Freezing a meal ?'s

[disny_luvr]

I freeze meats all the time, but have never, ever frozen a pre-cooked meal. Today before we went to church I pulled chicken breasts out of the freezer to make for dinner tonight in a casserole (poppy seed chicken). Well, after church my parents invited us out to dinner. Of course we went and ate way too much food. I can't imagine any of us being hungry for a large meal tonight, so I thought I'd make the meal I was planning for tonight tomorrow night instead. Shortly after we arrived home from church, friends of ours called and invited us over for dinner tomorrow night. I offered to bring something but they want to supply all the food since DH is doing some work at their house for them. Since we are going there tomorrow night I won't be making my meal with this chicken tomorrow. I'm worried that if I wait until Tuesday to make the meat the chicken won't be good so I am thinking of making the meal today and freezing it. If I cook the chicken, can a freeze the chicken again since it was already frozen once? Can I freeze cream of chicken soup and sour cream? Could I prepare the meal today and keep it in my refrigerator until Tuesday? These may sound like wierd questions to most of you, but this is all foreign to me. TIA!

 

[disney_me]

I would make the meal today if you have the time and keep it in the fridge. You can also freeze it if you feel that's a better choice. Just remember, your casserole may get a dry. You might want to have another can of soup on hand to moisten the casserole. I have had left over lasagna frozen and cook on another night and had to add extra sauce because it was a bit dry.

 

[Kycha]

Raw meat that has been frozen, can be frozen again once it is cooked. Cooked meats don't last as long in the feezer. Usually just a couple weeks when cooked, as opposed to a couple months when raw.

I wouldn't freeze a sour cream based sauce. Sour cream separates when frozen. I think you can put the meal together and just put it in the fridge. It will be just fine for a couple days. Otherwise, you can just freeze the cooked chicken and put the rest of the meal together on the day you are ready to cook it.

 

[Abbeysmom]

I normally make two of those casseroles at a time (or make a really big one and save part for later) and refrigerate the other one for a few days before I actually cook it. Never have a problem. I think I have known of them being frozen before without any problems but not sure. I don't think you will have any trouble.

 

[mollymar]

If you just pulled the chicken out of the fridge today it should be fine until you cook it on Tuesday.