Freezing chicken is the all-time way to proceed it fresh for a longer time, peculiarly if y'all buy it in bulk. In our household, for case, we have a Costco membership. Every now and so, nosotros buy packs of 24 chicken breasts or six whole chickens and put them in the freezer.

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Merely simply how long tin can chicken stay frozen while however being rubber to eat? It'due south a question that habitation cooks (me included) oft ask. Then I set out to notice the answer. Here's what I found.

Co-ordinate to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, chicken stored at 0°F is safe to eat indefinitely. Freezing inactivates the microbes in food, similar bacteria, yeasts, and molds, that tin can crusade foodborne illness. The only thing that will happen from long-term freezer storage is that your craven volition lose quality.

Many home cooks worry that freezing chicken will make its texture and taste worse. When information technology comes to freezing, there are a couple of things to consider.

Freezing chicken is ever the better pick for storing it for more than than a day or two in the fridge. Say that you've frozen craven at peak quality, past which I hateful immediately after you've brought information technology home from the grocery store or farmers market. Once y'all thaw and melt it, it will gustation better than if you lot keep it in the fridge till near its expiry date.

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The quality of chicken (as any other poultry or red meat) suffers every time it'south thawed and refrozen. When you freeze meat, the moisture within it turns into small ice crystals. These ice crystals rupture the cobweb, which causes the meat to bleed when defrosted. Repeat this more than once — and your chicken volition come out very dry.

A smart thing to do when freezing chicken is to freeze it in packages only as big as your family can eat for dinner. That fashion, you simply thaw every bit much chicken as your household can consume, leaving the rest intact and at peak quality.

Since I understood this, I started to freeze chicken differently. When I buy a pack of 24 chicken breasts, for example, I separate them into 12 packs of two breasts each before storing them in the freezer. That way, whenever I want to melt chicken, I don't have to thaw the whole pack and refreeze the balance. No more dry chicken at home!

How to Freeze Craven

Freeze food in ziplock bags and airtight containers | The best advice for home cooks at Home Cook World
The best style to store frozen food: in a ziplock bag or closed container

Most people freeze chicken directly in its original packaging. Nonetheless, this isn't necessarily the all-time idea if y'all desire poultry to stay frozen at peak quality for a long menstruation of time.

The right packaging helps you proceed chicken at peak quality in the freezer and prevent freezer burn. Freezer burn down happens when the chicken picks up a white color in the freezer, and the meat itself comes out dry and tough after cooking.

Though it's safe to consume, freezer-burnt chicken sometimes has a strange texture and weird taste. They're acquired by the surface of the chicken losing wet and becoming dehydrated at sub-zip temperatures.

If you lot're nigh to cook freezer-burnt chicken, the best way to get rid of that texture and gustatory modality is by cutting away the freezer-burnt portions earlier cooking it. I do this subsequently thawing the chicken and season it equally usual before putting information technology in the pan or on the grill.

To store chicken in the freezer and retain it at tiptop quality for a long period of fourth dimension, take it out it from its original packaging and place information technology in an airtight container or ziplock freezer bags. Make note of the expiry appointment by writing it downward on the container or bag, and attempt to cook and eat it before that date comes.

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As long as the chicken (equally any other poultry or meat) is kept frozen at 0°F, information technology is rubber to eat after the expiry date. In our household, we endeavour to swallow meat within several weeks and upward to 6 months of freezing. We rarely proceed meat for more than than 4-half dozen months in the freezer (proper labeling of expiry dates help me take out the right packages of meat first).

How to Thaw Frozen Chicken

1 question that domicile cooks often ask is, "How do I thaw frozen chicken?"

If you read the post this far, by now you know to repackage chicken in closed containers or ziplock bags before putting information technology in the freezer and ration it out into packages only every bit big as your family can swallow for dinner.

That way, you lot thaw only what y'all need to consume — and don't need to refreeze the rest subsequently. Refreezing, as we saw, causes the craven to dehydrate and come up out dry. And, let's acknowledge it, dry craven is one of the saddest things on earth.

The best way to defrost chicken is to transfer it from the freezer to the fridge the night earlier yous program to cook and eat it. Place the bird or cuts in a container or bowl, placing it at the bottom of the refrigerator, so that none of the juices drip downward on the rest of your nutrient as it slowly thaws.

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Depending on the size of the chicken or cut, it can take anywhere betwixt 24 hours to 2-3 days to thaw it in the refrigerator.

If I programme to cook chicken for dinner and offset cooking at viii:00 PM, I effort to movement the craven from the freezer to the fridge at the same 60 minutes the night before. That gives me a good 24 hours, plus/minus 30 or then minutes, which is by and large enough for most birds and cuts.

As an alternative and if you happen to be in a hurry, it is safe to thaw chicken in the microwave. Remove the chicken from any packaging before placing it in the microwave. Put the bird or cuts into a microwave-proof bowl. Utilize the defrost setting for 2-three minutes at a fourth dimension, checking the chicken after every circular.

As I was researching this topic online, I came beyond a really adept cheat sheet for defrosting any food in the microwave on Epicurious. Here's what it recommended for thawing craven in the microwave:

Chicken Package Thawing Methods
Bone-in chicken pieces, frozen together in one pack Method A. Microwave at fifty% power for 2 minutes. Separate the pieces and flip them over.

Method B. Microwave at 30% power for 1 minute per i ½ pound of chicken. Check and flip over every minute.
Boneless chicken breasts, frozen together in one pack Method A. Microwave at 30% ability for two minutes. Separate the pieces and flip them over.

Method B. Microwave at xx% power for 1 minute per i ½ pound of chicken. Cheque and flip over every infinitesimal.
Four methods for thawing chicken pieces in a microwave (via Epicurious)

The affair that I don't like nigh defrosting frozen craven in the microwave is that information technology's fast, but it'southward also very ambitious to the ingredients and unnecessarily complicated to get correct.

Phone call me old-fashioned, but I prefer planning my meal for the next day and thawing it in the fridge the night before whatever time (even though I have a microwave oven at home).

The Bottom Line

No, frozen chicken can't go bad in the freezer. Freezing food inactivates the microbes that crusade it to get bad in the beginning identify. This ways that you tin can freeze chicken, similar any other poultry or meat, for that matter of fact, for long periods of time and well beyond their expiry dates.

The longer you lot freeze craven, the more it volition lose its acme quality. Craven frozen for really long periods of time tastes banal and dry. If it has incurred freezer burn, its surface will as well be tough. This is why the food you get in buffets doesn't really gustation that will. It'due south simply been frozen for very long periods of time earlier it ended up on your plate.

Don't turn your abode kitchen into a buffet. Instead, freeze chicken in portions that you tin thaw and eat, so that you don't have to refreeze whatsoever leftovers. Store information technology in airtight containers or ziplock freezer bags and brand a note of the expiry date by writing it down on a characterization. That style, you lot volition always know which meat to cook and eat start, making sure that no meat stays frozen for longer than 6 months in the freezer.

The half-dozen months is just my dominion of thumb; take it or go out it. It has nothing to practise with food safety and everything to do with food quality. But, as I like to say, it's your kitchen and, over fourth dimension, you will create your own rules. So test mine out and let me know if they worked for you lot in the comments below — or simply share yours with the rest of this post's readers!

Founding Editor

When Jim isn't in the kitchen, he is commonly spending time with family and friends, and working with the HCW editorial team to answer the questions he used to ask himself back when he was learning the ropes of cooking.