Tips from experienced housewives on how long you can store fried chicken in the refrigerator

Fried chicken is a delicious and quick to prepare dish. Some of its fans like to prepare this product for future use in large quantities.

But this approach is not always justified. After all, fried chicken has specific shelf life.

And if you don’t follow them, you can get unpleasant health consequences instead of a delicious lunch or dinner.

There are several ways to store fried poultry. And each of them has certain subtleties and nuances. We’ll tell you in this article how long you can store fried chicken in the refrigerator.

Product expiration dates

Fried chicken can be stored at room temperature and on the refrigerator shelf. Each of these storage methods has certain conditions.

In the refrigerator

It is necessary to store fried chicken in the refrigerator correctly; only if this condition is met, the dish will retain its taste.

Before placing the product on the refrigerator shelf, It is useful to consider some recommendations:

1. Ready fried poultry must be cooled completely before storing in the refrigerator. This is best done at room temperature. If you send the meat to cool while it’s hot, not only the technique may suffer, but also the taste of the dish.
2. Fried meat must be pre-packaged. This will prevent any contact of meat with air.

It is better to place the dishes in which the chicken meat is placed on the bottom shelf, closer to the back wall.The product should not be placed in the side compartments. Frequent temperature fluctuations occur here when closing and opening the appliance door.

In the refrigerator, fried chicken retains its taste and freshness for 2-3 days at a temperature of 4 °C. Storage time is reduced if the temperature rises to 7 °C.

At room temperature

Fried chicken should be stored at room temperature with care. Especially if the thermometer reaches above 18 °C, fried meat will begin to spoil very quickly. Therefore, it is best to eat this dish immediately.

As a last resort, you can wrap the product in food foil.. In this case, the chicken can be stored at a temperature no higher than 23 °C for no longer than 24 hours.

How to extend the storage period?

To extend the shelf life of fried chicken, you can freeze it. Before this, the meat must be divided into portions and placed in airtight containers or freezer bags. An alternative is to wrap the food in aluminum foil.

After removing roasted meat from the freezer, it is important to defrost it properly. Only if this condition is met, the dish will retain its taste and appearance.

Proper defrosting should be done as follows:

• remove the dish from the freezer and place it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for several hours;
• Additionally, you need to place a special tray under the product into which water will drain during defrosting;
• Next, the meat should be placed on the table and left to defrost at room temperature.

You can use a microwave oven to defrost frozen fried chicken. But at the same time, it is necessary to follow all the rules for preliminary defrosting. If you reheat the product immediately after freezing, this will not benefit either the microwave oven or the taste of the product.

You can place fried poultry in the freezer 2 hours after cooking. A finished product that has been outside the freezer for more than 4 hours cannot be re-frozen.

How to choose a container?

Before placing chicken in the refrigerator or freezer, you can wrap it in food foil or use food-grade plastic containers. The latter must be tightly closed with a lid.

You can also use vacuum bags. This way the product will not become saturated with foreign aromas and will retain its freshness longer.

Grilled chicken

Ready grilled chicken is a highly perishable product. That's why better to eat it right away. The taste and appearance of the dish are preserved longer if the chicken was fresh before the time of sale.

If the product could not sit immediately, it is better to send it to the refrigerator shelf. The temperature here should not exceed 6 °C, otherwise the meat will spoil faster. A strong drop in temperature is also not welcome - this will affect the taste of the dish. Therefore, grilled chicken should not be stored in the freezer. Although staying in it will increase the shelf life of the product.

The maximum shelf life of grilled chicken in the refrigerator is two days.If the product was initially on the store display for a long time, its shelf life is reduced. Therefore, you need to carefully monitor the condition of chicken meat stored in the refrigerator.

Ready grilled chicken should not be left in a warm room.. It is especially not recommended to place it under the sun. In such conditions, the dish will spoil in a few hours.

Signs of spoiled meat

Fried chicken is a perishable product. Therefore, it is important to comply with all storage conditions.

Understand that the chicken has gone bad possible by the following criteria:

• the meat takes on a grayish tint;
• the product begins to stick to your fingers and becomes slimy to the touch;
• the finished product emits an unpleasant sour smell;
• the taste of a spoiled product also tastes sour.

Don't try to revive spoiled fried chicken. You cannot eat such a product - it can cause severe food poisoning. Spoiled meat must be disposed of. You also need to additionally disinfect and ventilate the place where the dish was stored.

Useful tips

To keep fried chicken on the refrigerator shelves longer and delight you with its taste, There are a few useful tips to consider:

1. During the cooking process, the product must be thoroughly fried. There should be no blood clots or raw areas of meat left inside.
2. The finished dish must be cut into portions and placed in special bags or containers. Only after this can the pieces of meat be sent to the refrigerator or freezer.
3. If the fried chicken was cooked with other foods, vegetables, or sauce, you should also consider the expiration date of those foods.By adding mayonnaise, marinades and fermented milk products, the cooking time of fried chicken meat is reduced.
4. Multi-ingredient dishes made from fried chicken fillet are best eaten immediately. This product can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 24 hours.

Conclusion

Fried chicken is not a shelf-stable food. Therefore, it is better to eat it as soon as possible. The same recommendation applies to ready-made grilled chicken. A product that is not completely eaten can be stored in the refrigerator for no longer than 1-2 days.

During storage, it is important to monitor the condition of the meat. and immediately dispose of at the first sign of damage. Failure to follow the rules for storing fried food can result in severe food poisoning.