Update! (yes, there's more!) Would You Eat This - Cooked Chopped Chicken

[goldberry]

update post #22

 

In an effort to eat healthier, I cooked some chicken breasts, chopped them up, and put them in single serving bags in the freezer.  Yesterday at about 10 am, I took one out and put it on the counter to defrost, thinking I was going to add it to a salad at lunch.  I left the house and did not return until evening, about 7 p.m.

 

The chicken in the bag was defrosted but still cool.  I put it back in the fridge.

 

Yay or nay?

 

(Does it matter that I am totally grossed out by cooking and chopping meat, so this one bag of chicken means a lot to me???)

 

 

[The Girls' Mom]

I'd still eat it.

 

Take that with a grain of salt though...I'll eat anything that doesn't smell off..lol.  

[mamaraby]

I wouldn't, but I'd be in the "better safe than sorry" camp.

[xixstar]

We would probably still eat it after thorough reheating. We are a bit crazy like that though. :)

[Jean in Newcastle]

I would.  

[Laura Corin]

As it still felt cool I would.

[goldberry]

Wow, I'm rather happy.  I expected a united "don't eat it".  I think I'm going for it...

[ThisIsTheDay]

I would not eat it.  If it began as a solid chicken pieces, it would defrost more slowly, and I would consider eating it.  But 9 hours, with small pieces of food?  They are well past just being defrosted. They would have been past cool. They would have been at room temp for several hours.  There's no way I would eat it--or serve it to my family.

[JFSinIL]

I wouldn't.  Not worth the risk of food poisoning or a wonky tummy at best.

[Orthodox6]

No.  Fails safety parameters.

 

Hard to do this when food expenses are so high, but necessary.

[Pippen]

If it was very cold I'd still eat it. If it was just cool I wouldn't.

[PIE!]

I'd eat it, but if I was answering the question on a food handlers test I would say that I would throw it away.

[Cinder]

Bleah--I wouldn't. Please let us know that you're still well. :scared:

[Chelli]

I would eat it. Absolutely.

[rose]

I probably would. We've eaten some pretty sketchy stuff and never gotten sick. I suppose the temperature of your house would count. If was 100F then I probably wouldn't. If it was 65F then sure. Food safety rules seem WAY over the top most of the time.

[Amira]

If it were a larger amount I'd eat it (because it would have taken longer to thaw) but a single serving?  I'd toss it, both since it's not much to lose and since it would have thawed more quickly. I doubt that a single serving of chicken stayed cold for enough of the nine hours it was sitting out in the summer. I've eaten all kinds of sketchy things, but that's not a lot of chicken to toss out.

[goldberry]

Now I'm scared.  Crap.  :(

[chocolatechip]

I'd eat it. Living around lots of Russians has killed my "don't eat this" instinct. Seriously, the ones I know will leave food -meat, cooked eggs, ect.- for hours, then eat it, and they are all still alive!

[goldberry]

Well, I cooked it to death to purify it, then forgot about it and left it in the microwave.  So apparently, I should not be eating this chicken. 

 

Thanks, all! 

[ThisIsTheDay]

Now I'm scared.  Crap.   :(

 

Don't be scared.  I wouldn't eat it.  You all may very well be fine.  But I also wouldn't be surprised if someone suffers an upset tummy or diarrhea. Food poisoning isn't always easy to identify.  It doesn't necessarily mean that everyone will be projectile vomiting (fortunately!).

 

[Debbi in Texas]

I would definitely eat it. Try not to worry.

[goldberry]

Had to share, apparently my chicken is cursed!  So after dumping that previous bag, I got another one out of the freezer to have with salad tonight.  Now...I'm smart, ha ha!  I put it in the sink in water to defrost.

 

I do not notice that apparently my cat started stalking the sandwich baggie of chicken pieces until I hear a giant "plop" and see her running with a bag in her mouth.  I'm determined to get her, thinking I can still save this chicken since it's in a bag.  She runs all around my living room.  I catch her "Ha!" and hold up the bag only to discover she obviously bit into it while it was still in the sink because it is full of water (and presumably cat spit).  In addition, the water/chicken juice/cat spit combo was leaking out of the bag all over the living room while she was running with it, so now I will probably get salmonella from my floor 6 months from now when I've forgotten about it.

