Not only can you freeze cooked ground beef, but it is also one of my biggest time-saving meal-prepping secrets that I have been doing for years! It is a part of my meal plan strategy to have healthy, quick meals on busy weeknights. It helps my family avoid fast food if we know that it is already cooked, ready-to-go ground beef in the freezer.
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How Many Pounds
Ten pounds of lean ground beef is the sweet spot for my family of four - two adults, a teenage boy, and a teen girl. For your smaller family, it may be five pounds; likewise, it may be twenty pounds if you have a large family or eat many meals with cooked ground beef.
We usually go through ten pounds in three weeks. However, that can vary greatly if we plan more chicken or pork meals and also if we are busier and need a pound of ground beef for quick meals my whole family loves, like sloppy joe bowls or beef tacos.
How To Freeze Cooked Hamburger
Step 1: Take out ten pounds of frozen hamburger or purchase ten pounds of ground beef from the grocery store. Defrosting frozen ground beef the entire time in the fridge is the easiest and safest way.
Step 2: Take out two large skillets. Open a package of meat and place up to two pounds of raw hamburger in each skillet. If the skillet is small, do one pound of raw hamburger at a time. Do not overcrowd the pan, or the hamburger will steam versus fry.
Step 3: Allow the raw hamburger to cook undisturbed until the hamburger begins to sear. You want the hamburger to get a Maillard reaction. To me, the Maillard reaction is the smell of hamburgers on the grill in the summer.
Step 4: Building flavors and seasoning raw hamburger with salt and pepper is essential to obtain the best flavor. Delicious ground beef recipes start with well-seasoned cooked ground beef.
Step 5: Next, you will want to flip the large pieces of hamburger and allow the other side to sear and get the Maillard reaction.
Step 6: Now break the large pieces of semi-cooked hamburger into small pieces. You will see pink meat in this phase, and that is ok. It will continue to cook. There will also be caramelized seared pieces too, which is excellent! Those pieces are delicious crumbles!
You can use a straight-edge wooden spoon for this or a fancy tool specifically designed to help break up cooked hamburger into small crumbles.
Step 7: Keep cooking over medium heat and stirring until you no longer see any pink pieces of hamburger left in your skillet.
Drain the hamburger, if needed, with a strainer and a container below to catch the grease. Do not let the grease go down the sink.
Step 8: Place the cooked hamburger in the refrigerator to chill. Cover with plastic wrap.
Step 9: Label the freezer-safe zip-top bags with the date and contents. Freezer tape also works for this if using freezer-safe or glass containers. This works for Italian sausage, ground turkey, or pork sausage, too!
Step 10: Add two cups of cooked ground to each bag. Two cups of cooked ground beef is one pound. If you have a large family and want to put two pounds in each bag, you would put four cups of ground beef. Likewise, if you want to create a half-pound bag, you would only put one cup of meat.
Lay the bags flat, squeeze out as much air as possible and freeze. Use within four months.
Tips and Tricks
Do not let the hot grease go down the kitchen sink. Any grease is horrific for pipes. It cools and creates a sludge, coating the pipes. Catch the grease in a bowl, chill and wipe it out with a paper towel and toss in the garbage.
If you own a Blackstone, cook the hamburger on it! We do this all summer long.
Don't forget to season the raw hamburger before cooking. It needs some salt and pepper!
FAQs
If you have thawed your hamburger in the fridge the entire time, so no countertop thawing, no cold water method thawing, just freezer-to-fridge thawing - your hamburger should remain safe and good quality for an additional day or two before cooking.
If hamburger is thawed, but no time to cook it, you can refreeze it. It will lose a bit of quality doing this, but you will not have to toss the hamburger! The USDA has great food safety knowledge and is a safe place to obtain any specific guidelines on thawing meat.
Well-packaged frozen ground beef will last indefinitely in the freezer but will lose quality over time. Freezer burn is a real problem, but the beef is still safe to eat.
You have four months before you start losing significant quality of the cooked beef.
Two cups of cooked hamburger equals one pound of hamburger. If a recipe calls for one pound of hamburger, two cups of cooked hamburger will be enough.
How to use Frozen Cooked Hamburger
I like to defrost the cooked hamburger just enough to break it up. In a microwave, that is about a minute on defrost.
- Sloppy Joes - Quick and easy, make in advance and reheat in the microwave to have an quick meal ready to go.
- Tater Tot Hotdish - A Minnesota staple. Ground beef in a homemade sauce with veggies and crispy tater tots.
- Goulash with Chickenpea Noodles - An under 30-minute meal made with protein-packed chickpea noodles.
- Lasagna - Layers of noodles and cottage cheese.
- Pizza Bake - A family favorite!
- Taco Salad - Perfect for the summer, with a homemade western dressing.
- Taco Pie - A great way to use up corn tortillas!
Plus so much more! Have prepped proteins in the freezer, like diced chicken is a great time saver.
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Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating + comment. It helps so much, and we love hearing from everyone! Thank You -Venessa
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