Zaycon Chicken

If you recall back in early October I had told you that I won a great prize from ShainasDeals.  I had won a credit of $67.50 to be used on a purchase from Zaycon or a check for $30 if I was not in their delivery area.  Well as luck would have it I was close to the only delivery location in New Jersey (although they could be expanding here too).

I was able to use part of my credit to purchase 40 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I picked up on Saturday.  I know what you are saying . WOW 40 pounds! That's a lot of chicken!  And it is but it really isn't.  We like chicken and this is beautiful chicken.

  I guess I was really excited because I needed to be in Livingston between 12 and 1 for pickup....but I got there at 11:30 and was the FIRST one in line ... yes I was pretty excited.

I got to talk with Mike Conrad, one of the owners, about some of the great things this company has in store for its clientele.  Like I know the next event will be for ground beef (which from the website is 93/7 - super lean), and I know they just made some arrangements with 12 boats in Alaska to be able to provide Sockeyed Salmon (although I don't know when that will happen yet).  And then they also have connections for blueberries and cherries for sure, that I really can't wait to see.

Mike and his traveling companion (sorry I don't know what his name was) were so nice to talk with and so very helpful.  Mike put my box of chicken in the trunk of my car for me - I didn't even have to carry the box, such a gentleman, (they definitely aren't from around here ... but I loved it).  After a little more conversation about possibilities for the future, off I went.

When I got home, of course I had to bring it into the house - and I have to admit 40 pounds of chicken is heavy.

When I opened the box I saw there was a sealed bag, that had individual bags inside that bag that held my chicken.  I really liked the extra packaging.  The inside bags weren't sealed but they were "overflowing" with chicken.  The sealed outside bag, made sure that there wasn't any "leakage" in transport.

I had my trusty FoodSaver waiting for me on the counter, along with a cutting board, poultry scissors, and 2 mixing bowls (one for the breasts and one for the scraps for broth).

 The FoodSaver made packaging for the freezer a wonderful thing - if you don't have one you really should look into one.  They really are worth every penny!



Here is one of the butterflied, boneless, skinless chicken breasts right out of the box, on my cutting board.

Basically all I needed to do was cut down the center of the breasts, trim off a little of the extra fat to clean it up just a little bit more and put it in the big bowl until I was ready to package them up.

 Look at the size of those breasts!  I can't believe how big these things were.  I don't think there are ever breasts this big in my local supermarket and definitely NOT at this price!

These were the breasts from one of the inner bags - I could only fix 1 bag in the large mixing bowl before I had to make my FoodSaver bags and package them up.  Aren't they so beautiful?  I can't wait to make a dinner with these babies!

Here are some of the bagged chicken.  Each package is between 2.5 lbs and 3.25 lbs. of pure chicken.  I have 12 packages this way and a few individual breasts (about .75lbs each) plus my "scraps" for stock.    I was able to put them all back into the box to carry to the freezer, where I laid them flat so that they take up the least amount of room in the freezer

It probably took me about an hour to separate the breasts, do a little clean up of the breasts, package them up into family sized packages, seal the packages with my Foodsaver and put in the freezer and clean up my "production area".  I will be making broth with the "scraps".  I am also looking for some different chicken recipes to try with my beautiful chicken.

I am also going to talk more with Mike and see if I can get a giveaway for you all to be able to try Zaycon products for yourself.  I know I will be looking forward to the next "event".  If you would like to open an account with them, you can do so here  or if you want to check out Zaycon Foods website and then open an account with them, if you could tell them that Kat Meller referred you to them - I would really appreciate it.  And if they see lots of people setting up accounts because of my referral ... that could really make it possible to have a giveaway really soon.

YES we are having a Zaycon Chicken Giveaway!!  check it out and enter at my  Zaycon Foods Giveaway!