If I put the leftover chicken in the refrigerator, how long can I leave it?
Chicken is rich in protein, can be cooked in a variety of ways, and has good taste, making it a cost effective food ingredient.
Chicken is an essential ingredient for dieters, and even if it isn’t, it’s common to refrigerate leftover chicken in that it’s a common food. However, the storage period at this time is not as long as many think.
According to the Food Safety Inspection Agency (FSIS) under the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), cooked chicken remains fresh for 3 to 4 days when stored in a refrigerator, may it be a standard fridge or a french door fridge. These guidelines apply to chicken dishes of any form, fried, grilled or boiled.
In addition, these guidelines are applicable when food safety rules are followed from the beginning. In other words, it means that it can be stored for 3 to 4 days under the premise that the chicken core temperature is sufficiently cooked to reach 75°C and the leftover chicken is placed in the refrigerator within 2 hours.
If the chicken you ordered last Wednesday or Thursday is still in the refrigerator, and if you plan to eat this chicken today, you should check the condition. If you eat chicken that is not intact, it can cause gastrointestinal problems.
Fortunately, it is relatively easy to determine whether the cooked chicken is in bad condition. You can check the condition of the chicken through color, smell, and texture.
First, chicken dishes are brown or white when they are fresh, and when they start to deteriorate, they begin to have a gray or green color. If you notice a color change like this, don’t eat it. It can be detected by smell, but if the smell is different from the previous one, it shows signs of decay. When spoilage starts, it generally smells rancid, but if it doesn’t, if it smells subtly uncomfortable, it has served as food. Your sense of smell is more sensitive than your eyesight, so even if you look fine, you shouldn’t eat it when you notice a slight change in smell. If the texture of the chicken is also slippery or sticky than before, you can recognize that it is time to stop eating it.
So what should I do when I want to keep it longer than 3-4 days? In that case, it should be kept frozen, not refrigerated. According to FSIS, chicken dishes remain edible for up to four months when frozen. However, in the process of long-term storage in the freezer, you may wear a’frozen bed’ that changes the tissue of the meat, so it is better to wrap it thoroughly with a wrap, put it in a plastic bag or airtight container, and seal it tightly before storing.
