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Is it safe to cook chicken, leave it in water and then eat it?

niuniu

niuniu

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 29, 2009
2,311
1
A man of the people. The right sort of people.
I always thought that if you left something like chicken in a bowl of water for a day or two the water would be full of salmonella or something else, even if it was in the fridge.

Maybe I'm totally wrong. I just never seen it done before until today and it spooked me a little.
 
Yes but it has to be kept cold. The chicken has to be cooked first though.
 
Gregg2 said:
Check one of these links from your web site. ;)
http://www.niu.edu/niusearch.asp?cx...&cof=FORID:11&q=leave+chicken+in+water&go=GO!
Maybe an answer in there somewhere?
Think about soup. That gets put in the fridge then reheated. Of course, there's broth in the water too. I wouldn't leave it out, or in the fridge for several days.

Ok, posts 4-6 were made while I was writing.... :rolleyes:
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Oh yeah okay, this situation though the chicken doesn't get reheated. It just gets cooked, put in fridge in a bowl with water and then eaten for 2 days after (no reheating).

I should have been more clear earlier..
 
As long as the water is cooked along with the chicken and brought up to the 160-170 for the required time you'll be fine.

However, the wet chicken will go bad much quicker than dry chicken since it is a breeding ground ... thus you need more preservatives in soup than a roast chicken.

Especially since people tend to leave the broth out to cool down before putting it in the fridge, which is a general no no for long term storage since you want food to pass through room temperature as quick as possible if you plan on keeping it the refrigerator or freezer. Or just load up on preservatives.

---

People also freak out about the fish and chicken marinade, but those can also be used after marinading instead of tossed as long as you cook it ... Much better to marinade chicken, then put it in a pot and bring to boil, and use the cooked marinade on the BBQ. Prevents drunk idiots from putting raw chicken marinade on cooked chicken after it comes off grill.
 
Cooking the chicken kills the salmonella; it doesn't spontaneously reappear without a new contamination.

That's not to say that the chicken won't spoil by other means.
 
niuniu said:
Oh yeah okay, this situation though the chicken doesn't get reheated. It just gets cooked, put in fridge in a bowl with water and then eaten for 2 days after (no reheating).

I should have been more clear earlier..
Click to expand...

Cooked chicken put in water in the fridge is ok for a couple of days.
I took a food safety class which has done nothing more than made me really f***ing paranoid.
 
Tomorrow said:
Cooking the chicken kills the salmonella; it doesn't spontaneously reappear without a new contamination.

That's not to say that the chicken won't spoil by other means.
Click to expand...

Yeah, like from bacteria in the water maybe..

jessica. said:
Cooked chicken put in water in the fridge is ok for a couple of days.
I took a food safety class which has done nothing more than made me really f***ing paranoid.
Click to expand...

Home ec at school made me para too, only about chicken though :confused:




Anyways the chicken is for animal consumption, I was over visiting the folks and my sis was over with her dog and spotted a container with chicken and water in it which kicked off the debate. Apparently the dog likes teh chicken to be moist. I still think it looks like a breeding ground for unseen death..
 
I don't think soaking the chicken in plain water will really keep it moist. Maybe a brine, but the key to moist chicken is not to overcook it.
 
Sun Baked said:
Especially since people tend to leave the broth out to cool down before putting it in the fridge, which is a general no no for long term storage since you want food to pass through room temperature as quick as possible if you plan on keeping it the refrigerator or freezer. Or just load up on preservatives.
Click to expand...
It's actually better to leave hot items on the counter to cool for the first 1-2 hours. If you put it directly into the refrigerator, you'll raise the temperature of the refrigerator above the "safe zone", and endanger everything else in there.

Also, if you put stuff in the fridge to soon, you'll get massive amounts of condensation built up in the container that will soak your food when you open it.
 
mactastic said:
It's actually better to leave hot items on the counter to cool for the first 1-2 hours. If you put it directly into the refrigerator, you'll raise the temperature of the refrigerator above the "safe zone", and endanger everything else in there.

Also, if you put stuff in the fridge to soon, you'll get massive amounts of condensation built up in the container that will soak your food when you open it.
Click to expand...

If you intend on putting something in the fridge that is hot, do not just leave it out on the counter for 2 hours, that will not help the situation at all. You are right that you don't want to put it in the fridge outright, but leaving it out on the counter is just as bad. You need to have an ice bath (do not put the chicken right in the water and ice however). You need to get it to about 30 degrees (anything under 40) and then take it out of the ice bath and store it in the fridge.

Leaving anything in water that gets in the danger zone (41-140 F) is where bacteria growth will take place. If the water is constant running water (less than 35 degrees) then it is okay to keep it there for a little while.

Non-human consumption is a little different though because they can handle more than we can. I wouldn't worry too much about it if the dog eats the food within a few hours. I wouldn't let the chicken sit in his water for longer than 4 hours just to be safe.
 
Immediately from the oven or stove to the placing the entire pot into a larger pot of ice, or use the handy dandy blast chiller.

Or simply take the soup/stew off the stove, immediately place portions into smaller containers and place in refrigerator with air between them ... much like Jello in smaller containers.

If you are worried about condensation in the food, leave the containers loosely covered/uncovered until they cool. Modern frost free refrigerators are designed to get rid of moisture and condensation.

As Rapmastac1 pointed out, you want to go from above 140 to below 40 quick.

---

A restaurant will get a failing grade for putting hot food from oven into a high traffic cooler with perishables ... but alas they should be using ice baths and blast chillers first anyhow. If it happens in a restaurant, it is likely happening daily or many times a day versus 1-2 times a year at home.
 
niuniu said:
Yeah, like from bacteria in the water maybe..
Home ec at school made me para too, only about chicken though :confused:
Anyways the chicken is for animal consumption, I was over visiting the folks and my sis was over with her dog and spotted a container with chicken and water in it which kicked off the debate. Apparently the dog likes teh chicken to be moist. I still think it looks like a breeding ground for unseen death..
Click to expand...

The good news is that dogs and other animals of the like can eat things we cannot due to a difference in the digestive track. Dogs are surprisingly well-equipped to deal with bacteria. Their saliva has antibacterial properties; it contains lysozyme, an enzyme that lyses and destroys harmful bacteria. Their short digestive tract is designed to push through food and bacteria quickly without giving bacteria time to colonize. The extremely acidic environment in the gut is also a good bacteria colonization deterrent. I wouldn't let a human eat raw chicken, or even cooked chicken sitting in water over time, but if the water is boiled sufficiently it really shouldn't matter.
 
As a culinary student, to cook chicken in a way that can keep it moist is to cook it in water. Pretty much make an unseasoned chicken stock, and just keep the chicken in said water. The chicken will stay moist, and you won't have to worry about any salmonella poisoning.

Rapmastac and Mactastic got it right.

@Rapmastac and Mactastic, did you guys take a serv safe certification course?
 
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