3 Easy Chicken Marinades for the Freezer

A great way to get started with freezer meals!

I wanted to start by saying there are a lot of new people here! A few days ago, I had a video about freezer meals going viral on both TikTok and Instagram, and I’m so grateful to the algorithms for showing my content to people who want it!

This substack is fairly new, but if you’re looking for more content, I’ve been making videos on those two platforms for a while, so there is a lot to explore there.

If you're a new subscriber, I’d love to hear from you, mainly about what you’d like to see from me in this space. I view it as a space to share written recipes, other freezer meal ideas, and my thoughts on home cooking.

But let’s get into these recipes!

We’re a two-person household, so it’s always been a balancing act between wanting to save money by buying in bulk and having a plan to use/eat everything before it goes bad. But having a vacuum sealer has helped me a lot in that area. I can take advantage of sales or buy family packs of meat and portion them out myself to freeze. That way, I can defrost just what I need for one or two meals.

When I see a good price on chicken thighs, I will plan to marinate the meat immediately and freeze it directly in the marinade for another time or cook the marinated meat, portion it, and freeze it for later.

You can make all these marinades directly into a gallon freezer bag and each recipe is for 2 lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs. (but if you have a little more meat that’s fine)

Greek Chicken

• 2 lbs Chicken Thighs

• The Zest of one Lemon

• The Juice of one Lemon

• 3 cloves Garlic (grated)

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon smoked salt (this is optional; use 3 teaspoons kosher salt if you don’t have it)

• 2 teaspoons Thyme

• 2 teaspoons Oregano

• 2 cups plain whole milk Greek yogurt

For the Greek Chicken, you can leave the thighs whole or cube them up before marinating. I like to cube them and then put them on skewers to cook.

Tandoori Chicken

• 3 teaspoons kosher salt

• 4 cloves minced garlic

• 2 tablespoons minced ginger (alternatively, you can use 4 tablespoons garlic ginger paste to sub for the garlic and ginger)

• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons dried kasoori methi leaves

• 1-2 teaspoons Kashmiri chili powder

• 1 teaspoon garam masala

• 2 cups plain whole milk Greek yogurt

  

Chipotle Chicken

• 2 lbs chicken thighs

• 1/2 can chipotle peppers in adobo (Blend with 1/4 cup water)

• The juice of 2 limes

• 3 teaspoons kosher salt

  

When you’re ready to cook these, you can grill them or bake them in the oven on a sheet pan at 400ºF until the internal temperature is 165ºF, then broil for a few minutes to get some char on the chicken.

Once cooked, I usually cube up the chicken to have a flavorful protein to add to salads, rice bowls, serve with veggies, etc. I’ll keep what I think I can eat in a few days in the fridge, individually portion, and freeze the rest!