# Is this chicken safe to cook and eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 12, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428 "2011-10-12T15:29:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428/41 "2011-10-13T02:56:40Z")
> [@Vihaga](#): > > I think the OP, for the same reason that I don’t piss around with getting a flu shot anymore. 🙂 Sorry- that makes sense. And yeah, give me the flu shot any day after a bout of the real flu.. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428/42 "2011-10-13T03:29:29Z")
So what is y’all’s opinion of refrigerator storage of cooked chicken? I put a roasted chicken from the grocery store in the fridge when I brought it home on Sunday. I deboned it and used it for chicken and dumplings today, Wednesday. Today is the absolute last day I would use it. The leftovers will be in the fridge for another three days. The chicken was brought to a boil when I made the C&D. As to the OP - oh hell no! Raw chicken should be cooked or frozen within two days. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428/43 "2011-10-13T03:33:11Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > So what is y’all’s opinion of refrigerator storage of cooked chicken? > > I put a roasted chicken from the grocery store in the fridge when I brought it home on Sunday. I deboned it and used it for chicken and dumplings today, Wednesday. Today is the absolute last day I would use it. The leftovers will be in the fridge for another three days. The chicken was brought to a boil when I made the C&D. > As to the OP - oh hell no! Raw chicken should be cooked or frozen within two days. I usually give any sort of prepared food, including cooked chicken, a week before I toss it. However, I confess that in my college days I did eat moldy food items after picking out the mold. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428/44 "2011-10-13T03:33:27Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > “…it won’t make you sick” is fairly unambiguous **Stoid**. What was _completely_ unambiguous was my specifying exactly what I was referring to, and thus far no one has demonstrated that I was wrong about it. If I am, I have no problem with that, I will have learned something. But leaving out the subject of the sentence doesn’t make my statement wrong. If you still think so, please supply the subject you think I was referring to. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428/45 "2011-10-13T03:34:39Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > However, I confess that in my college days I did eat moldy food items after picking out the mold. I still routinely cut the mold off of cheese without a second thought. Cuz it’s cheese. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428/46 "2011-10-13T04:34:04Z")
> [@stolatt](#): > > I can tell by your post that you have never gotten food poisoning from chicken. It makes flu look like fun. This. I got food poisoning from chicken once and everything inside me that wasn’t nailed down was shooting out of both ends for 3 days. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428/47 "2011-10-13T04:47:05Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > What was _completely_ unambiguous was my specifying exactly what I was referring to, and thus far no one has demonstrated that I was wrong about it. If I am, I have no problem with that, I will have learned something. > > But leaving out the subject of the sentence doesn’t make my statement wrong. If you still think so, please supply the subject you think I was referring to. Jesus H. I’m not trying to misrepresent you: the first time round I quoted your sentence in full. Even though it’s only a few posts upthread, I will quote the entire paragraph: > [@](#): > > The cooties that make you sick and that cooking kills will be killed if you cook it to the correct temperature for enough time, whether there is a single cootie (superfresh) or a bazillion cooties (2 weeks past date, although the refrigeration slowed them down so they really shouldn’t have proliferated as much as if the chicken were left at room temperature). So if you cook it, it won’t make you sick. “It” is clearly the chicken, since the other thing you were talking about was “cooties”, which are in the plural. In other words _you told the OP that if they cook the chicken they won’t get sick_. E.g. [E. Coli produces heat-stable enterotoxins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotoxin#Heat-stable_enterotoxins) and according to [this](http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/903/ie-coli-ian-opportunist-that-causes-enteritis=): “Chickens of all ages are susceptible to colibacilliosis, but usually young birds are considered more susceptible.” I’m not even a hygiene freak and frequently eat stuff that would make most SDMB people blanch - but at least I’m aware of the dangers; I felt that what you wrote was potentially misleading. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428/48 "2011-10-13T08:15:17Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Jesus H. > > I’m not trying to misrepresent you: the first time round I quoted your sentence in full. Even though it’s only a few posts upthread, I will quote the entire paragraph:“It” is clearly the chicken, since the other thing you were talking about was “cooties”, which are in the plural. In other words _you told the OP that if they cook the chicken they won’t get sick_. Jesus H back at you. I specified “The cooties that make you sick _ **and that cooking kills** _” for a reason: to make sure that no one would assume I was making a blanket statement that _any_ cooking would kill _any_ pathogen. The assumption is that the chicken the OP purchased and refrigerated was normal chicken. Normal chicken frequently has particular pathogens that make it _necessary_ to cook the chicken thoroughly, whether you cook it 10 seconds after you walk through your front door or a month later. Those pathogens will die at the right temperature either way. The fact that the chicken sat sealed in the refrigerator was not going to lead to exotic, uncommon pathogens appearing on it that were not on it when it was brought home. But since it’s possible that some other exotic pathogens might be on any chicken, fresh or ancient, I made sure to confine myself to those common pathogens that we all sort of expect to be on chicken, precisely so that no one would think I was claiming that cooking kills every potentially harmful bug that might be there. Now, if you or anyone else felt that the way I worded it was not sufficiently crystal clear, that’s perfectly fine, you would not be getting this pushback from me if you had said something like that and reiterating my point in a manner you think would be more unmistakable. But instead you and Zsofia asserted that I was wrong, suggesting botulism. Since botulism toxin is not found on chicken and also is not destroyed by heat, that wasn’t what I was referring to. So another way I might have been even more clear would have been to say “The cooties **which are commonly associated with raw chicken** and which cooking kills.” but I didn’t, I assumed that spoke for itself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-chicken-safe-to-cook-and-eat/599428.md?page=2)