Nothing beats a big ‘ol batch of chili. Not only does it warm up the kitchen and fill the house with tasty smells, but a Dutch oven or slow cooker beef chili can turn into multiple meals. In fact, if you freeze it properly, a batch of chili can feed you or your family for weeks. The key is to make sure to cool the stew down properly before it goes into the storage containers. It’s also a good idea to freeze the chili so that it’s flat, either in shallow containers or zipper-top bags, which is a great freezer storage hack to maximize space.
Freezing food is a great way to prevent waste, but a lot of people aren’t aware of how crucial it is to cool it down before putting it in the freezer. Warm containers will heat up the inside of the freezer, which can cause other items to defrost, melt, or create freezer burn. Plus, the food you’re trying to freeze can take a long time to get completely cold, which can create an ideal environment for dangerous pathogens to grow. Later, when it’s time to defrost, you can unwittingly eat the food that was perfectly safe going into the freezer and get sick.
Chill the chili and flatten it out
In commercial kitchens, big batches of food like chili are rapidly cooled down before they go into the refrigerator or freezer to prevent bacterial growth. Soups and stews must be cooled to below 70 degrees Fahrenheit within two hours before being put away. The goal is to avoid the temperature danger zone between 40 and 140 degrees — and food is only safe in this range for two hours. If the pot of chili is very big, the best way to chill it down to storage temperature is to submerge the pot in an ice bath in the sink and stir it every few minutes until it comes down to temperature.
Once the chili is chilled, spoon or ladle it into storage containers. Ziplock-style bags are perfect for flattening on a sheet pan before freezing, but you can also use small plastic containers or silicone food molds, which hold a measured amount of food. This is convenient if you like to know exactly how much food you have stored in the freezer. Finally, don’t forget to label and date the containers. It’s so easy to forget how long they have been hanging around in the freezer, and a label with a date will help you follow the principle of “first in, first out.”
