While it’s much easier to cook a large batch of your favorite chicken dish, dealing with leftovers is a different thing entirely. That’s why it pays to know how to freeze cooked chicken so you can prep leftovers up and turn it into a different meal, anytime! Frozen cooked chicken allows you to whip up a complete meal faster and more conveniently, saving you time on busy nights.
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Whether grilled, broiled, fried or stewed, chicken is one versatile meat! Apart from being easy to prep, chicken meat makes the perfect substitute for red meat. It is packed with lean protein, it’s low in cholesterol plus, it’s delicious! It’s an excellent source of protein among dieters as long as you take it with its skin off.
That said, chicken meat is prone to bacterial growth. Poorly prepared chicken meat may also cause food borne sickness.
What’s the Proper Way to Freeze Cooked Chicken?
The proper way to freeze cooked chicken is to do so immediately, even when the meat is still warm. Freezing the chicken immediately minimizes the risk of contamination because the temperature has switched rapidly from hot to cold. The longer you leave the chicken sitting at room temperature, the greater the risk of developing bacteria.
Get several re-sealable freezer-safe plastic bags or a large plastic container with an airtight seal. Place the chicken pieces in the container, pressing or squeezing out as much air as possible. Minimizing oxygen helps reduce bacterial growth. Once all the cooked chicken pieces are packed, label the bag with the date it was frozen before sticking them in the freezer.
Frozen cooked chicken should keep for up to 3 months. You can freeze whole pieces of chicken or just the shredded meat. Once you take the meat out of the freezer, just get the right amount you need and bring the rest back to the freezer.
What’s the Best Way to Defrost Frozen Cooked Chicken?
There are three ways to defrost frozen cooked chicken but before we get into that, let’s learn about what not to do when you thaw cooked or raw chicken alike.
Bacterial growth is most likely if the temperature is between 40°F and 140°F (5°C and 60°C), and in the middle of these temps is room temperature, which is about 68°-70°F. As such, do not leave frozen chicken to thaw at room temperature.
You can defrost it by taking the frozen meat out of the freezer and transferring it to the lower part of the fridge. The process is slower yes, but it’s the safest way to defrost cooked chicken. Another great technique that’s faster than sticking frozen chicken in the fridge is giving it a cold bath. Just get a plastic bag of frozen chicken meat, put it in a basin and run cold water. Leave it to defrost for 30 minutes. The key is to make sure the packed frozen meat is completely sealed before submerging it into the water.
For quick defrosting, use the microwave. Just set the microwave to defrost, pop the meat and you’re done. You can also use the medium-low setting to thaw the frozen chicken, setting the timer to 2 minutes. After microwaving the chicken, let the meat stand for no more than 2 minutes.
Image used under Creative Commons from Toshihiro Gamo
Summary
While you can always freeze larger pieces of cooked chicken, we recommend shredding the meat and separating the bones before freezing. Why? Smaller pieces of meat thaw much faster than larger pieces. Whichever way you defrost your cooked chicken, make sure to label the package and avoid oxygen exposure to reduce contamination.
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