Freezer-burnt chicken drumsticks and/or breasts--what can I do with these?

[melissel]

I went through our deep freeze today to take stock of what I have for the next few weeks, and I discovered two packages of freezer-burnt, 16-month-old chicken drumsticks and two packages of two-year-old freezer-burnt breasts. According to the food storage sites I read, because they've been deep-frozen, they're safe to eat, but the quality most likely has suffered.

Would you use these for making stock, even? Or would you just count them as a loss and toss them? I'm sure they wouldn't taste great cooked to eat, but as a stock--do you think the age would affect the flavor?

I'm kicking myself for doing this again We're working so hard to cut costs and save money right now, and I have one container of broth and no homemade stock at the moment. I'd love if I I could at least turn these into something, but not at the cost of a decent meal for my family, you know? Gah!

TIA!

[Kyamo]

They were still packaged, right? If so, I would use them in a meal where they are broken up into little bits and mixed with a lot of other stuff, like a soup or stew. Then the meat is not the focus of the meal. I bet you won't even be able to tell the difference in that type of meal.

[philomom]

Did they have the skin on? If so, the worst of the frostbite might be on the skin. I might cook them in the slow cooker with barbecue sauce and eat them.

[Denvergirlie]

Crockpot!

remove any skin, place all in crockpot with water and let them cook until it falls off the bone.

Drain liquid, shred chicken, freeze on a single layer on a cookie sheet for a few hours. Place frozen shredded chicken in ziploc baggies. Now you can add shredded chicken to meals as needed.

I use my pre-cooked shredded chicken for all sorts of things... BBQ chicken sandwhiches, quesodillas, soups, nachos, BBQ chicken pizza, enchilldas, etc.

I would not use this chicken as a main meal mea dish, but would not have any issues with using in above scenerios where meat is an ingrediant in the dish, but not the main entree.

[swede]

Originally Posted by philomom 

Did they have the skin on? If so, the worst of the frostbite might be on the skin. I might cook them in the slow cooker with barbecue sauce and eat them.

this :)

[lmonter]

Make chicken stock.  The marrow should still be in the bones, and you could probably put the plain breasts either in a crockpot soup (so it stews all day) or I've even pressure canned freezer-burnt chicken.  But not everybody has a canning problem like me.  ;)
 

[Ola_]

They'll be pretty dry because of the freezer burn, but maybe you could cook them in a very saucy dish?  Or a crockpot stew of some kind.  I don't have a lot of experience with making stock but I'd think they would be good for that as well - a lot of the flavour comes from the bones, right?

[melissel]

Thanks everyone! The drumsticks were repackaged from a larger value pack into plastic wrap and freezer bags for easier use (ha!), so they were removed from their package. I think I'll make stock from those because I really need the stock right now and have some veggie leftover bits that I can use up that way too. I'll see what the resulting meat looks like and maybe I'll use that for pot pie... As for the breasts, I'll look into some soup/crockpot recipes for those. They look like they have a lot of freezer burn, because they were still in their original thin plastic wrapping, and sometimes that doesn't hold up so well in the deep freeze, especially when they're getting banged around at the bottom.

Thanks for all your advice and input!