How To Make Freezer Dinner Packets

What’s for dinner tonight? Let’s ask the freezer. Here’s a little gift you can prep for yourself to have an almost effortless dinner ready to go at any time: frozen foil-packet meal kits.

Unlike more traditional frozen dinner kits, which are intended to feed four or more, packets are single-serve and can feed just one person at a time. Frozen foil packets are also wonderful for teens who might need to feed themselves, as they are mostly hands-off and only require an oven.

Here’s how to take a small amount of time and transform it into foil dinner packets, ready to bake.

Here’s a simple formula for building frozen foil packets: Pick a protein — chicken, shrimp, and ground beef all freeze and roast well; throw in some quick-cooking vegetables like thinly sliced peppers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and sliced onions; and finally, add a sauce or marinade, which will flavor the whole packet but also steam the meat and vegetables in the oven, yielding cooked packets full of flavor and tender protein.

Below we give you instructions for a fajita-inspired combination of chicken and vegetables, but this can be switched up with virtually no change to the cooking requirements.

Another tip for ensuring tasty foil-packet meals? Make sure that the meat is cut into even pieces that are roughly the same size. Same goes for the vegetables. Since the packet cooks fast and furious, you want to make sure everything will be done at the same time.

Insulation is another key component of foil meal packets. Too thin a foil packet and foods can freezer burn while waiting in the freezer, or spring a leak in the oven while roasting. Better insulation means more even freezing and cooking, too. Heavy-duty foil will make a better packet when doubled up.

Read more: 9 Other Ways to Use Aluminum Foil Around the House

While the packets bake, do a little work to round out the meal. The recipe below is for fajita packets, so warm some tortillas, make a bowl of guacamole or salsa, and get ready to feast. You can also boil a pot of pasta or make a simple salad. Couscous cooks up quickly while the packets roast too.

Get an easy dinner recipe: Baked Fish, Spinach, and Tomatoes in Foil Packets