Chicken meat is extremely helpful. But it also deteriorates in ordinary room conditions very quickly. Therefore, it is important to know how to properly store it.
Useful properties of chicken meat
Chicken is one of the most nutritious and at the same time dietary foods, containing easily digestible protein. Its meat is filled with zinc, potassium, iron and many other trace elements important for the body. Chicken contains almost all the vitamins that exist in nature. And the meat of this bird is the source of a unique substance - carnosine, which is able to rejuvenate the cells of the body, restore muscle tissue.
If you regularly eat chicken (naturally, in reasonable quantities), the risk of developing diabetes or heart disease will be significantly reduced.
Basic ways of keeping chicken at home
Storage methods are few. Chicken's meat:
- freeze (in the fridge freezer);
- or cooled (in its upper compartments).
But you need to start with the purchase of high-quality chicken meat, because you can save it much longer spoiled.
How to choose a chicken that will last longer
In order not to lose your choice, when buying frozen chicken, follow a few simple rules:
- Inspect the chicken carcass. Uncorrupted frozen chicken has white, thin and dry skin, no bruises or scratches;
- Try chicken to the touch: stickiness and slipperyness are a sign of staleness;
- press the carcass with your finger: if a dent remains, the meat is spoiled;
- rub chicken: if grayish-dark mucus appears, do not buy the product;
- Pass by if the meat is covered with ice. Frozen carcass probably already defrosted, and then frozen again, and even watered with water (to artificially increase the weight). All this is very bad for the quality of chicken;
- carefully inspect the packaging. Make sure that it is completely sealed, does not let air and moisture at all.
If you can choose between a frozen and chilled carcass, choose a chilled one - it is much more difficult to hide traces of nefariousness, since you cannot disguise the unpleasant putrid odor and other signs of decomposition by simple cooling.
How to store fresh raw chicken with cooling
In the fridge (the freezer doesn’t count) the chicken will remain edible not for a very long time - a maximum of two weeks, and even then only on condition that the temperature all the time is no higher than zero. At a temperature that is more usual for a refrigerator (+ 5-6 degrees), the carcasses will spoil in just 5 days.
When stored in a refrigerator, the following conditions must be observed:
- Avoid contact with other products. Otherwise, the meat cannot last for two weeks. In addition, the chicken can "pick up" the smell of a nearby product (for example, onions).
- It is best to keep in food vacuum containers, and the chicken is desirable to be divided into parts, and not to store the whole carcass. All remaining free space in the containers should be filled with pieces of ice. In such containers, the meat will remain fresh for 5-6 days.
- A good choice and food film (chicken should be wrapped in several layers). Glass packaging also fits well. But in a package of cellophane chicken will spoil in two days. If you still have to keep it in cellophane, make sure that there is no air in it.
It is also important to remember that it is better to remove the bones from the chicken meat - the meat will then last longer.
How to store raw fresh chicken in the freezer
In the freezer chamber of the carcass of this poultry can be saved for quite a long time - a whole year. True, the temperature should also be very low - minus 20-25 degrees. But if:
- temperature minus 14-16, then the meat will be able to save 7-8 months;
- if the temperature is 9-12 degrees of frost, the chicken will stay fresh for 4-5 months;
- at temperatures from -5 to -8 carcasses will not deteriorate for longer than 1-2 months.
When freezing:
- no need to wash the meat;
- best stored in food bags or special containers. All must be sealed;
- if the meat has been in the upper compartments of the refrigerator for more than two days, it cannot be frozen. The same applies to the chicken, which for more than 3 hours was in conditions of normal room temperature.
Ways to keep raw chicken longer
There are many different ways to keep a chicken longer than usual and without freezing, which makes the meat less useful. For example:
- Use pieces of ice. It is necessary to put a chicken in them or cover the top with pieces of ice. This will prolong the life of the meat for a couple of days even without freezing.
- Put the chicken in a cotton towel dipped in vinegar. In it, the meat will remain fresh a little longer than usual - 7 days.
- Drown meat in marinade. Then it will deteriorate 2-3 days later than usual. Marinade should not be any, but always with pepper and salt.
- Lubricate the walls and bottom of an enameled airtight container with vinegar and place chicken in it. Meat will be edible 6 days.
- Grate the chicken with salt and ground black pepper. Then it will not spoil for at least 5 days.
How long can you keep a chicken cooked in different ways (boiled, fried, etc.)
Immediately it should be noted: it can be kept for a very short time, since it is undesirable to freeze chicken in whatever form it is cooked. More specifically, then:
- at room temperature the boiled chicken will start to deteriorate after some 2-3 hours. In the refrigerator, it will last a maximum of 2-3 days;
- stew will be fresh a little longer - 4-5 days;
- fried "live" a maximum of three days;
- smoked will begin to deteriorate in two days.
It is better to freeze the finished chicken (as well as raw) in individual pieces: the whole carcass will have to be defrosted longer.
Eat ready thawed meat must necessarily be on the same day. Best of all within the next few hours immediately after a defrost.
Chicken - the food is tasty, wholesome and easily digestible, but in order for the meat of this poultry to carry only good, you need to keep it, as they say, according to all the rules.
