Cooling and freezing a whole cooked chicken

Fusspot

I am contemplating cooking a whole chicken in my slow cooker and portioning it up for the freezer, last time I tried this I was scared to freeze it and it got wasted.

I am really wary with chicken and have read where you can't leave it out on the worktop. Do you have to put it in the fridge when its hot out of the slow cooker to cool down or can you leave it on the worktop?

Also wondering if a ready cooked chicken would be a better idea?

suki1964

You are worrying too much

Golden rule is, raw chicken is poison, cooked chicken is safe as long as you are sensible

Cook the chicken As soon as is practically possible get it in the fridge. For me that's after dinner is eaten and the dishes are done, usually within the hour. Once cold, then freeze. That can be the following day no bother

Don't fear cooked chicken. i quite happily cook one on the Sunday and don't bother with stripping the carcass until mid week, but it's been put in the fridge within an hour of cooking And I will also happily make a pie, and reheat the left overs again.

Raw chicken is a whole other ball game. ...

TonyMMM

Don't put it into the fridge whilst it is hot - that will just raise the temp of the fridge.

Leave somewhere cool until it is cold, portion it up and then freeze - no problem at all.

Far better to freeze your own freshly cooked chicken than to buy a ready cooked one that could have been on the shelf for ages.

Farway

As Tony says, I do same, let it cool, portion up & freeze

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Chicken. Roasted on Sunday, with all the trimmings.
Second roast on Monday.
Turned into curry on Tuesday.
Left on the stove overnight and finished on Wednesday.

Doesn't see the freezer!

rach_k

I would portion it up when it's hot (as that will help it cool down quicker), then leave it out until it's cool enough to go in the freezer. It shouldn't take too long so there's nothing to worry about.

MallyGirl

I am not sure where all this paranoia about chicken is coming from. I am amazed I survived to 49 if all the things I read about food handling, and chicken in particular, are so life critical.
Cook thoroughly, cool, fridge and then use hot or cold, or freeze.

I bung all sorts of things in the freezer - I cannot imagine throwing perfectly good food away because I was too scared to freeze it.

Mojisola

MallyGirl wrote: »

I am not sure where all this paranoia about chicken is coming from. I am amazed I survived to 49 if all the things I read about food handling, and chicken in particular, are so life critical.

Newer strains of bugs have appeared over the years which are much more dangerous than the ones we grew up with.

Added to that, there are now antibiotic resistant strains to deal with.

PasturesNew

To cool it down quicker, once the pot's gone warm, put the whole pot into the washing up bowl with 2-3" of iced water in the washing up bowl.

If you do it while the pot is hot the pot will crack and break.

OR - put some freezer-safe dishes in the freezer and once your chicken's cooked and cooled a little bit, transfer the chicken into the pre-cooled dishes to speed up the cooling. You don't have to keep the chicken in the hot pot until it's cold, you can transfer it straight away to a cold dish instead.

You can put warm chicken in the fridge - it's all dependent on your chosen shelf, the size of your fridge and what you've got in there.

If your fridge is like mine and is completely empty except a packet of cheese and marg, then if they're tucked away in the salad drawer the chicken can be put into the fridge.

The main issue is that warm/hot food will raise the temperature of the fridge and might, therefore, cause other items in the fridge to "go off" by raising their temperature above safe levels.

If you've nothing meat and nothing that can cause problems, it doesn't really matter how much the fridge temperature is raised by.

paddy's_mum

Edwina Currie has a lot to answer for!

Linda32

I would be more worried about cooking it in the slow cooker to be honest.
This is what I do - Cook chicken in the oven as per instructions on the pack.
Check to see if its cooked when the time is up. If it is then that is that. Its cooked and can't do you any harm

It is vary rare that I cook a chicken to eat straight away. I usually treat it as a batch cooking exercise. So at this point I leave it out on the work top for about 1/2 hour.

By the time I have portioned it up I would say another 1/2 hour has passed. It is still fine, ask yourself exactly what could have happened during that time?

Then I stick a label on the box and pop in the freezer. So then it stays frozen at -18. Again think if there is anything that can happen to the chicken whilst it is frozen at -18. Not a fat lot!

To defrost, take out of the freezer and pop into the fridge to defrost the night before you want to eat it. So now its going to slowly defrost and sit at 1-4 degrees in your fridge. Still perfectly safe.

Now either eat it cold (remember it was perfectly cooked before so it still is) and its been kept in the freezer and fridge.

Or re-heat, I make up Bisto and pour over chicken with added leeks and re-heat at gas mark 6 for 30 minutes by which time its volcanic hot. This is the rule of thumb, you have cooked it once from raw, frozen it once, and re-heated it once.

Or I pour over a jar of curry sauce, I have tried to make curry and I can't so I use the jars. Re-heat in the same way.

You can use the chicken in any recipe called for chicken pieces. Where it say cook until the chicken is cooked, well in this case you know it already is.

I hope that helps any fears you might have.