mogga wrote:
On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 06:59:02 +0100, "Mick."
wrote:

Hi all,
I am a 60 year old male living alone and like most of us out at work all
day!
I have been buying fresh cooked chickens, normally 2 at a time,
removing all the skin and bone, portioning it and when cool freezing it to
use in sandwiches ect as I need.
it has been suggested that freezing fresh cooked chicken could result in
food poisoning.
any advice welcomed.
Mick.

I always understood it to be you can't refreeze chicken which has been
frozen ... unless of course you cook it first. Its the process of
defrosting meat which leads to the problem and repeated defrosting
exposes the bacteria to the right sort of temperature to reproduce to

I see no reason whatsoever why spending a week in a fridge (set at 4C)
is any better than spending a couple of days in the fridge defrosting,
a couple of weeks in the freezer, and then a couple of more days defrosting.

It's not multiple defrosts or freezings which is harmfull, but total
time at temperature suitable for bugs to breed.

For small stuff (chicken legs), I've given up on defrosting in the kitchen.
Take lump of frozen chicken legs.
Nuke on full power until some starts to unfreeze.
(most at this point will still be frozen, but you'll have warmed it up
from -20C to 0C, which is much much weaker as ice and can easily
be split apart).
Then split them apart, put on a tray/plate, and nuke at half power, rotating
every 2-3 minutes.
(while preparing onions/... for dish).
In a few minutes they are defrosted.
(and at about 50C, leave them like this for a few minutes to ensure
they are heated through)

This works very, very well for stuff like stews, you just keep it on
full power, stirring every minute to break up the frozen lumps.

For whole chickens, this of course doesn't work, I leave those in the
fridge for a couple of days to unfreeze.

Alternatively, a bit less aggressively, if your oven can do fan mode,
with just the fan blowing ambient air over them, that's good for defrosting
small stuff.