Freezer Meal Dump Recipes

Gingery Salsa Chicken (freezer meal)

This gingery salsa chicken is my neighbor’s recipe that I adapted into a freezer meal. It’s got great tangy flavors. Since this is a make-ahead meal, it’s a great protein to serve on busy weeknights.

I love recipes where you can just dump everything in the bag and you’re good to go. Our lemon mustard chicken, apple maple chicken, BBQ pulled pork, and beef dip are other great examples of dump recipes. So fast and easy!

Gingery Salsa Chicken Recipe:

Ingredients:

10-12 chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
3/4 cup salsa
1/3 cup liquid honey
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
2 tsp. olive oil

For the day of cooking:

1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. water

Assembly instructions:

Place chicken thighs in a large resealable freezer bag.
Pour in the salsa, honey, orange juice, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, ginger, and olive oil.
Squish together to combine.
Remove excess air from the bag and seal. Freeze.

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.
Bake chicken at 400° for 40-50 minutes.
Pour the sauce into a stovetop pot. Mix together the cornstarch and water in a small bowl and add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce.
Heat to boiling. Stir for a few minutes while the sauce thickens.
Serve the sauce over the chicken.

What to serve with Gingery Salsa Chicken:

brown rice
cooked carrots and green beans
crusty artisan bread (easy 4 ingredient recipe!)
homemade baked oven fries
green salad with baby tomatoes and cucumber
grilled asparagus
garden peas
dill mashed potatoes

Gingery Salsa Chicken

Course: Main Course

Keyword: chicken, ginger, salsa

Servings: 6

Calories: 345 kcal

Ingredients

10-12 chicken thighs boneless, skinless
3/4 cup salsa
1/3 cup liquid honey
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
2 tsp. olive oil

For the day of cooking:

1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. water

Instructions

Assembly instructions:

Place chicken thighs in a large resealable freezer bag.
Pour in the salsa, honey, orange juice, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, ginger, and olive oil.
Squish together to combine.
Remove excess air from the bag and seal. Freeze.

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.
Bake chicken at 400° for 40-50 minutes.
Pour the sauce into a stovetop pot. Mix together the cornstarch and water in a small bowl and add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce.
Heat to boiling. Stir for a few minutes while the sauce thickens.
Serve the sauce over the chicken.

You may also be interested in these make-ahead chicken recipes:

Easy Kung Pao Chicken

Pesto Chicken and Veggies

Lemon Garlic Chicken

Marry Me, Chicken {freezer meal}

By Sharla

This skillet chicken recipe is good enough to marry! Ok, I know that traditionally it’s known as Marry Me Chicken because it’s supposed to inspire marriage proposals with its tastiness, but for those of you not looking for a proposal, you may just want to marry this chicken after you try it!

With its rich and bold flavors, you’ll soon be a raving fan. The best part is that we’ve transformed this recipe into a freezer meal. So you can make it up ahead and it’s ready to cook up when you need it.

When we make freezer meals, my neighbor Christie is the one who creates the labels. When I sent her the list for our last meal assembly session, she made a new label that added the comma to make it Marry Me, Chicken. She also added the cheeky description “for those who really love their chicken”!

I suggest making several of these at once. You won’t regret having more than one in the freezer. It’s special enough to serve when you have dinner guests.

Marry Me, Chicken Recipe:

3-5 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
3/4 tsp. basil
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

For cooking:

fresh basil
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Assembly instructions:

Place the chicken breasts in a large resealable freezer bag. Dump in the remaining ingredients.
Remove all the air that you can from the bag, seal, and freeze.

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.
Dump bag contents in a large skillet over medium-high heat for 24-27 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink inside.
If desired, garnish with fresh basil and more shredded Parmesan cheese.

What to serve with Marry Me, Chicken:

spaghetti squash
marinated vegetables
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Rice Pilaf
Baked Sweet Potatoes with Pomegranate
roasted root vegetables
Caramelized Butternut Squash with Cinnamon and Nuts
broccolini
asparagus
Cranberry Kale Salad
Roasted Cauliflower Mash
sautéed mushrooms

Marry Me, Chicken

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

25 mins

Course: Main Course

Keyword: chicken, marry me chicken

Servings: 6

Calories: 347 kcal

Ingredients

3-5 chicken breasts boneless, skinless
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
3/4 tsp. basil
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes chopped
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese grated

For cooking:

fresh basil
Parmesan cheese freshly grated

Instructions

Assembly instructions:

Place the chicken breasts in a large resealable freezer bag. Dump in the remaining ingredients.
Remove all the air that you can from the bag, seal, and freeze.

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.
Dump bag contents in a large skillet over medium-high heat for 24-27 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink inside.
If desired, garnish with fresh basil and more shredded Parmesan cheese.

