Pronto Pollo Chicken Products

My wife and I love shopping at Costco. The quality and selection of bulk foods are a great way to save money buying large quantities at one time. Furthermore, the Kirkland brand at Costco has proven to us to be a great, high quality generic Brand.

One item we always purchase are whole chickens. Reasonably priced at $0.99 per pound, we typically buy 4 at a time and freeze them.

Freezing chickens for a family of two is always more convenient if the chicken separated in to pieces and isolated in zip top freezer bags. If you don’t know how to cut a whole chicken in to pieces, google “how to cut a whole chicken”. A bag of two thighs, two legs and two wings can be defrosted under cold water in less than two hours, on the day of use – straight from the freezer.

Save Money Step $ – Cut whole chicken in to pieces.

Separate the legs, thighs, wings and breasts from the carcass. Separate the thigh from the leg. Separate the wing tip from the wing, which is just skin and cartilage, and set aside for our soup stock pile. Don’t discard that neck either, that will also be used later.

Cut and peel away the breast portion by making an incision with your knife at the top of the breast, parallel to the breast bone and slice straight down to the carcass. Carefully place your fingers in the slit and nudge the breast meat away from the carcass while running the sharp edge of the knife down the side of the carcass releasing the breast fibers from the bones.

Save Money Step $$ – Separate portions in to bags and freeze.
By this time you should have two thighs, two legs, two breasts and two wings without their tips. Note that the wings can also be separated in to two individual pieces by cutting along the joint, making buffalo styled wings.

There are several combinations to consider while preparing to bag and freeze your chicken. If your family enjoys fried chicken wings, buffalo wings or snack sized chicken, you can place all of your separated wings into one bag and freeze. From each additional chicken you cut you can add four pieces (two wingettes and two drumettes) to this bag and save for later use.

My favorite pieces to use for fried chicken are the pieces with dark meat. Thighs, drumsticks and wings taste so good when fried and you don’t have to worry about it drying up as much as a breast, which is difficult to cook evenly without slicing in to thinner, even slices. Usually we will make zip top bags with a pair of thighs, a pair of legs and a pair of wings with the intention of frying. This storage scheme is also suitable for bbq.

When it comes to the breast, we usually place them in zip top bags in pairs – two breasts to a bag. We’ve had great results taking a bag of frozen breasts straight from the freezer and then adding brine or marinade directly to the bag to speed up defrosting. After defrosted we will roast the breast in a 350F oven carefully with a probe thermometer until all parts of the breast reach 160 degrees – typically about 35 minutes. This produces an evenly cooked juicy flavorful breast that would be hard to obtain if cooked while attached to other parts of the chicken.

When separating and bagging chicken for the freezer, the possibilities are endless. Simply think about the amount you will use at one time and separate accordingly.

Save Money Step $$$ – What to do with those extra parts?

After removing the breast from the chicken, you are left with the carcass. Do not discard this, I repeat do not discard the carcass. This is the most important part of the article.

You can still create two more meals from the carcass of the chicken. Remember that soup stock pile I mentioned previously that is to be used for the wing tips. That is your bag to collect parts and freeze for chicken stock. Add the carcass to that bag but before doing so, remove any extra skin from the carcass. It’s not important to get every piece of skin, but my wife and I love to fry the skin along side the chicken and make crispy chicharron. We will usually add the chicken skin to the same bag of pieces intended for frying.

Once you have at least two carcasses, you can stick them in a large stock pot, cover them with water, add onions, celery or any seasoning you desire and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the low, cover and simmer for 7 hours or unitl the bones break with little resistance.

At this point you can strain off all the bones and chicken pieces. Refrigerate the liquid until all remaining fat solidifies and rises to the top. At that point the fat can be easily removed and you are left with a rich flavorful stock that can be used as a base for many soups or as an ingredient in other recipes.

Whole chickens are better than buying individual pieces

Chickens that come whole tend to stay fresher longer than those that are separated and prepackaged – so you can count on your whole chicken keeping longer while in supermarket refrigerators. Furthermore you can do so much more when you follow the instructions listed here and separate parts. You have much more flexibility when buying whole and the ability to make several different meals from just one chicken. And using the chicken down to the carcass can add at least two more meals to a chicken, potentially saving you more money.

Tags: pronto pollo, Pronto Pollo Scone

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