What Are The Rules About Re-heating Frozen Chicken

[farangconnection]

Now, I have always thought that the rule that you should never re-heat frozen chicken a bit daft, although I have always stuck to the format. What are the chances of getting food poisening if you do. It is done quite reguarly in Thailand. I have told my staff to throw any chicken away that is left over, and not to freeze it, but my missus says there is nothing wrong with freezing it and using it again. Thoughts please.

[kurgen]

Anything goes in Jurassic Park

[thecatman]

Just to avoid confusion, we are taking about freezing cooked chicken here.

As far as I'm aware, it's fine to reheat frozen cooked chicken without any risk, afterall, you can by loads of pre packed meals in supermarkets etc that contain frozen cooked chicken.

The only strict rule I can think of concerning the freezing of chicken (and other meats) is to not refreeze it after defrosting. I believe this applys to cooked and uncooked meats.

[JohnBKKK]

rule NO. 1 - defrost un-cooked meats slowly over night in refrigerator depending on size it may even take two days - if you defrost too quickly, ice crystals will develop and destroy the cells of the meat and screw up the texture/flavor

rule NO. 2 - uncooked meat, once defrosted should not be frozen again - not so much because of bacteria but because of texture/flavor - if you cook it long and hot enough, there will be no danger - something the Thai's love to do by the way - re-freeze defrosted meat

rule NO. 3 - as long as the meat is cooked after slowly defrosting, there is no problem at all with freezing the cooked meat - cool it down in the refrigerator first over night, than place it into the very cold freezer so that it does not touch any other, already frozen items - a lot of people make the mistake of placing warm items straight into the freezer, on top of other already frozen items - a sure way to spoiled food - this is why most modern freezers have a special "quick freeze" compartement since also, the quicker any food is frozen, the better since the development of ice-crystals is minimized

[farangconnection]

Thanks everyone