Shelf life of cooked chicken?

Behxo

Hi, I just wanted to get some opinions on the shelf life of cooked chicken. I have 6 chicken breasts that I kind of want to prepare all in one go so that I won't have to do it every night for dinner, I would eat one of them tonight so they'd technically only be refrigerated for 5 days until I eat all of them. I read somewhere that it's 3-4 days but I can't imagine it would make much of a difference if it was 5-6. Thanks!

aeloine

I usually don't go past 4. It gets dry and tasteless at 5.

shandy82165

For me, 3 days is max. It gets a funny tasted to me after 3 days. It's not gone bad though, just tastes different.

Crafty_camper123

eatbydate.com It has everything you could think of, including when you should eat it, and how to tell if it's starting to spoil or not. I would say about 5 days max for me personally. You could always freeze it to maximize freshness!

Edit: Checked my link and realized it was bad.. Take 2.

happyauntie2015

I meal prep. I bake or grill all my chicken in 1 day and then keep 3 days worth of meals in my fridge and freeze the remaining portions. On the morning of day 3 i take out a couple more to thaw in the fridge.

sgt1372

Why not freeze it til you're ready to use it?

bbell1985

I'd cook on Sunday and still eat it Friday for lunch. Stomach of steel tho.

LittleQuelie

Yeah, I second what the guy above me said. You an cook the whole batch now, and then eat one, keep three in the fridge, and then re-freeze the now-cooked chicken. It's fine to "re"freeze once after cooking. Then on the fourth day, you can defrost the two breasts that you had frozen. Et voila.

For leftovers, I typically don't go over 3 days but will allow up to 4 for most items.

JennJ323

I food prep Sundays, and eat it throughout the week til Friday. I've never had an issue with chicken going bad or tasting funny the whole week. But I have made pulled chicken, portioned it and freeze it.. then pull out each portion the night before, for lunch the next day. Both ways work for me.

sullus

I buy a couple Rotisserie chickens on Sundays when I shop. Sometimes, I'm still finishing one up on Saturday - seems to be fine. When in doubt I toss a piece to the cat. If he turns up his nose, I dont eat it.

stanmann571

5 days is pushing it for refrigerated, but frozen should be fine... just make sure you double wrap and get as much air and excess moisture out as possible.

DamienAngelica

bbell1985 wrote: »

I'd cook on Sunday and still eat it Friday for lunch. Stomach of steel tho.

I guess I've got one as well. I cook up a package of chicken tenderloins on Sunday and eat them for lunch or dinner during the week and I frequently eat the last one on Saturday.

LivingtheLeanDream

Freeze the cooked portions, I would not be keen to eat refrigerated chicken after day 3.

glassyo

I make a very simple chicken thing in the crockpot and it doesn't start smelling funky or taste wrong until the next Sunday.

maybe1pe

I go max a week. I cook on Sunday and will finish it up by the following Saturday. After that I throw it out. Never have gotten sick from that.
Although common sense is required, if it's cooked with something that smells or looks weird I throw it all out.