Exact Answer: 9 months to 1 year
Chicken is one of the most commonly used poultry products. Chicken as a whole or even parts is used in many dishes around the world. Some of the most famous delicacies in many places, locally or even internationally are made with chicken or have chicken as an option for meat. Since it is used so often, the question of its storage must surely arise. Chicken, as a whole, raw or uncooked can be stored for even up to a year. This is considering that the temperature is low enough and stable for that period.
How Long Can You Freeze Chicken?
One of the foremost and flexible of all protein options, chicken, can be utilized for planning several dishes. Once you purchase chicken from the butcher, it is fresh chicken. The chicken that you get in general stores mostly is frozen chicken. Any chicken that has been recently cut and has not been put away under the temperature of 26 °F is labeled as fresh. Most of the time people prefer buying frozen chicken instead of fresh chicken. This can be due to any reasons, some of which are less trouble of cleaning and cutting, less blood, and overall cleaner packaging, making it simple to store.
One of the most important reasons that chicken is frozen and just not chilled or cooled or due to the attraction of microbes on the raw chicken, which can eventually lead to spoilage. Chicken meat is perishable and to maintain some level of freshness, it is essential to freeze it for further use. Chicken pieces can be stored in the freezer, raw or uncooked for up to 9 months.
If it is an entire chicken you’re freezing, at that point you’ll be able to freeze it and store it for up to a year without it ruining its taste and texture. Minced chicken can be put away within the freezer for almost 3 months. Cooked chicken like stews and soups can moreover be frozen and after that put away within the freezer for almost 2 to 3 months. Cooked chicken contains a more prominent plausibility of ruining and defilement.
It is best not to freeze cooked chicken for long periods. One imperative thing to keep in mind is that frozen cooked chicken when defrosted, will not have the same taste and feel as freshly cooked chicken.
| Type of Chicken | Time for which it can be kept frozen |
| Whole uncooked/raw chicken | 1 year |
| Cut pieces of uncooked/raw chicken | 9 months |
| minced chicken(raw) | 3 months |
| Cooked chicken | 2 – 3 months |
| processed chicken(nuggets,etc) | 3 -6 months |
Why Can You Freeze Chicken For That Long?
It is frequently seen that the flavor of defrosted cooked chicken is significantly less than the newly cooked form. Numerous individuals indeed discover it unappetizing and unpalatable. In any case, an important point to keep in mind is that the condition of your cooler and the bundling of the chicken plays a huge part in these time outlines given. If your cooler isn’t of the best quality and cannot keep up the specified temperature, at that point your chicken cannot be put away for a long period.
Moreover, dodge overstuffing the cooler with numerous food items as it might cause the temperature of the freezer to drop. Encourage the practice of storing complete chicken or chicken pieces in an air-tight container, so that water does not get to the interiors of it and ruin it. The most perfect way to store chicken is to put it within cooler sacks and after that wrap it in the cooler paper.
Prepacked chicken items like chicken nuggets and chicken sausages can be securely stored within the freezer for 2 to 3 months. Once you have got defrosted the bundle, don’t put it back inside the cooler, as the microbes have most likely contaminated the chicken. It is best to defrost as it were in the packaging and remove merely what is required for making the dish.
Conclusion
Chicken is an important protein source for many individuals and requires to be stored well to use it. To maintain the quality and taste of the chicken, it is advised to store the whole chicken uncooked in the freezer for up to a year. Uncooked chicken that is cut into pieces, can be stored in the freezer for about 9 months, likewise ground or minced chicken for 3 to 4 months.
All these figures hold only if the poultry meat is stored at the right temperature, consistently.
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