Poultry
Chicken in your pantry means canned chicken. You can only store so much in your freezer, and in the event of a power failure, you can eat canned chicken straight from the can
without cooking it. Canned chicken is also convient.
However, it is less expensive to buy chicken when it is on sale at its lowest and put it in the freezer. I try to have some of both on hand. In the following recipes, you can usually use either.
For whole chickens or chicken breasts, I watch for the lowest price and stock up then. I only buy when the prices are at their lowest.
For an even cheaper alternative, you can substitute cooked turkey into any of these recipes (and we often do). I buy several turkeys in November. I freeze some whole, and I cook the others and put the cooked meat into the freezer in bags. When I want to make something, it saves me time, because the meat is already cooked. I buy the largest turkeys that I can. I usually cook 3 turkeys in one week in November and put that meat aside.
Turkeys are often on sale again at Christmas time and sometimes at Easter.