So basically I bought some chicken a couple of days ago and I unexpectedly ended up shopping for a few more hours before I got back home. When I got back I tossed the chicken in the freezer and didn't really think about it. Now I'm kinda wondering if the chicken is still ok to eat... I was walking around with it for about 3 hours and I'm not 100% sure but I don't think it was really frozen when I got it in the store, just refrigerated. So TL experts, is the chicken still ok to cook after being possibly (probably) thawed and refrozen? What are the risks? I've googled around a bit and there's seemingly a lot of different responses and opinions on this matter. What do I do with my precious chicken?
eat ur delicious chicken. Meat doesn't have to be frozen or cooled all the time. As long as it wasn't warm for more than mb 1 day it's not a problem at all
That's not a problem, go right ahead and eat that chicken. Personally wouldn't eat it raw but then again, I wouldn't do that with fresh chicken either.
Make sure that your freezer is cold enough, it should be below -18C (That is what, 0F?)
I wasn't even aware there was a potential issue arising after thawing and refreezing, simply because I don't think of the chicken as yogurt--For the record, I'd still drink thawed, refrozan and re-thawed yogurt.
As long as you cook it and you keep the chicken temperature over 60C at the time of serving, you should just enjoy your delicious chicken in any fashion you'd like.
Edit: But, as pointed above, bear in mind that none of us are experts in the field of poultry. I'm just saying I'm too cheap to waste an entire chicken.
So here's how it works. Bacteria is the main worry. Chicken can be contaminated with salmonella, which is very nasty kind of bacteria. Now, a small amount of bacteria won't hurt you, and cooking your food (getting it above a certain temperature) will kill a lot of bacteria. Keeping the temperature low stops it from growing; bacteria grows very slowly at fridge temperatures, while freezing stops bacteria growth completely (but doesn't kill bacteria). Bacteria grow very well when food is kept warm, so you shouldn't keep food on the counter for more than an hour or two after cooking, and reheating leftovers repeatedly can also cause problems. Incomplete cooking and keeping food warm for an extended period are the two main dangers.
Since your chicken stayed relatively cool, and you plan on cooking it, you should be fine. When you should worry is if you buy a ready-to-eat (ie. cooked and warm) chicken and leave it in the car for a few hours.
Edit: quality. Also, it's at your own risk obviously.
Smell it. If it smells bad, it's bad. If you don't know what bad meat smells like, trust me, you'll know when you smell it. The other concern would be bacteria so just make sure it's cooked all the way through. Eat that shit IMO.
I have a similar question but with eggs. I made some scrambled eggs I think around 7 pm and after eating forgot to put it out back in the fridge and left it there while I took a nap. I don't know how much time passed but I'm pretty sure around 4 hours passed. Our the eggs safe to eat?
On August 10 2011 17:21 Ilikestarcraft wrote: I have a similar question but with eggs. I made some scrambled eggs I think around 7 pm and after eating forgot to put it out back in the fridge and left it there while I took a nap. I don't know how much time passed but I'm pretty sure around 4 hours passed. Our the eggs safe to eat?
I don't know if you're serious or if you are laughing OP. Cooked eggs are just fine.
What's dangerous are stuffs containing raw eggs that you freeze / unfreeze / refreeze, typically ice cream.
On August 10 2011 16:55 munchmunch wrote: So here's how it works. Bacteria is the main worry. Chicken can be contaminated with salmonella, which is very nasty kind of bacteria. Now, a small amount of bacteria won't hurt you, and cooking your food (getting it above a certain temperature) will kill a lot of bacteria. Keeping the temperature low stops it from growing; bacteria grows very slowly at fridge temperatures, while freezing stops bacteria growth completely (but doesn't kill bacteria). Bacteria grow very well when food is kept warm, so you shouldn't keep food on the counter for more than an hour or two after cooking, and reheating leftovers repeatedly can also cause problems. Incomplete cooking and keeping food warm for an extended period are the two main dangers.
Since your chicken stayed relatively cool, and you plan on cooking it, you should be fine. When you should worry is if you buy a ready-to-eat (ie. cooked and warm) chicken and leave it in the car for a few hours.
Edit: quality. Also, it's at your own risk obviously.
Pretty much this, so as long as it wasn't hot as hell in your car during those few hours it's okay to cook and then eat. But if you don't cook it well (raw) that's another story ... lol
On August 10 2011 17:05 Dampe wrote: Smell it. If it smells bad, it's bad. If you don't know what bad meat smells like, trust me, you'll know when you smell it. The other concern would be bacteria so just make sure it's cooked all the way through. Eat that shit IMO.
Pretty much this. On the day you plan to cook/eat it, I'd just smell it to make sure all was fine and dandy. If it passes the smell test then I'd personally be fine with eating it.
On August 10 2011 17:21 Ilikestarcraft wrote: I have a similar question but with eggs. I made some scrambled eggs I think around 7 pm and after eating forgot to put it out back in the fridge and left it there while I took a nap. I don't know how much time passed but I'm pretty sure around 4 hours passed. Our the eggs safe to eat?
I don't know if you're serious or if you are laughing OP. Cooked eggs are just fine.
What's dangerous are stuffs containing raw eggs that you freeze / unfreeze / refreeze, typically ice cream.
Oh I forgot to say I left my egg carton with raw eggs out. Not the cooked eggs. I ate those already.
I would err on the side of caution and throw it out. A chicken probably doesn't cost very much ($5-20 tops?) so I would just get new food. I once had food poisoning after eating fish and it sucked... I stayed inside for like 2-3 days and I couldn't bring myself to eat anything because I felt so sick that I was afraid of eating food because I didn't want to re-experience feeling like that. Lost like 5 pounds lol
Anyway its probably still safe but why take the chance. just toss it..
I'm with the "sniff it and see" crowd. I tend to ignore most sell by dates anyway.
As for the eggs: They're not kept in the fridge in shops, they're just stacked up like a box of biscuits. You're supposed to let eggs get to room temperature before using the damn things, it's fine.
On August 10 2011 17:05 Dampe wrote: Smell it. If it smells bad, it's bad. If you don't know what bad meat smells like, trust me, you'll know when you smell it. The other concern would be bacteria so just make sure it's cooked all the way through. Eat that shit IMO.
Doesn't work with frozen food. He'd have to thaw it... and if he does, the chicken will be inedible either way.
My advice: throw it away. You shouldn't keep meat uncooled for more than a few minutes. Neither freezing bad meat nor cooking it for an hour will make it palatable again. Even if all the bacteria were to die, it would still taste awful.
Or just check what e.coli/botulinum/campylobacter ingestion does to you, then look at the price you paid for the chicken and consider if it's worth the risk.
its perfectly fine, if you need to keep it for a long time freezing is what I do, I actually have some chicken in the freezer right now and I know it will be fine to eat when I thaw it out
Ehhh if the chicken became bad during the few hours, it's not going to become better by freezing it again. Of course if it's all right it's okay to cook it.
Seriously? If you haven't already, cook it. It will be fine. Three hours is not even remotely close to long enough for chicken, sealed in plastic, to spoil.
Why would you even imagine yourself throwing away a perfectly fine delicious juicy chicken? Cook it any way you please (or keep it raw... like a boss) and enjoy it!
On August 10 2011 19:09 Unbeliever wrote: Why did you buy a live chicken on a whim? What makes you think it likes being in that freezer?
You're a horrible person.
Lol this made me laugh so hard XD. But yeah, just cook it and you will be fine. Make sure to follow all rules of cooking chicken though. Otherwise, you will be in for a little sickness.
EPT
(thank god).
