Another would you eat this question - chicken soup edition

March 4, 2020 3:44 PM

I know we all have other pathogens on our mind, but I figured I'd give us a fun break! Would you eat this chicken soup? It's made with a chicken thawed with dubious methods.

I decided to make a batch of chicken soup today. I pulled a frozen chicken out of the freezer this morning but it was still frozen solid when I went to put it into the pot. My husband got it free of its packaging and we ran it under some warm water to get the legs to open up enough to get the giblets out. Unfortunately this took an extremely long time - I'm guessing an hour, possibly a little more. Eventually he poured boiling water on it, and we finally got the giblet bag free, I popped the chicken into the pot, covered it with water and now we're simmering nicely. The chicken had cooked a bit in the boiling water.

I would say it sat thawing/cooking in the boiling water for about 30 minutes, which is the part I'm the most concerned about. He says it's fine... I am... on the fence. But I'd really like to not throw this pot of chicken soup out if I can avoid it.

posted by pazazygeek to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Totally fine.
posted by jon1270 at 3:47 PM on March 4, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: *one additional note, it wasn't water boiling on the stove, it was a bowl that had boiling water poured into it, which most definitely cooled over those 30 minutes.
posted by pazazygeek at 3:47 PM on March 4, 2020

I'd eat it. Especially in a soup where you're going to be above 165F for good long time.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:51 PM on March 4, 2020

Totally fine.
posted by mumimor at 4:10 PM on March 4, 2020

Another vote for fine. You raised it to a temperature at which the potential nasties cannot survive and kept it there for a solid half hour. This is the process by which cooking renders food safer than eating it raw.
posted by axiom at 4:33 PM on March 4, 2020

Best answer: You didn’t raise the core temp to a safe temp, it was frozen, that’s why you couldn’t get the goblet bag out. The core sat in the USDA danger zone for sometime up to an hour*, depending on how long it took to simmer.

Fortunately for you, the (highly conservative) USDA danger zone guidelines say that it’s totally fine to let raw chicken sit in the danger zone for an hour before cooking.

Totally fine.

*probably only 15-20 minutes, which is even more of a non-issue.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:53 PM on March 4, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'd eat it without a second thought, and I tend to be cautious.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:03 PM on March 4, 2020

it's fine, just make sure that the cavity is open so that the simmering water is, you know, also simmering on the inside of the bird.
posted by fingersandtoes at 5:03 PM on March 4, 2020 [1 favorite]

Within the last week I ate some chicken that was out at room temp for approximately 1.5 hours and I'm fine. It did not start frozen and I had cooked it in a curry in small pieces. While there is a risk, it's a fairly minimal one.
posted by Ferreous at 5:05 PM on March 4, 2020

We did the same thing last week but also left it for like 2 hours in room temp water to try to loosen the giblets, then ate it and all was delicious and fine.
posted by slateyness at 10:19 PM on March 4, 2020

I am extremely cautious because my stomach is very sensitive to things like that, and I'd eat that.
posted by telophase at 8:38 AM on March 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: FYI! We ate it and we lived. :)
posted by pazazygeek at 4:07 PM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]