Although there are many quick meal recipes to make lunch and dinner as easy and delicious as possible, the reality is that life can still get pretty busy. Some people just have a lot on their plate to the point that making fresh meals right on the spot can be time consuming. For that reason, the trend of meal prepping has been steadily growing in popularity. Through meal prepping ahead of time, people have options to whip up quick and easy meals in less than half the time. Of the different time-consuming processes that may take place while cooking, marinating meat can be one of those easy yet long ones. It’s not difficult by any means, yet to have truly marinated and flavorful meat, it may require planning ahead. In some ways, it may just be easier to do the marination process ahead of time so that when you are ready to cook, you can thaw and cook right away. For that reason, this begs the question. Can you freeze marinated meat ahead of time?

Freezing Marinated Meat Tips

The short answer to the question of whether you can freeze marinated meat is a simple yes. You surely can freeze marinated meat if you would like to. Most would say that frozen marinated meat can last up to 3 months in the freezer before quality decreases. Now that you know you can freeze marinated meat, here are the tips you need to know to do it right.

• Before you freeze your meat, make sure you completely thaw it out before adding your marinade in. Failure to do this can result in the meat not properly absorbing the marinade ahead of time. You can feel free to pour the meat and marinade together in the freezer bag.
• Make sure that when you are ready to freeze your meat, you seal it up properly. Failing to tightly seal your meat before freezing can lead to freezer burn and ruin the quality of the meat. Place your marinated meat and marinade in freezer bags and be sure to let all air out before sealing the bag. Be sure to leave some space at the top of the bag since contents expand in the freezer. Make sure to mark the freezer bag with its contents and date so that you can find it easily later.
• It is recommended that when you first marinate your meat, you use fresh meat the first time around. If you thaw out frozen meat, then marinate it, refreeze it, and thaw it out again, this can end up degrading the quality of meat if you don’t do it properly. This is especially true if you thawed your meat out the first time by letting it sit out at room temperature or sit in cold water on the counter. These kinds of quick thawing methods can end up ruining the quality of meat upon refreeze.
• When it is time to thaw your marinated meat for cooking, make sure to thaw it out in the refrigerator. Allow it to sit in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. Once it has thawed, you can completely skip the marinating process and get straight to cooking! Once the meat has been cooked, do not refreeze it. At that point, it is better to keep it in the fridge as leftovers or discard.