5 Make Ahead Chicken Freezer Meals That Save Your Weeknights (Dump-and-Go)

I spent one afternoon assembling five make ahead freezer meals — all chicken, all family-friendly, almost all dump-and-go — and then I didn't have to think about dinner for a week.

Make the meals when you have the energy, freeze them, and let your future self thank you on the night you absolutely do not have it in you to cook.

I've been doing this freezer-meal thing for years, and I keep coming back to chicken because it's cheap, my teenagers will actually eat it, and it works well in both the slow cooker and the Instant Pot.

These five make ahead freezer meals are the ones in my regular rotation: a Greek lemon chicken, cool ranch chicken tacos, slow cooker chicken noodle soup, a Thai chicken curry, and buffalo chicken that my son loves in quesadillas.

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Why Make Ahead Freezer Meals Actually Work (When Meal Planning Doesn't)

Make ahead freezer meals solve meal planning by moving all the decisions and all the chopping to a moment when you do have the energy. By dinnertime, the work is already done. You're just dumping a bag into a pot.

A few things that make this whole system run smoother:

• Freezer bags and bag holders. I cannot oversell the bag holder. Trying to fill a floppy freezer bag by yourself is terrible, and these little stands hold the bag open so you're not spilling everything. Get the heavy-duty Ziploc bags, the cheap ones tear.
• Freezer Labels on everything. In the future, you won't remember what's in the mystery bag. A label saves you from the "is this curry or is this soup" guessing game.
• A large slow cooker. Great for batch cooking, and you can freeze the rest for a quick meal later.
• An Instant Pot. All you have to do is dump your thawed freezer meal in, lock the lid, and boom - done. Dinner.

These are also the building blocks for crockpot freezer meals in general — once you've got the bags, the holder, and a labeling system, you can prep almost anything ahead.

The 5 Make Ahead Chicken Freezer Meals

1. Greek Lemon Chicken and Potatoes (Instant Pot)

This one surprised me — I went in skeptical and then stood at the counter eating it straight out of the pot. If you like anything lemony, make this.

Into the freezer bag: bone-in chicken breasts (skin removed), baby gold potatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, and the zest and juice of a couple lemons. Zest the lemon before you juice it. 

When you're ready to eat, dump the thawed bag into the Instant Pot and pressure cook on high for 15 minutes with a 10-minute natural release. Shred the chicken right in that lemony sauce at the bottom, crumble some feta over the top, and that's dinner. (No Instant Pot? This works in the slow cooker too — low for 6 to 7 hours.)

2. Cool Ranch Chicken Tacos (Slow Cooker)

Into the bag: about two pounds of frozen chicken breasts, a packet of taco seasoning, a packet of ranch seasoning, the juice of one lime, and a half cup of chicken broth.

That's it. Mix the dry stuff in, pour the liquids over, smush it together, freeze. On cooking day, dump it in the slow cooker on low for about 7 hours, then shred. We do tacos, but this same shredded chicken makes quesadillas or burrito bowls — one of those easy chicken freezer meals that turns into three different dinners.

3. Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

Into the freezer bag: four small-to-medium chicken breasts, chopped carrots, celery, onion, and the seasonings — garlic powder, dried basil, oregano, a bay leaf, pepper, and chicken bouillon. I'm loyal to Knorr chicken bouillon because it brings a ton of flavor for pennies on the dollar. 

On cooking day, dump the bag into the slow cooker, add 8 cups of water, and cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 4). Pull the chicken, shred it, add it back with about two-thirds of a bag of egg noodles, and let those cook in the broth for 20 to 30 minutes. My one trick: squeeze a little lemon juice in at the end. You won't taste lemon — it just wakes the whole thing up.

4. Thai Chicken Curry (Slow Cooker)

I love this one, and it's the only one with a tiny bit of mixing. Into the bag: cubed chicken breast, red curry paste, chicken stock, brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, big chunks of bell pepper and onion, and ginger and garlic. Whisk the sauce right in the bag, add the chicken and veg, freeze.

When it's time, slow cook it, then stir in lime juice and coconut milk at the end. Serve over rice with cilantro. One honest note: spring for a good red curry paste (Thai Kitchen is my pick). The brand makes a real difference here.

5. Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken

This is the workhorse. Cook it once and it becomes buffalo chicken tacos, quesadillas, salads, bowls, sandwiches, pizza, or dip.

Into the bag: chicken breast, a packet of ranch seasoning, a whole bottle of Frank's Red Hot, and half a stick of butter. The butter and the juices and the hot sauce turn into the buffalo sauce while it cooks — you don't make a sauce, the sauce makes itself. Slow cook on high for 4 hours, then shred.

How Long Do Make Ahead Freezer Meals Last? (Quick FAQ)

How long do these freezer meals keep? Raw chicken freezer meals are best within about 3 months for quality, though they're safe longer. Label them with the date so you're not playing freezer roulette.

Can you freeze raw chicken in a marinade like this? Yes — and honestly it's better. The chicken marinates while it freezes and again while it thaws, so it picks up more flavor than if you'd cooked it the same day.

Do you have to thaw before cooking? For the slow cooker recipes, thaw overnight in the fridge for even cooking. For the Instant Pot, you've got more flexibility, but a partial thaw still helps. Run warm water over the outside of the bag to loosen it from the contents.

Slow cooker or Instant Pot? Both work for most of these. The slow cooker is the set-it-and-forget-it option; the Instant Pot is for the nights you forgot to start dinner. These are crockpot freezer meals at heart, but every one of them has an Instant Pot path too.

Grab the Free Printable Recipes

Want all five of these make ahead freezer meals on cards you can actually keep — in your recipe binder instead of a lost browser tab at the bottom of 40 others?

Drop your email and I'll send you the free printable recipe cards for all five recipes — ingredient lists, freezer-prep steps, and cooking instructions, ready to print and stick in your binder.

Done Is Better Than Perfect

That's the whole point of freezer meals, honestly. You're not trying to be the person with color-coded freezer bins and a laminated meal plan. You're trying to get a decent dinner on the table on a night you've got nothing left — and these five make ahead freezer meals do exactly that.

Prep them on a good day. Eat them on a hard one. That's the system.

If freezer-meal day is going to become a regular thing for you (and once you taste that buffalo chicken, it might), the Dinner: Done Meal Planner keeps your weekly plan and grocery list in one place so the prep day runs even smoother. And if you want a fresh budget-friendly meal plan and grocery list handed to you every week, that's exactly what we do over at The Dinner: Done Club.