Can You Eat Cold Chicken?

One of the popular food is chicken. The chicken is the food that occupies the top rank, it is always a favorite of many people and all places prepare it because of its many customers.

Actually, cooking chicken is very easy, there are many ways to prepare chicken dishes in your kitchen. It just depends on your imagination in imagining this delicious dish.

The tasty foods such as chicken, or foods that we always want to eat on every occasion or at certain meal times. This is great for batch cooking. We only cook it once, and save it for us to enjoy in a week.

Grilling is one of the easiest ways to prepare chicken and it tastes great too, while the rest you can use to make other dishes like soups, or add to sandwiches for the kids to snack on for the week.

If you just want to enjoy just a piece of chicken, you can cook chicken thighs, chicken breasts, or drumsticks for a quick and healthy nutritional boost of animal protein.

Well, we know that cooking chicken will never end, we can prepare it with a variety of delicious and delicious recipes. But what if you want to enjoy the chicken in a cold state. This usually happens to those of you who cook chicken for a week, where the rest of what you enjoy you store in the freezer for the next day’s needs. Can we eat cold chicken? This is perhaps a question we must answer today.

So, if you store chicken in the freezer, you can still eat it cold. The important thing is that the chicken you store in the freezer is cooked or you have cooked it beforehand. Then, you should cool your chicken properly in the freezer and in an airtight bag. At least you can try to eat it for 4 days from the day of storage. Actually, you can still eat it for longer, but to be clear about its nutritional status, you should eat it within 4 to a week in the refrigerator.

Well, to be clear about our explanation, read on this article because we will explain to you how to store chicken in the refrigerator or in freezer, and some recipes for preparing it before storage, so that your cold chicken can still be eaten.

Can You Eat Cooked Chicken Cold?

One of our habits when it comes to food is to whip up several items at once and then just relax and enjoy what we’ve cooked for a few days. We certainly store them in the refrigerator or sometimes store them in the freezer to last longer.

We often cook large quantities of chicken such as chicken breast, drumstick chicken thighs or whole chicken. When we enjoy it, we only take a few, and the rest we have to store in the freezer for later use.

Chicken is a delicacy that is widely cooked in every household. This is a versatile dish, you can cook a pile of chicken, grill it, make soup, include it in salads for added protein and flavor, or in several other recipes. You just have to innovate with the chicken meat in the kitchen to produce many types of food. But can you eat cold cooked chicken?

Of course, the answer is “yes”. You can eat cold chicken that you stored a few days ago in the freezer or refrigerator. But there is a slight difference in the texture of the cold chicken, it is a bit firm and suitable for you to include in a salad along with other vegetables or fruits. You can also add cold chicken to sandwiches. It can also increase children’s appetite to not eat salad with the same recipe over and over again.

Chilled chicken also has a slightly mild aroma and taste, if you include it in a salad, it won’t overpower the taste of the other ingredients. So, the chilled chicken that you roasted a few days ago is a great addition to your salad or sandwich.

See too: How To Tell If Chicken Is Undercooked

Warning before eating cold cooked chicken

Well, there are things you should pay attention to before you consume your cold food or chicken. This aims to keep your food healthy and can be consumed properly, and prevent the growth of bacteria from your food.

Here’s what you have to do when eating cooked chicken cold

1. Make sure you cook the chicken at 160 F to kill bacteria like salmonella. If your chicken is raw and cold, it is the same as other raw chicken, you should not eat it because it has the potential to be infected with bacteria that can damage your health.
2. When you want to store cooked meat in the refrigerator, wait until your chicken cools to room temperature
3. When storing your chicken in the refrigerator, make sure you put it in an airtight container. Don’t forget to put a date on the pouch so you know how long the chicken has been stored. This is important to prevent you from eating chicken that has been in the refrigerator for too long.
4. When storing cooked chicken in the refrigerator, make sure the airtight bag is sealed or if you are using a freezer-proof jar, make sure to seal the top well.
5. You can use your cooked chicken for 4 days of storage. The longer it is in the refrigerator, the more bacteria will grow. Unless you store it in the freezer, it can last up to six month of use.
6. If you store it in the refrigerator, do not store your cooked chicken near other raw meat in the refrigerator.
7. To prevent cross-contamination, store raw meat on the bottom shelf, and cooked meat on the top shelf so that no dripping water from the raw meat falls to the bottom.

Also see: The Boiled-Egg Diet: Is It Worth To Try?

How long does cooked chicken last in the refrigerator?

If you choose to cook a lot of chicken for consumption during the week. You should make sure that the cooked meat you store is no longer than 4 days because the cooked meat will stay fresh for 4 days in the refrigerator.

If you store chicken too much in the refrigerator, this will lead to the growth of bacteria that can cause disease. So, make sure you don’t skip it in 4 days. But if you freeze cooked chicken in the freezer, it can last longer till six month.

But when you eat it you have to defrost it again and then re-cook it like re-roasting for a few minutes.

