Reader question: Just wanted to ask with regard to the “Frozen Dinner in a Flash” recipe if it is necessary to have cleaned the frozen chicken breasts first? Would also love to know which brand of chicken you prefer?
If I purchase the chicken raw, then I clean it and trim it before freezing individually. The chicken we get already frozen has already been trimmed, etc, before being vacuum sealed. Those pieces I usually just toss in after unwrapping.
At our house, we try to only eat organic chicken for several reasons — antibiotics, non-vegetarian feed, and inhumane conditions among them. Ideally, we’d only eat chickens raised as described in The Omnivore’s Dilemma: on a grass-rotation farm where the hens play a role in the rejuvenation of the soil and eat their natural diet of grubs and worms. Since we don’t live near that kind of farm, we belong to a wonderful frozen food co-op that loads our freezer full of natural meats and poultry every six months or so.
When I must purchase chicken, my first choice is from Whole Foods or another natural grocery store. If it must be from the regular grocery store, I look for Redbird brand as Consumer Reports found the lowest levels of salmonella contamination in Redbird poultry products.
