of us is fond of seafood, and while we eat red meat on occasion when we eat at a restaurant, we don't usually eat it at home.

So, when fresh chicken is on sale, I buy a bunch.  We prefer boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and I can generally get those for $0.99/lb on sale.  (If I'm a lazy shopper and we run out before the next sale, we go with Target's frozen of the same.)  I'll buy up to 10lbs at a time, cut it up how we like it, and then freeze it.  Sounds simple, right?  No.

The first time I froze some, I wrapped each breast in plastic wrap and then stuck them right on the shelf in the freezer.  It worked brilliantly until I had to unwrap them.  Plastic wrap likes frozen chicken.  A lot.  It likes to tuck itself into chicken crevices and freeze that way, but even if it manages to freeze on smoothly, it only comes off in ribbons.

After that, I stuck to the established method of chicken freezing, whereby one lines a cookie sheet with parchment, arranges chicken pieces in a non-touching way, covers with parchment, freezes, then transfers to ziploc bags.  As it is the established way of freezing chicken, it worked wonderfully.  I stacked the cookie sheets in the freezer and all was well.

But, if you know me, you know that I am not all that great at leaving well enough alone.  Nooo, I'm always sure I can tweak the established way of doing things.  My success rate varies depending on how well I know what I'm doing.  Crochet?  Probably 75%.  Freezing Chicken?  Yeah.  Let's go with...0%.

So, as I was cutting the last batch of chicken, and I thought, gee, those cookie sheets do take up a lot of room in the freezer.  Oooh, I know.  One cookie sheet.  Layers of parchment and chicken.  BRILLIANT!

No.

What I ended up with was a solid mass of alternating chicken and parchment.  I may or may not have banged the whole mess against the countertop several times before spending nearly a half hour chipping it apart with a butter knife.  Established methods are established for a reason, yo.