Day 2: Chicken and Brisket

Day 1: Shopping
Day 2: Chicken and Brisket
Day 3: Jambalaya and More Brisket
Day 4: Veggie Crepes, Potato Tacos and Gyros
Days 5 & 6: Veggie Crepes Continued and Thai Chicken
Day 7: Pierogi, Lentil Joes, and Black Bean Burgers
Final Days and Summary

Thursday

Usually on my first day of cooking I do all the slicing, dicing and mincing on the list in the "Prep" tab of my macro.  Today I decided to do things differently. As shown yesterday, my fridge is packed and I decided to start by using up some of the items that are taking up the most space, specifically the 2 briskets, 9 lbs of chicken breasts and 10 lbs of chicken cutlets.

11:05 - I started with the brisket.  I have 2 large briskets, and half a brisket will fit into my crockpot at once to make French dip sandwiches.  I am making 3 batches of French dip and saving 1/2 a brisket to cook in my smoker at some point.

Both briskets need to be cut in half and trimmed of excess fat.  I also brown the brisket in a frying pan before it goes into the crock pot.

12:25 - All the briskets are cut and trimmed.  One half is in the crockpot cooking away.  One half is seasoned, wrapped tight and in the freezer to wait for its turn in the smoker.  The other two halves have been browned in the frying pan to save me time later. They are waiting in the refrigerator for their turns in the crockpot.

1:20 - I start making the tikka marinade for my chicken.  This includes mincing jalapenos, so I go ahead and mince the jalapenos for the Thai chicken burgers as well.  I set them aside to use later.  I also cut up the chicken breasts for the jambalaya while I was prepping the chicken for the marinade.

2:50 - The chicken is in the marinade in the freezer.  I ended up with 5 batches of chicken tikka.

3:30 - I started breading the chicken cutlets.  This is quite the project.  This time and in the past I used pie pans for my breading station, but I had to keep refilling them.  It was a pain.  I'm considering getting larger pans for future use, maybe foil or maybe I'll spring for some hotel pans from a restaurant supply store.

5:25 - I'm done breading chicken for a total of 38 breaded chicken cutlets.

8:00 - I turn off the crockpot with the French dip and take a break to let it cool before I shred and freeze it.

10:45 - Okay, my break took longer than I had planned.  I finally convinced myself to get off the couch and finish up for the night.

I shredded the meat and divided it and the broth into three containers and put them in the freezer.  I also get another brisket cooking in the crockpot.

11:15 - Done for the night.

Time Spent Today: 5 hours 25 minutes

Total time: 9 hours 35 minutes

Meals So Far: 20