Frozen Whole Chicken

[jvalentino]

I have frineds coming over Sunday, and wanted to roast a chicken. I have a high quality bird in the freezer that unfortunatly I forgot about. It's about 4 mos old-is this too old? I don't see any visible freezer burn, but maybe I should experiment on myself only. What do you think?

Thanks,

Jeff

[Dave the Cook]

If it was well-wrapped, four months isn't a problem. Since you say there's no evidence of freezer burn, you're good to go. Just thaw it as slowly as possible (usually, that means the bottom shelf of the fridge) to minimize juice loss.

[Peter the eater]

What Dave said, 4 months is not a problem.

I find well-wrapped birds, even vacuum bagged ones, can get a bit freezer burned from the inside where there's a void. Nobody sees that part and the meaty bits are just fine.

[jvalentino]

Thanks Dave and Peter. It's thawing now, and I'll roast it Sunday.

Jeff

[Chris Amirault]

You might have a problem getting it fully defrosted and down to room temp by Sunday, particularly if you take Dave's advice.

[steverino]

Many years ago, as a new step dad with no prior children of my own, I made a startling discovery. A whole frozen chicken takes a long time to thaw in the garage fridge. Like 3 freakin' days.

THE FIRST THERMODYNAMIC LAW OF CHILDREN:

Items in the inside fridge thaw much faster than those in the garage fridge.

The fridge in the garage is opened infrequently, i.e. when I get a beer.

The inside fridge, where three children had ongoing lengthy investigations, was opened much more often, for longer periods of time.

I would recommend taking the chicken out for 10 minutes or so, every few hours. This would emulate the first TDLOC, and would probably thaw the chicken in 24 -36 hours.

Best,

Steve

[Dave the Cook]

. . . .

I find well-wrapped birds, even vacuum bagged ones, can get a bit freezer burned from the inside where there's a void.

. . . .

←

I did not know this. Thanks.

[slkinsey]

Sure. That's because there's a little air pocket where the void is. For this reason, I like to spatchcock chickens before I vacuum pack them for freezing. Flatter = no voids.

[Dave the Cook]

It makes perfect sense; I just never thought about it. The fact is that I can't remember the last time I froze a whole chicken, but pre-spatchcocking is a great idea.

[Marmish]

Spatchcock, spatchcock, spatchcock.

Sorry, had to get that out of my system. I'm waiting to chaperone the middle school winter dance and all the spatchcocking cracked me up.

[/highjack]