You may also like these other chicken freezer meals:

Easy Chicken Marsala

Kung Pao Chicken

Easiest Butter Chicken

Easy Crock-Pot Chicken Cacciatore {freezer meal}

By Sharla

You won’t believe how easy this Crock-Pot Chicken Cacciatore is! It has only 5 ingredients but it tastes so fresh and delicious. You can make it ahead as a freezer meal. Combining a freezer meal with the crockpot is a match made in heaven. Save time and money. Win-win!

Our family likes Italian flavors. I often make a different version of chicken cacciatore when I’m making my freezer meals, but that one is a bit more involved. It requires cubing the chicken and has more ingredients. When I’m in a hurry or wanting to make as many meals as possible as quickly as possible, I opt for this easy crockpot chicken cacciatore recipe instead.

Chicken Cacciatore is traditionally served over pasta, but it can also be served over rice or polenta if you prefer or if you are on a keto or low carb diet.

We recently made this recipe again during a 5 ingredients or less freezer meal marathon that we did. You can see that in the video below:

Why is it called Chicken Cacciatore?

I have to admit that it is a unique name for a dish. The word “cacciatore” means hunter in Italian and apparently, it was hunters who first made this. It was likely made not with chicken in those early years, but with rabbit or other wild game they caught. This was back in the Renaissance so other meat would have been more commonly available.

Chicken cacciatore is sometimes mixed up with chicken parmesan. The easiest way to be able to tell the difference is that cheese is involved where chicken parmesan is referenced, whereas, with cacciatore, there is no cheese.

Easy Crock-Pot Chicken Cacciatore Recipe:

Ingredients:

3-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
24 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1 zucchini, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

Assembly instructions:

Place the chicken breasts in a large, resealable freezer bag.
Dump the other ingredients in the bag.
Remove excess air from the bag and seal. Freeze flat.

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.
Dump bag contents into the slow cooker.
Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Ensure that chicken is cooked through before serving.
Serve over your choice of pasta noodles. We usually use penne or rotini, but a long noodle is fine too.

You can throw this together so quickly that you might as well make more than one at a time. Just prop the bags open by folding the top over and setting them open on the counter. Line the bags up and then add the chicken to each one before dumping in the rest of the ingredients. This chicken dump recipe couldn’t be easier!

There is a lot of versatility with this recipe because you can use your choice of pasta sauce, swap out the chicken breasts for chicken thighs, and serve it on your favorite type of pasta.

This is such a family-friendly dish. Between being able to make it ahead and just pull it out of the freezer and the fact that it cooks in the crockpot, it’s truly a stress-free dinner. When we’re in a rush, we just keep this in the slow cooker and have the kids load a bit of pasta on their plate and then scoop the cacciatore right from the crockpot®. You can use whatever variety of pasta sauce you prefer. Experiment and see which you like best. We usually just go for simple basil, but it’s also good with a pasta sauce with mushrooms or spicy or chunky vegetables. Give a few of them a try and let me know which you liked best.

Easy Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

Prep Time

5 mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: chicken, chicken cacciatore

Servings: 6

Calories: 274 kcal

Ingredients

3-5 chicken breasts boneless, skinless
24 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1 zucchini coarsely chopped
3/4 cup onion chopped
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

Instructions

Assembly instructions:

Place the chicken breasts in a large, resealable freezer bag.
Dump the other ingredients in the bag.
Remove excess air from the bag and seal. Freeze flat.

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.
Dump bag contents into the slow cooker.
Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Ensure that chicken is cooked through before serving.
Serve over your choice of pasta noodles.

You might also like these easy freezer meals:

Homemade Hamburger Helper

Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Bake

Easy Chicken Marsala

Taco Chili Freezer Meal

By Sharla

This hearty taco chili combines the flavors of Mexican-American food with classic chili. It’s an easy dump recipe that can go from the freezer to the Crock-Pot. This is a very non-traditional chili, however, in that it does not have any beans in it.

So if you are not a fan of beans, but love the flavors of chili, this is the one for you! The nice warm feeling from a bowl of chili is such a nice lunch or dinner to curl up with in winter or fall.

This is already a budget-friendly meal, but there are ways that you can make this even more affordable. If you want to stretch this recipe further, you can use the taco chili as a topping on baked potatoes, stuffed inside green and red peppers, or add a tetra pack of beef broth to turn it into taco chili soup.

Taco Chili Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef, browned
1 onion, chopped
15 oz. can kernel corn, drained
8 oz. can tomato sauce
28 oz. can diced tomatoes
4 oz. can green chilies
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Assembly instructions:

Prep by browning the ground beef until it is no longer pink and chopping the onion.
Place the cooked beef, chopped onion, and all other ingredients in a large resealable freezer bag. Remove the excess air, seal, and freeze.

Slow cooker instructions:

Thaw.
Cook in the Crock-Pot on low for 3-5 hours.
Optional: Top with shredded cheese, tortilla chips, chopped green onions, cilantro, and/or sliced avocado.

