Whether you buy in bulk when it's on sale or you live alone and just don't need all the meat in a single package, freezing your chicken is a great way to preserve its shelf life and keep it on hand for when you need it. Even so, while you can still use chicken that has freezer burn, it's best to avoid that pitfall altogether by packaging up your chicken properly in the first place. To do this, repackage your chicken as soon as you can after getting home from the supermarket.

(If you want to leave it in its original packaging, you can; just add layers against the freezer's cold air in the form of aluminum foil or plastic wrap.) Using clean hands and a clean work surface, remove the chicken from its tray and wrap it in plastic wrap, aluminum foil, or both. Place it in a freezer bag, keeping one part of the "lip" open to push out as much air as possible, then close the bag completely.

A few words of advice: You can save yourself some thawing time by wrapping each piece of chicken up individually and pulling them out of the freezer as needed. The chicken will keep indefinitely in the freezer, but for the best quality, it should be used within nine months (so make sure you write the date on the bag). Tips for thawing frozen chicken So, you're trying a recipe that calls for chicken, of which you have in abundance in your freezer.

What's the best way to defrost it? If you're at least a day out from when you want to make the meal, take 24 hours and thaw your chicken in the fridge in .