a simple real food tip :: batch cooking chicken meat for lunches :: avoiding expensive and toxic deli meat

Posted on by Renee

I mentioned in Monday’s post about travel yogurt cups that I can pretty much guarantee that my husband would go all day on an apple at work if I didn’t make sure there were easy lunch options available to pack 😉

Our budget just plain doesn’t afford organic, quality lunch meat, as delicious as it is! He really doesn’t mind a peanut butter and jelly sandwich – and he does take those on occasion – but it is so easy and SUPER AFFORDABLE to just crockpot a whole chicken to use its meat for lunch sandwiches!

a simple real food tip :: batch cooking chicken meat for lunches :: avoiding expensive and toxic deli meat
Regular store bought lunch meat is not only expensive, it is full of other preservatives and toxins you don’t want to be ingesting every day. And this is coming from a self proclaimed lunch meat ADDICT. I grew up on the stuff, loved it while I was in college (how the heck did I afford that?!?), and embraced it as an easy packing lunch at work for years. As I learned more about real food, and also had to work on cutting corners budget-wise, I have come up with this method to provide FAST and nourishing chicken sandwiches for my husband to take to work every day.

a simple real food tip :: batch cooking chicken meat for lunches :: avoiding expensive and toxic deli meat
HERE is my post on how to crockpot a whole chicken.

I don’t even add the veggies most of the time. It is really just poaching/boiling the chicken in the crockpot. It takes me 2 minutes to get it in and then once it’s done I just shred it up and store flat in freezer bags in your freezer. Get 2 crockpots going if you have a large family with kids in school! You really could get this all done in one shot and have 2-3 weeks’ worth of lunch meat ready. 

a simple real food tip :: batch cooking chicken meat for lunches :: avoiding expensive and toxic deli meat

a simple real food tip :: batch cooking chicken meat for lunches :: avoiding expensive and toxic deli meatChange up the flavors of your chicken sandwich with different condiments!

  • Barbeque sauce (Watch the ingredients – No HFCS or MSG! OR try my QUICK homemade bbq sauce!)
  • Mustard (Watch ingredients – no HFCS or MSG! Or make it honey mustard with THIS recipe!)
  • Homemade mayo (store bought is full of JUNK!)
  • Sea salt/pepper/Italian seasoning blends (or try THIS Italian dressing mix and make the dressing to drizzle!)
  • Homemade ranch (store bought is full of JUNK!)

a simple real food tip :: batch cooking chicken meat for lunches :: avoiding expensive and toxic deli meatYou can also add veggies and raw cheese to your sandwich 🙂

Use the shredded chicken to top a container salad for something different to bring to work or school! Here is a great ranch dressing recipe or Italian dressing recipe for your salad. Pack the dressing up in those same containers I talked about in the yogurt cup post!

Let me know if you try this out! I want to know how you make this work for your family!

This post was shared at Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday, and Holistic Squid’s Party Wave Wednesday!

8 thoughts on “a simple real food tip :: batch cooking chicken meat for lunches :: avoiding expensive and toxic deli meat”

  1. I love the idea of using shredded chicken instead of packaged deli meat for sandwiches. I am committed to eating organic whenever possible, and we just can’t afford $7.00 for a small package of lunch meat which makes like 3 sandwiches. I’m going to try the crockpot idea too.
    Thanks!!

    1. Your welcome Suzanne! I can’t afford that either! Sheesh! Sometimes my greatest creative ideas come from my budget limits 😉

  2. Great idea! I LOVE cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot – and then you have all that wonderful chicken stock…I send my husband a thermos of stock along with his lunch, which he really enjoys. His co-workers think it’s a little weird, until he let’s them taste 😉

  3. So hat size crockpot do you use? How much liquid do you use? Do you use a frozen bird? Do you rinse it first or just pop in? Do you cook it in the condiment/dressing? Or just add that to the quart size bag or add it when you make the sandwich? Do you freeze what you won’t use in the next few days?

    1. Hi Cristin 🙂 I linked up my crockpot chicken method up there – I should make that easier to see! Here is the recipe:
      http://www.thesimplemoms.com/2012/09/a-simple-real-food-recipe-weekly-chicken-crockpot-method.html

      That post should answer some of those questions 🙂 I have put a half frozen bird in there before and just cooked it longer and it was fine 🙂 I don’t cook in the dressing – just pour or spread it on the sandwich or pack it up on the side for a salad. I keep a week’s worth of the meat in the fridge and freeze up the rest – the pint bags in the picture are usually a weeks worth of meat for my husband so that is how I pack it up 😉 You could do smaller bags or bigger depending on how much you think you will go through. The meat should be fine in the fridge for a week.

      1. Hey Renee!!! I was really excited to see this post. I absolutely LOVE lunch meat sandwiches too, but began avoiding them during my pregnancy due to the toxicity. I really haven’t had a sandwich like that since, but crave them. You’re recipe link didn’t work at the top, so thanks for including it down here in the comments 🙂 I’m excited about the condiments recipes too!

  4. Ive been cooking a whole chicken as a roast but never thought of doing this ! i may need to try this next time they go on sale here !

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