Making your own ground chicken at home is easy, cost-effective, and ensures you get the freshest, highest quality ground meat. Whether you want to save money, control the fat content, or just enjoy the convenience of homemade, this guide will walk you through the entire process from start to finish.
Why Make Your Own Ground Chicken?
There are a few key reasons you may want to grind your own chicken at home
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Cost savings – Buying whole chicken breasts or thighs and grinding them yourself is cheaper than buying pre-ground chicken. You can also buy chicken on sale and grind large batches for freezing.
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Control fat content – Mixing dark and white meat allows you to customize the leanness, Going all white breast meat results in very lean ground chicken
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Freshness – Grinding your own ensures maximum freshness and flavor Pre-ground chicken at the store is often made from trimmings
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Avoid preservatives – Many pre-ground meats contain preservatives to extend shelf life. Making your own avoids these extra ingredients.
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Availability – Some stores simply don’t stock ground chicken. Grinding it yourself solves this.
What You’ll Need
Grinding your own chicken only requires a few basic supplies:
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Boneless, skinless chicken thighs and/or breasts – Go for an organic, free-range brand if your budget allows.
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A knife and cutting board for slicing the chicken. A sharp chef’s knife works best.
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A food processor for pulsing the chicken into a ground texture. Any model with an S-blade will work.
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Optional: A meat grinder attachment for a stand mixer. This makes for a finer, more uniform grind.
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Storage containers for refrigerating or freezing batches of ground chicken. Reusable deli containers work great.
And that’s it – you likely already have everything you need to get started with making homemade ground chicken. Now let’s go step-by-step through the process.
Step 1: Choose Your Chicken
The first step is selecting what type of chicken to use. This impacts the fat content, flavor, and texture of the final ground chicken. Here are your options:
Chicken breasts – Very lean, around 99% fat free. Can be a little dry.
Chicken thighs – Dark meat is juicier and more flavorful. Around 93% lean.
A blend – Mixing breast and thigh combines the best of both. Ideal for most recipes.
For optimal flavor and moisture, I recommend doing a blend – try 3 lbs chicken breast and 2 lbs chicken thighs. This results in ground chicken that’s 97% lean.
Step 2: Cut the Chicken Into Pieces
Once you’ve selected your chicken, it’s time to slice it up in preparation for grinding:
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Partially freeze the chicken for 60-90 minutes until firm but not solid. This makes it easier to cut cleanly.
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Using a sharp chef’s knife, carefully slice the chicken into 1/2 to 1 inch wide strips.
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Cut against the grain for the most tender, shred-able ground chicken texture.
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Separate any large chunks of fat or connective tissue and discard.
The thinner you can uniformly slice the chicken, the easier it will be to grind and the better the end result.
Step 3: Grind the Chicken
Now that your chicken is prepped, it’s go time! You have 3 options for actually grinding the meat:
With a knife – Dice the sliced chicken until it’s minced into the desired texture. This takes some manual labor but works great.
In a food processor – Working in batches, pulse the chicken 4-6 times until ground. Be careful not to over-process into a paste.
Using a meat grinder – The fastest method. Pass the sliced chicken through the grinder for a very uniform ground.
Whichever method you choose, the process is the same: grind the chicken down until it’s smooth with a bit of texture. Get it as fine or coarse as you prefer.
Aim to maintain cold temperatures – work in batches and/or use a bowl over an ice bath to prevent the chicken from warming up too much as you grind. This preserves maximum juiciness.
Step 4: Store the Ground Chicken
Freshly ground chicken needs to be either cooked immediately or stored properly for later use. Here are your storage options:
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Refrigerate for 3-4 days – keep ground chicken in an airtight container at 40°F or below.
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Freeze for 4-6 months – form ground chicken into patties or logs, place in freezer bags, and freeze. Thaw overnight in the fridge before using.
Practice proper freezing techniques – single layer on a baking sheet before bagging, all air removed from bags, and minimal repeated thaw/refreeze.
Proper storage keeps homemade ground chicken fresh and ready to cook whenever you need it!
Ground Chicken Recipes and Cooking Tips
Homemade ground chicken is extremely versatile. Here are some tasty recipes and cooking tips:
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Greek chicken burgers, meatballs, or meatloaf
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Chicken chili, tacos, burrito bowls, or quesadillas
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Add to pasta dishes, stir fries, frittatas, etc.
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Substitute in any recipe calling for ground turkey or lean ground beef
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Season aggressively – it takes seasoning well. Use bold flavors.
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Cook to 160°F minimum internal temperature to ensure safety and juiciness.
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Freeze cooked ground chicken for easy re-heating later on busy nights.
With a little practice and creativity, your homemade ground chicken opens up endless quick, healthy, and delicious meal possibilities for your family.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the shelf life of homemade ground chicken?
- 3-4 days refrigerated; 4-6 months frozen
Can you use only chicken thighs or breasts?
