Just as you were thinking of thawing chicken breasts for a chicken caesar salad or chicken parmigiana, you opened your freezer and noticed dried white spots on the frozen chicken that you stored in it.
What are these weird spots, anyway? And is your chicken still safe to eat?
Freezing chicken is the best way to keep it fresh for a longer time, especially if you buy it in bulk. In our household, for example, we have a Costco membership. Every now and then, we buy packs of 24 chicken breasts or 6 whole chickens and put them in the freezer.
But just how long can chicken stay frozen while still being safe to eat? It’s a question that home cooks (me included) often ask. So I set out to find the answer. Here’s what I found.
It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon. You’re drinking beer with friends in your backyard and you just fired up the grill. You promised the kids you were going to make their favorite barbecue chicken. It then strikes you… you forgot to buy chicken breasts from the grocery store. “Thank God,” you think to yourself, “I left some in the freezer from last time.”
There’s just one problem: they’re still frozen. This happened to me recently and, let me tell you, it took me some researching on Google to figure out what to do as I was grilling sausages for the grownups.