 

Just thought you guys might like to hear the outcome of my third and final bag of chicken.  THREE chicken breasts, one meal.   :glare: So much for healthy eating!

[Jean in Newcastle]

I'm sorry.  (Though I just might be chuckling just a little.  I am laughing WITH you, right?)

[SKL]

You should have asked the cat in the first place.  "Is this OK to eat?"

[fraidycat]

I'm sorry. (Though I just might be chuckling just a little. I am laughing WITH you, right?)

:iagree: :D

 

And :grouphug:. I'm with you on the dislike of food prep - your story sounds frustrating.

 

FWIW, I totally would've eaten the first chicken without any additional work. And have eaten "worse" according to modern food police. Food safety rules sometime seems way over the top, and are, IMO designed for commercial, large-scale food operations and mostly deemed necessary by liability insurance companies trying to mitigate the risk to their bottom line.

[LucyStoner]

Well, I think we can all agree that no one should eat the cat spit chicken.

 

I eat everything. But not cat spit chicken.

 

You know how Garfield's schtick is loving lasagna? Our cat loves pizza. We absolutely can not leave a homemade pizza or a pizza box out for even 1/2 hour or we will lose it to the cat standing on it and eating off any bits of meat. Yuck. I am not easily grossed out but cat spit is on my no way list.

[Sdel]

I have a cat theif as well. He was named Bandit for a reason. I always lock up the kitties when cooking/thawing food.

 

 

Stefanie

[SquirrellyMama]

Well, I think we can all agree that no one should eat the cat spit chicken.

 

I eat everything. But not cat spit chicken.

 

You know how Garfield's schtick is loving lasagna? Our cat loves pizza. We absolutely can not leave a homemade pizza or a pizza box out for even 1/2 hour or we will lose it to the cat standing on it and eating off any bits of meat. Yuck. I am not easily grossed out but cat spit is on my no way list.

I'll admit that I've eaten things with cat spit :/

[Jean in Newcastle]

Our cat loves tomato sauce.  I had a meatloaf that was covered with tomato sauce on the top. I came into the kitchen to see him jumping down off of the counter after having licked all the tomato sauce off the top.  I took a knife, and trimmed about a half inch or so of meat, tomato and cat spit off of all sides.  Then I reheated it.  Then we ate it.  

[goldberry]

 Our cat loves pizza. We absolutely can not leave a homemade pizza or a pizza box out for even 1/2 hour or we will lose it to the cat standing on it and eating off any bits of meat. .

 

I never before had a cat that would steal food.  When this particular cat was a little kitten, we once saw her run through the living room carrying an entire piece of pizza in her mouth.  :blink:  It looked so funny to see a little cat running with a pizza slice like that!

[goldberry]

Our cat loves tomato sauce.  I had a meatloaf that was covered with tomato sauce on the top. I came into the kitchen to see him jumping down off of the counter after having licked all the tomato sauce off the top.  I took a knife, and trimmed about a half inch or so of meat, tomato and cat spit off of all sides.  Then I reheated it.  Then we ate it.  

 

I would totally do the same thing.

[Cinder]

Our older cat will go for any food in a plastic bag. We learned this when we found a chewed up bag of bread on the floor. We also once found a bag of pretzels that had been torn open and the pretzels strewn about the kitchen floor. We used to have a large ceramic bowl on the counter that held the bags of bread and buns. Now we use a basket in the pantry.

[ktgrok]

FYi, the reason we grew up with more lax food safety rules  and survived was that salmonella wasn't an issue back then. Modern farming has created new issues, so new rules. http://www.about-salmonella.com/

[mamaraby]

Awwww, cute! And frustrating. Sorry, goldberry. The cat goddess has spoken. No chicken for you. ;)

[goldberry]

FYi, the reason we grew up with more lax food safety rules  and survived was that salmonella wasn't an issue back then.

 

 

I know... it's sad what we're doing, isn't it?  Our food is so contaminated we just have to assume it will poison from the very beginning.

[Amy in NH]

Yes, with no misgivings.

[Familia]

"If in doubt, throw it out!"

Also, my understanding is that you and your family get used to your handling of food and can, therefore, tolerate a certain bac. count in your food.  Someone new comes in and  :ack2:

[Eagle]

In future, thaw meat in the fridge. Keeps out cats and it doesn't get into the danger zone.