Always Thaw Chicken In Your Refrigerator

Raw chicken should never be thawed at room temperature by leaving it out on the counter.Rahter thaw out chicken slowly by leaving on a shelf in the non freezing side of your refrigerator.By the way you can even cook chicken from frozen and it even cooks faster this way.Obviously you need to remember that if you are following a recipe that asks for a certain amount of water that you should decrease this water content as the frozen chicken has a lot of water in it in the form of ice which will then melt.Do not use chicken which has been thawing for more than 24 hours in your refrigerator.

Some more tips on keeping chicken in your fridge:

Cooked chicken (regardless of how it is prepared) shouldn't be eaten after 48 hours in the fridge.

Make sure that cooked hot chicken is cooled down before putting into your fridge.This is so your fridge does not have to work harder to maintain its chosen temperator and also so you dont have to defrost your fridge any more than necessary.

It is not true that cooking raw chicken which has been in your fridge for more than 24 hours will kill the bacteria so dont do it.

You can have your raw chicken in the fridge in a bowl of water with some salt added.This makes your chicken more tender for when you do cook it and also helps in browning the chicken.

Read the package label to see the "sell-by" date which is 7 to 10 days after the chicken was slaughtered and if properly refrigerated it should remain fresh 2 to 3 days after that date. If it is a "used-by" date, the chicken should be cooked or frozen by that date.

Be sure the chicken, particularly a large whole bird, is defrosted thoroughly to ensure proper cooking. Place a hand inside the cavity of the chicken to check for ice crystals. If any crystals are present, more thawing time is needed. Thawed chicken should be cooked as soon as possible.Remove the giblets from the cavity of a whole chicken as soon as thawing allows. While the chicken is thawing, be sure drippings do not contaminate other food or preparation surfaces.

Prevent freezer burn by wrapping chicken in foil before freezing.

The faster you cook chicken after it has been frozen for the first time the better tasting it will be.So the secret is not to freeze fro long periods of time.

Basically follow the rules of freezing meat

White meat can be frozen for 365 days and red meat for 180 days.The difference is due to the fat content which is higher in red meat.