So, how do you cool cooked chicken so that it is safe for storage? Follow these steps for storing cooked chicken in the refrigerator.

Want to refrigerate cooked chicken, follow these steps:

1. Cook your chicken to 165F to ensure the chicken is cooked to perfection
2. Let stand at room temperature until the chicken cools to room temperature. You should let it sit at room temperature for about 2 hours.
3. After that, put your cooked chicken in an airtight bag (freezer bag) or a container such as an airtight jar, then seal tightly or seal.
4. Don’t forget to write down the storage date so you know when to finish your chicken.
5. Store your cooked chicken in the refrigerator and place it away from raw meat (if you store raw meat), this is to prevent cross-contamination of bacteria.
6. Use your cold cooked chicken for 4 days of storage.

How Long Does Cooked Chicken Last In The Freezer?

What if you store cooked food in the freezer instead of in the refrigerator. How long can cold food last in the freezer, is it the same as keeping it in the refrigerator?

If you cook chicken for a few days later or for a longer shelf life, it’s best before freezing it you divide the chicken into several packages, making it easier for you to pick it up. When you need it, you can take it per package so it doesn’t interfere with other meats.

It’s very important that you don’t open chicken that you don’t eat. So, it doesn’t grow bacteria on chickens that aren’t taken.

Storing chicken in the freezer can last longer than storing in the refrigerator. If cooked chicken only lasts 4 days in the refrigerator, freezing cooked chicken in the freezer can last up to 6 months. However, you must follow the above requirements, which is to store the chicken in several packages so that when you pick it up it doesn’t disturb the meat that you didn’t eat first.

If it’s more than 6 months, you can still use your chicken, but the taste of the chicken will change and it’s no longer very tasty. So, it is very important when storing it you put cooked chicken in a seal bag or freezer bag so that it doesn’t get disturbed.

If you want to prepare cooked chicken for storage in the freezer, follow these steps.

1. Make sure you cook your chicken to at least 165 F. For best results, we recommend using a meat thermometer.
2. Once cooked, let it cool at room temperature. Do not leave it for more than 2 hours at room temperature because it is worried about bacterial growth.
3. If it is ready to be stored, now distribute the portion of the package of meat that you will freeze. This is to make it easier for you to take it as needed.
4. Then put the cooked chicken in an airtight container or sealable freezer bag.
5. If using a freezer container or jar, it’s a good idea to fill the container with meat (don’t let any air inside), cover it well so that no outside can enter and no air can escape from inside.
6. If you are using a freezer bag, press and release all the air. Do not let any air in the bag.
7. Write down your storage date. This is to make it easier for you to know how much you have stored the meat. So, you do not have the potential to consume meat that is old or out of date.
8. Put it all in the freezer and it can last for 6 months.

How Long Does Raw Chicken Last In The Fridge?

How about raw chicken, does it last 4 days in the refrigerator as well as cooked chicken? Let’s find out!

When you buy raw chicken from the store, don’t miss it for up to 2 days. Make sure you have cooked it within 2 days. Because raw chicken will not last long in the refrigerator.

Actually, raw chicken contains bacteria, it’s just not dangerous because it will be cooked immediately. If you store it too long (more than 2 days in the refrigerator), then bacteria such as salmonella can continue to grow. This is bad for health and should be avoided.

Read also: Food that is Harmful to Your Dog

So, raw meat only lasts in the refrigerator for 2 days. After you cook it, you can store it in the refrigerator for another 4 days. If you want it longer, you can freeze it in the freezer and it will last up to 6 months.

How To Tell If Raw Chicken Is Spoiled?

So, how do you know if your raw chicken is rotting? This is important so that we do not cook or use rotten chicken as food.

At least, there are some signs that can be an indication for us to know that a chicken is rotten. To be clear, below we see the difference between fresh chicken and rotten chicken (fresh chicken vs rotten chicken)

Fresh Chicken:

• The color of fresh chicken is light pink, there is a little bit of white fat slightly yellowish.
• Raw chicken has no noticeable smell
• Raw chicken to the touch should be more tender and moist.

Spoiled Chicken:

• Rotten chicken will feel slimy when touched
• The smell is strong and it’s not going to be eaten
• In particular, rotten chicken has a slightly gray, green or yellowish color. Avoid raw chicken with such signs.

If you find your chicken is rotten with the indications above, throw it away immediately and don’t wash it again because it can cause bacteria to spread in your kitchen.

How Long Does Raw Chicken Last In The Freezer?

If you store raw chicken in the freezer, how long will it last? We know that the best way to preserve chicken is to freeze it in the freezer.

Well-stored raw chicken, cut into pieces: Breast, thigh, drumsticks and wings, put in a freezer bag like when you store or freeze cooked chicken. Raw chicken will last longer in the freezer, it can last up to 9 months.

If you store whole chicken in the freezer, it has a shelf life of up to a year, so it’s longer than storing pieces of chicken.