For Better Salads At Home, Meal Prep With Fast Food Chicken

Although meal prepping makes life more convenient in the long run, the work that originally goes into it can be taxing. Although there are veggie peeling hacks and restaurant tips and tricks that streamline the meal-prepping process, you can make it even easier by cheating the system with fast food chicken.

Using fast food chicken for meal prepping is especially useful when making salads. Because they're often touted as boring and scant, it's easy to omit salads from your weekly meal rotation. However, a diet filled with greens is also a nourishing one, which makes meal-prepped salads a good way to get nutrient-dense foods into your busy week. By purchasing fast food chicken for meal-prepped salads, you eliminate the time and effort it takes to cut, cure, marinate, and cook raw chicken.

Not only does fast food chicken make meal prepping easier, but it also makes salads more enjoyable. Whether it's a Cobb salad topped with crunchy fried chicken, a Caesar salad crowned with grilled strips, or a medley of basic garden greens jazzed up with spicy Nashville hot chicken, a short wait in a fast food line makes that Monday salad far more enticing.

There's no real science to meal-prepping salads with fast food chicken. However, there are a few tips worth keeping in mind to get the most out of your ready-to-eat poultry-topped greens.

Look for fast food joints that offer catering or family-style platters. They come with higher quantities of chicken than single entrées, and they often include a variety of chicken, such as bone-in thighs, spicy tenders, and nuggets, which can diversify your salads. However, if you're only prepping one or two salads, a single entrée is a more practical option. To prevent the chicken from making your greens soggy or greasy, keep individual ingredients separate and combine them in a bowl when you're ready to eat. Or invest in special lunch containers like the Freshmage multi-compartment salad lunch container. 

Cooked chicken, whether you cook it at home or get it from a fast food restaurant, stays fresh for up to four days. Store fast food chicken in an airtight container and keep your refrigerator set to a maximum of 40 degrees Fahrenheit to maximize the time you have with your protein-packed meal-prepped salads. Whether you order from Anthony Bourdain's favorite fried chicken joint or a local gem, fast-food chicken is an easy way to transform meal-prepped salads while simultaneously easing the burden of Sunday night lunch prep.