Frozen chicken: shelf life and cooking secrets

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Chicken meat is considered a he althy product. But, unfortunately, at room temperature, it quickly deteriorates. In this case, you should know the rules for its storage. The article provides information on how to make sure that frozen chicken is cooked correctly and at the same time retains all its beneficial properties.

What are the main ways to store food at home?

As you know, chicken meat is a dietary food. It contains protein, which is easily digestible, and a considerable amount of important trace elements. In addition, a substance such as carnosine helps to rejuvenate the cells of the human body and restore muscle tissue.

There are two ways to store chicken meat. It can be frozen or chilled in the top compartments of the refrigerator.

But before you do that, you need to purchase a quality product. This will be discussed in more detail in the next section of the article.

How to choose the right poultry meat?

In order not to miscalculate the choice of frozen chicken, you should follow a few rules whenpurchase.

• Inspect the product. An unspoiled bird carcass should not have bruises and any scratches. Notice the look of the frozen chicken skin. It should be dry, thin and white.
• You should try the product by touch. The carcass should not be slippery and sticky. If so, it's stale.
• When pressing on the chicken carcass, no dents should remain. This property indicates that the product is spoiled.
• Try mashing the chicken. If grayish mucus is formed, you must refuse to buy it.
• Don't buy a product that is covered in ice. This suggests that it was frozen and watered several times. The quality of such frozen chicken will be very poor.
• Poultry packaging must be airtight and waterproof.

If you have a choice between frozen and chilled chicken, then choose the second option. It is on this type of product that it is very difficult to hide traces of staleness.

What is the price of frozen chicken?

The cost of a frozen product is much lower than a chilled one. When considering offers on the Internet, it is worth noting that the price of frozen chicken per kilogram varies from the quantity of the purchased product. Some sellers offer wholesale poultry meat from 80 rubles.

Consider the price category in grocery stores. So, a chicken carcass can be tentatively purchased from 100 rubles per kilogram. It all depends on the supplier.

It is worth noting that you should pay attention not to the price, but to the quality of the product, since the latter can be bad for your he alth.

Chilled poultry meat starts at 140 rubles per kilogram.

How long does frozen chicken last?

In the freezer, the meat of this bird can be left for a sufficiently long period of time, maximum - a year. But for this it is necessary that the constant temperature in the refrigeration device reaches 19-26 degrees below zero.

Frozen chicken meat and semi-finished products from it can be stored for about 6 months at -15 ° C.

Product will be usable for five months when refrigerated at -10°C.

Chicken carcasses will not spoil for about two months if stored at -7 degrees.

Before you send poultry meat to the freezer, you should remember a few rules:

• no need to wash chicken before freezing;
• food bags or containers in which the product will be stored must be airtight;
• it is impossible to freeze meat that has been on the top shelf of the refrigerator for about two days; also, do not do this if the chicken has been at room temperature for more than 4 hours.

What are some ways to preserve raw poultry meat?

There are some tips to help keep chicken meat fresh without freezing.

So, you can use ice cubes. You need to put them on the product so that they completely cover it. Therebymeat can be stored for two days.

Also, putting a chicken in a towel soaked in vinegar will keep it fresh for a whole week.

If you rub the meat with s alt and pepper, it will keep for about five days.

A good helper in this situation is a marinade, always with s alt and pepper. You need to put chicken in it. This will extend the life of the product by a couple of days.

How long can poultry meat cooked in different ways be stored?

The shelf life of such products is very short. You can't freeze them.

Cooked chicken meat spoils at room temperature after a couple of hours. In the refrigerator, such a product can be stored for only two days. Chicken stew, on the other hand, has a shelf life of five days.

Roasted and smoked meat have approximately the same shelf life. It is about two days.

Frozen chicken should be in small pieces, not the whole carcass. In the latter case, it will be difficult to defrost it. Such a product must be eaten on the same day, and best of all - within a few hours.

What are the ways and secrets of cooking poultry meat?

Chicken needs to be defrosted properly to serve it right. To do this, first in the evening put the meat on the upper shelves of the refrigerator. In another way, you need to put the meat in cold water for several hours or put it in the microwave, after wrapping it in a film. In this process, the carcassTurn occasionally to ensure even defrosting. After that, you can cook it as planned.

So, to make chicken broth, you can immediately lower the frozen meat into water. Only when boiling is it necessary to remove the foam with a slotted spoon. Then add s alt. As soon as the meat is cooked, you should take it out and add the rest of the products there.

Also, you can bake the chicken in the oven. To do this, you need a baking sheet with high sides. Cookware with non-stick coating works very well. Then the meat will not be dry. Chicken meat is pre-sprinkled with spices, you can also use a pre-prepared sauce. The frozen product in this case can not be washed. After the procedures, the meat is sent to the oven. Cooking time will be about 40 minutes.