Is it okay to place partially thawed meat that was on the counter for hours back in the fridge?

Question

I never cook so I don't know what I'm doing much. I took out a pound of ground chicken meat and let it run under hot water a couple of times and just left it in the sink for it to defrost. After about 3 hours it was still frozen solid in the middle so I took it out its original package put it on a plate and wrapped it up and thawed it in the microwave for about 2 minutes and it was still frozen in the middle. I got tired of it so I just wrapped it up with plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge. Is this safe?

Answer 1

it's ok. not the best thing to do but it won't kill you or anything. make sure you cook it really well. and use it by tomorrow.

Answer 2

I do try to thaw in the fridge, just because I have worked in restaurants and I know the horrors of not properly handling food! Though, I do admit, it can take several days for things to thaw in my fridge (I have it really cold b/c I just get paranoid about bad bacteria and things...) but if I have a whole chicken that isn't thawed all the way, I admit, I just cut it in half w/ the kitchen shears and season it and bake it anyway. I just account for the little extra frozen-ness, and bake a little longer. If I don't do that, I do the pot w/ continuous flow of cold water over it. Thaws pretty quickly that way.

Answer 3

You should be ok to do this...although I'm a bit worried about putting the chicken under the hot water!! I always defrost my chicken on the kitchen sink overnight. Ideally they tell you to thaw it out in the fridge..but I have never been sick doing it my way & I cook all the time!! You gotta be careful with chicken because bacteria grows so quickly.

Answer 4

If ti's still frozen in the middle, yes, you're probably okay. The worriesome part is how long the outer edge of the hunk of meat stayed at room temp, or was it chilled by the frozen interior to a safe temp.

Answer 5

If it's ground chicken, I assume you were just going to "brown" it like you would regular hamburger to use in a recipe? If that's the case, you can still "brown" it while it's frozen/semi-frozen. Just put it in the pan and as it heats up you can crumble it apart with a spatula (or whatever utensil you use) and it will cook right up.

Answer 6

That's totally safe. You could have even left it in a bag and allowed it to defrost totally before putting it back in the refrigerator. Just use it within 24 hours of defrosting.

Answer 7

It's OK as long as you use it by the next day, and cook it thoroughly. There's usually bacteria in chicken anyway, and cooking it well will kill it, so doing what you did won't make things any worse.

Answer 8

As long as you use it when it is thawed(like within 24 hrs)

Answer 9

You should be OK here. For future reference go by the old axiom...."When in doubt, throw it out".

Answer 10

yes - just don't re-freeze it