How long can you keep cooked chicken in the refrigerator?
A leftover piece of cold chicken in the refrigerator is a goldmine: with a simple bowl of lettuce, you can make a delicious meal salad with those pieces of chicken; a vegetable, cheese and grilled chicken casserole makes a tasty quick bite on a busy day; and a sandwich with bacon, mayonnaise, tomato, lettuce and some cold chicken: winner! Just be careful, because you can’t keep cooked chicken for as long as you might like.
You can eat a whole roasted chicken for days if you handle it a little smartly. You make soup from the bones, prepare a chicken salad with the meat and, of course, eat that juicy fillet when you take the chicken hot and golden brown from the oven. But how long can you actually keep that chicken? The answer is shocking: no longer than three days.
Risky business
What? Only three days? Chicken is risky business, according to Healthline. The health website warns that Salmonella is always lurking, and contamination from raw chicken to cooked chicken also poses a risk. According to Healthline, you can keep raw chicken in your refrigerator for only one or two days; cooked chicken stays good for a maximum of four days. Especially if you’ve already served the chicken at the table – meaning it hasn’t been kept at refrigerator temperature continuously – or if you took the chicken home from a restaurant in a doggie bag, there’s a chance it won’t stay good for as long.
Keeping it longer
Do you want to keep the chicken for longer than four days? Put it in a ziplock bag and toss it in the freezer; it will certainly keep for a month or two. Raw chicken will keep in the freezer for at least six months, by the way. And be careful when defrosting, because those nasty bacteria that can make you very ill especially seize their chance at room temperature.
Also read:
- Yuck! Fried chicken turns out to be a fried towel
- Recipe: chicken with 40 cloves of garlic
- Should you wash a chicken before preparing it?
Source: Healthline
