Can I freeze, part infinity

January 25, 2023 5:05 PM

I made this chicken curry a week and a half ago (Jan 14). It's still seems good, but there's still far more than I anticipated left. Can I still portion it out and freeze it, or have I missed the window for that?

I just had some, so obviously if I get sick I'll toss it all. My thought was that if it's still good, then as long as I freeze it now, it'll stay equally good, but I'm not actually sure that's right.

Bonus: any tips for freezing cooked chicken?

posted by matildatakesovertheworld to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

A week and a half is too long to risk it with chicken. Toss.
posted by miles1972 at 5:20 PM on January 25, 2023 [17 favorites]

I'd simmer it for 15 minutes to make sure any stray bacteria are eradicated, then freeze it. (assuming you didn't have adverse reactions)
posted by theora55 at 5:21 PM on January 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

Best answer: if it's still good, then as long as I freeze it now, it'll stay equally good, but I'm not actually sure that's right.

That is exactly right, in terms of food safety when you thaw and heat and eat directly. Obviously you can't thaw and then let it sit in your fridge for days. Also the texture will not be as good after freezing, but in my long experience with frozen curry, it's acceptable.

Yes that is past the conservative guidelines on time but if you ate it today and liked it and feel fine tomorrow, nothing will change if you freeze immediately and immediately eat the food after freezing.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:22 PM on January 25, 2023 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Freezing is like pressing pause on the microbial activity (this is not 100% accurate, but it is accurate enough for your purposes here). So the difference between the current state of the chicken now and the potential future state would be mostly the time it takes to freeze (which could be a matter of a few hours or significantly longer depending on your freezer) and the time it takes to defrost (ideally in the fridge). So let's say it's about 24-36 additional hours.

Personally, I wouldn't eat a chicken curry that was 12 days old (and I'll eat most things) and I'm sure you won't find any kind of official guidance to say this is even close to OK.
posted by ssg at 5:23 PM on January 25, 2023 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: So the difference between the current state of the chicken now and the potential future state would be mostly the time it takes to freeze (which could be a matter of a few hours or significantly longer depending on your freezer) and the time it takes to defrost (ideally in the fridge). So let's say it's about 24-36 additional hours.

My plan was to freeze in individual portions and then defrost in the microwave, in case that changes anyone's answer. (Probably not optimal for texture, but I am lazy and unlikely to ever eat it otherwise).
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 5:33 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

At this point you've already eaten some, so as long as you don't get sick and either know you'll remember the circumstances or label the frozen stuff appropriately and eat any reheated frozen portion immediately that should be fine. I would explicitly NOT reheat it before freezing as that will just put it back in the danger zone for longer, and reheating won't do anything to address other toxins released by bacterial activity, which is a big part of why these guidelines exist in the first place.

That said, 12 days is more than I'd be comfortable with for just plain eating refrigerated leftovers.
posted by Aleyn at 5:38 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

That's way past my comfort zone with leftover chicken. Like most of these questions, the answer here is that this is very unlikely to kill you but is low- to medium-likely to result in a highly unpleasant 8 or so hours.

But if you've decided to do it, get it into the freezer asap; your plan to freeze in small portions will help keep freezing and thawing times relatively short. It's not a great idea overall, but that would be the smartest way to do the not-great plan.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:55 PM on January 25, 2023

I believe that curries keep longer than most other foods, especially that the ones that have a layer of oil sitting on top. But I would not eat/freeze that.
posted by pianissimo at 8:56 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

I eat a LOT of sketchy stuff but I am absolutely not eating nearly two-week-old food. You could have frozen it up to maybe day 4 (only if it was very consistently refrigerated the rest of the time). Refrigeration only slows decomposition, and curry is nowhere near anaerobic enough to count as preservation in any sense.

In the future, if you'd like to freeze while the food is still safe, and it is a saucy food like chicken curry, the tidiest way to freeze it is in quart ziptop freezer bags, one serving per bag, laid flat until it is frozen. You can stack, bundle, or box up flat-frozen baggies to minimize storage space. Unsauced chicken really wants to grow ice crystals that'll freezer-burn surfaces and make it gross, so you want to dry it as well as you can and then spray or rub with oil, and then freeze in baggies with as much air pressed out of them as possible. I highly recommend slicing, dicing, or chunking cooked chicken before freezing and pressing it as flat as possible in the bag, so that thawing can be quick and gentle and not make the meat any tougher than it tends to get after freezing and reheating already.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:17 AM on January 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

matildatakesovertheworld , how did it go with eating the old curry? I stand by my point that it will be as safe frozen as it was yesterday, but I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering how you're doing :)
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:49 AM on January 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I'm totally fine (I forgot to mention that I had some Monday as well, so I felt ok about my odds), froze the rest. Thanks for all the responses!
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 6:29 PM on January 26, 2023 [2 favorites]