- Yes, 100% thighs or 100% breasts will work. For best flavor and moisture, I recommend a blend.
Do you need to trim the fat off chicken thighs?
- Most of the fat will get ground up. But yes, removing large chunks of fat will yield a leaner ground chicken overall.
Is ground chicken healthier than beef or turkey?
- It’s quite healthy due to being very lean, particularly when made from breast meat. Slightly healthier than beef or turkey overall.
What recipes use ground chicken?
- Burgers, meatballs, meatloaf, stuffed peppers, burrito bowls, casseroles, soups, chilis, and more. Gets creative!
The Takeaway
Grinding chicken at home gives you total control over the ingredients, fat content, flavor, and freshness of the meat. All it takes is a sharp knife, food processor, or meat grinder attachment to turn chicken parts into healthy, versatile ground chicken ready to cook anyway you like. Pre-ground chicken can’t compare to the quality, customization, and cost savings of DIY.
How to Serve with Seasoned Ground Chicken
My favorite way to use the seasoned ground chicken is meal prep! It can serve as individual meal prep, or is great for family meal prep as a starter for many other dishes.
- Pair with sweet potatoes and BBQ sauce.
- Add a scoop over rice and shredded cabbage and drizzle with teriyaki sauce.
- Mix with corn, black beans, salsa and a sprinkle of cheese.
- Toss with pasta and marinara sauce. Top with mozzarella cheese.
- Mix with cottage cheese or ricotta cheese and stuff in pasta shells.
Since this protein based dinner has the delicious and versatile flavors, it will pair well with many of your favorite classic side dishes.
Choose one or several of these side dishes to create a wholesome, well-rounded dinner. There are both classic options and some healthy options to keep it light.
- Herb Roasted Potatoes – These herb roasted potatoes are a household favorite and one of my go-to sides with any meal. They’re golden and crispy, perfectly fluffy inside, and come together in just a few minutes.
- Garlic Cheese Bread – You can never go wrong with a cheesy garlic bread. And this recipe is as good as it gets. It’s made with soft, chewy French bread topped with butter, garlic, herbs, and cheese then toasted in the oven until crispy, melty, and delicious.
- Green Bean Casserole – Green bean casserole is the perfect pairing for so many meals! This recipe requires just 5 minutes of hands-on time and comes out of the oven bubbly, creamy, and gooey with the perfect crispy topping.
If you have leftovers after making this recipe, then it is your lucky day! They save and reheat well, and can make the start of another delicious dish.
To save leftovers, separate into meal sized portions and then place in an airtight container and store:
- in the refrigerator for 3-4 days
- in the freezer up to 3 months
Here are a few ways to repurpose those leftovers and give them a delicious makeover!
- Garlic Parmesan Chicken Pasta – Try it in place of chicken cutlets in my Garlic Parmesan Chicken Pasta. This pasta is rich, creamy, flavorful, cheesy, and delicious.
- Cheddar Bay Biscuit Chicken Pot Pie – This chicken pot pie is a classic with a twist! It’s made with a creamy chicken and veggie filling topped with fluffy cheddar bay biscuits—and it’s the perfect way to use leftover ground chicken!
- Chicken Burrito Casserole– This Chicken Burrito Casserole recipe calls for chopped or shredded chicken, but can absolutely be made with this seasoned ground chicken too! It features corn, beans, and chicken smothered in a creamy sauce and topped with cheese.
Why I LOVE this recipe!
- So simple – All you need is chicken, onion, and a few spices. .
- As quick as it gets – Seriously. This chicken is ready to serve in a quick 15 minutes.
- Versatile – While the flavor of this chicken is amazing, it’s still versatile enough that you can use it for a number of different meals.
- Makes a LOT – Starting with a 2 full pounds of chicken creates plenty of delicious ground chicken to go around.
This seasoned ground chicken recipe is as simple as promised! Just 15 minutes for a family friendly meal and a meal prep dream-come-true.
In this section I am going to go through a few tips and tricks I use for how to make seasoned ground chicken to get the absolute best and most delicious results.
Make sure to scroll to the bottom for the FULL recipe card.
- Chicken – You’ll need 2 pounds of ground chicken—fresh or frozen/thawed.
- Onion – I recommend yellow, white, or sweet to create the perfect flavor base.
- Spices – We’re using a combination of salt, garlic powder, paprika, onion powder, black pepper, dried thyme. You can make a big batch of my ground chicken seasoning if you prefer to keep this on hand to save time.
Make sure to see the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full quantities and ingredients list.
If you love this recipe as much as we do and want some quick ways to change it up for variety, these little tips will do the trick!
- Mexican Ground Chicken – Sub the spice blend out for my chicken taco seasoning to give this recipe a Mexican-inspired twist.
- Italian Ground Chicken – Add a few more dried herbs to give this chicken all the Italian flavor!
- Spicy Ground Chicken – Kick the heat up a notch with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes.