Whether you are new to the world of cooking or just new to using chicken as an ingredient, there are several very important things that you should know before using chicken in recipes.

Choosing and Buying Chicken Made Easy

First of all, only buy chicken within its expiration date that feels cold to the touch. Do not buy fresh chicken, which is leaking or damaged.

Chicken is chilled in food storage vehicles during its distribution to supermarkets to keep it fresh and stop bacteria from growing. Make cold meat and poultry the last thing you put in your grocery cart when you are shopping before heading to the checkout, so it does not get warm. Bag the chicken separately from the other groceries and refrigerate it as soon as you get home, still in its packaging.

Chicken Basics - Freezing, Thawing and Chilling Guide

You need to use fresh chicken within a couple of days. If you are not going to do this, it will need to be frozen. To defrost frozen chicken, you can either use a microwave, cold water or the refrigerator. The safest yet slowest way is to use the refrigerator. Boneless chicken breasts will thaw overnight in the refrigerator but a whole chicken might take a couple of days. If you defrost too much chicken in the refrigerator, you can refreeze the surplus.

If you want to defrost the chicken in water, submerge it, still in the packaging or in a Ziploc bag, in cold water. Change the water every half an hour so it stays cold. You can defrost a pound of boneless chicken breasts in an hour or a whole chicken in two or three hours.

If you are going to thaw chicken in the microwave, you will need to cook it immediately afterwords because some parts might warm up and start cooking while it is being defrosted and partial cooking does not kill the bacteria.

You can cook chicken from frozen in the oven or on the stove, as long as you allow it a 50% longer cooking time but do not cook frozen chicken in the microwave or in a slow cooker.

You can marinate chicken in the refrigerator for up to two days but you should not stuff a whole chicken unless you are going to cook it right away. Cooked chicken needs to reach an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees F to ensure that any bacteria have been killed.

If you have made a Kentucky fried chicken recipe and you have some left over, you should put it in the refrigerator within a couple of hours to keep it safe for enjoying the next day.

How Long Can You Keep Chicken Safely?

A whole raw chicken keeps for two days in the refrigerator or a year in the freezer. Raw chicken parts will keep for two days in the refrigerator or nine months in the freezer. You can keep cooked chicken parts or a cooked whole chicken for four days in the refrigerator or for four months in the freezer.