Stovetop instructions:

Thaw.
Heat on the stovetop on medium-low heat until heated through, stirring occasionally.
Optional: Top with shredded cheese, tortilla chips, chopped green onions, cilantro, and/or sliced avocado.

Check out some other tasty make-ahead chili recipes:

Thick and Chunky Hearty Chili

Instant Pot White Chicken Chili

Taco Chili Freezer Meal Recipe

Course: Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: chili, taco

Servings: 4

Calories: 291 kcal

Ingredients

1 lb. ground beef browned
1 onion chopped
15 oz. can kernel corn drained
8 oz. can tomato sauce
28 oz. can diced tomatoes
4 oz. can green chilies
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Instructions

Assembly instructions:

Prep by browning the ground beef until it is no longer pink and chopping the onion.
Place the cooked beef, chopped onion, and all other ingredients in a large resealable freezer bag. Remove the excess air, seal, and freeze.

Slow cooker instructions:

Thaw.
Cook in the Crock Pot on low for 3-5 hours.
Optional: Top with shredded cheese, tortilla chips, chopped green onions, cilantro, and/or sliced avocado.

Stovetop instructions:

Thaw.
Heat on the stovetop on medium-low heat until heated through, stirring occasionally.
Optional: Top with shredded cheese, tortilla chips, chopped green onions, cilantro, and/or sliced avocado.

Make Ahead Everything Bagel Breakfast Muffins

By Sharla

Busy weekday mornings don’t have to be so chaotic. Making these everything bagel breakfast muffins ahead allows you to grab one on your way out the door.

They pack the flavors of the everything bagel into a breakfast muffin you can hold in one hand while you hold your coffee or phone in the other. This is the very definition of breakfast on the go.

Everything Bagel Breakfast Muffins Recipe:

Ingredients:

4-5 everything bagels, cut into cubes
1 package of bacon sausage or 1 pound of ground sausage, browned until no longer pink
2 cups of half and half
10 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. Everything Bagel Seasoning, divided
4 oz. of cream cheese, diced
4 oz. Swiss cheese, shredded
4 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded

Assembly instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with oil.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the half and half and the eggs.
Add in the salt, pepper, and 1 Tbsp. of the Everything Bagels Seasoning into the egg mixture. Set aside.
Lay out all the other ingredients.
Layer each muffin cup in this order: 3-4 bagel cubes, cooked sausage, 4-5 pieces of cream cheese, a sprinkle of the Swiss and cheddar cheeses.
Pour the egg mixture to about halfway.
Add 4-5 bagel cubes and a bit more sausage and sprinkle the remaining Everything Bagels Seasoning over each muffin.
Place in the oven and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until browned and the muffins are no longer soft in the middle. If you like your muffins more browned, you can place them under the broiler for 2-3 minutes in the end, but keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.
Remove from the oven and cool. Top with a sprinkle of the Everything Bagels seasoning.
Take the muffins out of the pan and move them to a cooling rack. Once the muffins have cooled, transfer them to a large resealable freezer bag. Remove the excess air and freeze.

Eating instructions:

Take one muffin (or more) out of the bag. Be sure to take out the extra air before sealing the bag up again.
Eat slightly frozen or reheat in the microwave.

Some other freezer breakfast recipes you may be interested in:

Taco Breakfast Cups

Cinnamon French Toast

Everything Bagels Breakfast Muffins

Course: Breakfast

Keyword: cinnamon, french toast

Servings: 12

Calories: 407 kcal

Ingredients

4-5 everything bagels cut into cubes
1 package of bacon sausage or 1 pound of ground sausage browned until no longer pink
2 cups half and half
10 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. Everything Bagels Seasoning divided
4 oz. cream cheese diced
4 oz. Swiss cheese shredded
4 oz. cheddar cheese shredded

Instructions

Assembly instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with oil.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the half and half and the eggs.
Add in the salt, pepper, and 1 Tbsp. of the Everything Bagels Seasoning into the egg mixture. Set aside.
Lay out all the other ingredients.
Layer each muffin cup in this order: 3-4 bagel cubes, cooked sausage, 4-5 pieces of cream cheese, a sprinkle of the Swiss and cheddar cheeses.
Pour the egg mixture to about halfway.
Add 4-5 bagel cubes and a bit more sausage and sprinkle the remaining Everything Bagels Seasoning over each muffin.
Place in the oven and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until browned and the muffins are no longer soft in the middle. If you like your muffins more browned, you can place them under the broiler for 2-3 minutes in the end, but keep an eye on them so they don't burn.
Remove from the oven and cool. Top with a sprinkle of the Everything Bagels seasoning.
Take the muffins out of the pan and move them to a cooling rack. Once the muffins have cooled, transfer them to a large resealable freezer bag. Remove the excess air and freeze.

Eating instructions:

Take a muffin (or more) out of the bag. Be sure to take out the extra air before sealing the bag up again.
Eat slightly frozen or reheat in the microwave.