The title pretty much says it all; Last Wednesday I took a package of chicken breasts out of the freezer and put them in the fridge to defrost. I promptly forgot about them until yesterday. I tossed them but got curious. So, how long can frozen chicken breasts remain in the fridge before it would be unwise to cook them?
On a related note, how long can chicken be kept in the freezer before it should be tossed?
Thanks in advance - DESK
I’ve found that it depends on my fridge. I’ve kept frozen chicken frozen for months on end without problem. Once I put them in the fridge to defrost, I’ve got about 3-4 days to cook them before they start to smell bad. I won’t cook them once their funky. Even if you do kill the germs, they still smell weird.
YMMV.
I’m not certain, but I think it may depend on how fresh they were when you froze them in the first place. I usally keep my meats in the fridge until the date on the sticker and if I hadn’t consumed them by then I throw them in the freezer. I know that I do this so I never unthaw anything unless I am going to eat it that day.
On a side note, it may also depend on how cold your freezer was set at. I seem to recall from my HVAC class from college that it is recomeended that you keep it your freezer between 10 and -10 degees F in order for the cells in the food to form a strong bond. Any lower or higher and the food could come out mushy, even though it was technically “frozen”.
Never eat smelly meat, that’s just wrong.
Also be careful to store them near the back of your freezer, and not in or near the door, if you’re planning on keeping them a long time. That way they won’t have any fluctuations in temperature when you open the door to get stuff. When you finally do get an informed estimate, it’l likely be a range of time they might be good for, and keeping them consistently cold will help you maximize that.
Ah, you asked about fridge AND freezer. It still applies with the fridge, in fact more so because you open the fridge more!
I do it because Alton says so…