Freezer been switched off / door left open - will food be ok?

365days

Life savers...thank you so much. What a way to start the summer holidays!

RAS

Suggestion:

Son is required to help you cook and re-freeze all the contents that have defrosted.

he might learn to be more careful in future if is make work for him as well?

archiesdad

Hi all please help me I could cry have just been out to my freezer and somehow it has been switched off at the wall and pretty much everything is defrosted.

I have a whole chicken
18 chicken breasts
3 packs of ribs I was gonna use these for a bbq on friday if I cook them in my slow cooker on tues do you think they will last till friday.
1 Joint of pork shoulder
1 Packet of mince
various chicken thighs and drumstick again these were for the bbq on friday.

I am not too worried about the pork will use tomorrow as have inlaws for dinner and because it is small will roast chicken as well. Was gonna make something out of the mince.

But what can I do with 18 chicken breasts? we normally have teas like cajun chicken and chicken in red wine, fajitas etc should I cajun some and refreeze?

Have recently been made redundant and really can't afford to loose all this food don't know what to do.

Have already thrown out various icecreams.

Any help appreciated.

carolinejane_2

Did you know most house contents insurance covers freezers? Do you have accidental damage

I feel for you and I would just cook as much as I could and then freeze them again.

penelopedee_2

You will need to cook the meat now if you want to re-freeze them. You can't re-freeze raw meat.

Batch cook a lot of chicken meals or just cook them in the oven wrapped in tin foil (approx 40 mins) and then freeze them when cooked.

I would probably go on and oven cook the ribs too as you can defrost and add sauce to the frozen cooked ones at a later date.

Even if the meat seems a little dry when you come to eat it, at least it isn't wasted.

This happens to us quite a bit (both boys are terrible for flicking the switch off by accident).

carolinejane_2

How are you getting on I bet theres a lovely smell of cooking from your kitchen

archiesdad

No I am shattered so going to supermarket in morning to buy ingredients to cook it all with, thought I could make some meals for the little one. Any suggestions for chicken recipes that can be frozen.

archiesdad

I hope it will all be ok in the fridge till morning

Bogof_Babe

Do you know how long the power had been off for? Was the ice cream reduced to slop?

penelopedee_2

Caseroles and stews are good for freezing chicken. If you don't want to bake from scratch have a look at the packet caserole mixes. They will give you enough sauce each to go over 4 pieces easily (probably 6) and can then be frozen as single portions to do with mash and veg or something at a later date. Passata/chopped tomato sauces are nice for chicken and pasta. I tend to dice the chicken up and dry fry and then do the sauce in another pan and just poor over before portioning up, if I'm doing a lot of them. Either that or just do the chicken in the oven and then make some gravy to freeze it in.