Now that our weather is cooling off, I can resume batch broiling boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I like broiling chicken because cooking at high heat seals in the juices creating a tender piece of meat. The seasoning tends to stay on the meat a little better than when grilling. But the thing I love most about broiling is that it is fast and easy!
To batch broil chicken with different seasonings, I create foil dividers. I made 3 mini-trays by taking a piece of foil and rolling it up on the sides. Then I place the trays on a large cookie sheet (because I don’t have a broiler pan) and place the chicken breasts into the trays:
I place the cookie sheet 4 inches from the flame in the oven and cook for 4 –6 minutes (check after 4 minutes to see if the skin is looking crispy). Flip, then cook for another 4 – 6 minutes or until it is cooked through and the juices run clear.
On the above chicken pieces, I left 1/2 plain, seasoned 1/4 in Italian dressing, and cooked the last 1/4 in teriyaki marinade. Another way that I like to season my broiled chicken is with an herb seasoning. I shared my recipe for Herbed Chicken this evening on $5 Dinners.
I will use 2 of the Italian seasoned chicken breasts today to make pasta salad for tomorrow’s dinner and freeze all the others to make dinner prep easy on other busy nights.
Pasta Salad
1 lb. bag of rotini pasta (I use Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Pasta)
2 cooked chicken breast, chopped into bite size pieces
1 pound of carrots, sliced
1 head of broccoli, cut into florets
1 pint of cherry tomatoes
1 cup Italian dressing
Directions:
Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain the water. Pour the pasta into a colander and rinse with cool water to cool pasta. (You want the pasta to be cool to the touch, otherwise it will “cook” the veggies and that isn’t pretty!)
In a large bowl, combine the pasta, chicken, and vegetables. Pour 1 cup of Italian dressing over the salad. Toss until everything is completely coated with dressing. Allow it to chill in the refrigerator for 2 –3 hours before serving. If the pasta has absorbed all the dressing, add a little more and toss before serving.
This post has been linked to Works For Me Wednesday because having precooked chicken in the freezer makes it easy to throw together dinner after a long day of carting the kids around!
I am also linking this to The Ultimate Recipe Swap, where Fishmama is sharing meal ideas for the new mom. The first time I had this pasta salad was when a friend brought it over after my second child was born. It was so nice because it was ready to eat out of the refrigerator – no heating required. When my friend shared the recipe, I loved that it was so simple to make, which is important when juggling babies! I now bring this pasta salad to friends when they have a baby.
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Leigh @ Colorado Springs Giveaways says
That really is a great idea to do one huge batch with the different seasonings. Another bonus is that you can probably buy the "family pack" of chicken breasts and just cook them all at once instead of freezing them in one-meal portions to cook later, which is what I usually do. Thanks for sharing!
Sheila says
What a neat tip. I never thought of batch broiling. I also like the thought of seasoning them with different flavors. Love separating them with the foil too–I never thought of that either. Thanks so much for sharing your tips. Have a wonderful day!!
tamilyn says
I do this with hamburger and chicken too, although I normally cook my chicken in a pan of chicken stock and herbs then cut up and freeze. I should use my broiler-it is feeling left out!
Shana says
You are so smart. How do you do all this? How do you learn it all? We ar talking about becoming more self sufficient with our foods. We do a garden but this year it kind of just went to the weeds because our neighbor used horse poop to fertilize it so it was FULL of all manner of weeds that we could not battle. But we also want to start with our meat. We will be building a chicken coop and run area so we can have fresh eggs and we are going to be sectioning off an area of our pasture and getting it ready for pigs for meat. Our horses have plenty of room for the 2 of them, they won't miss it a bit lol. Any ideas I am taking seriously.
vickie says
Alea,
I love this idea of different seasonings -saves a lot of work and time.
vickie
Amanda says
I would have never thought to do different seasonings all at once. Great tip!!