Question about CHicken!

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ughhh i cooked chicken and turned the oven off, got busy cleaning and forgot all about it!! It has been 4 1/2 hours in the oven (off)...should I throw it away or can I put my oven up to 200 to kill off any bacteria that may have gotten on it ? =(

Replies

  • tadpole242
    tadpole242 Posts: 507 Member
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    I'd throw it away, Inside a warm oven is the prefect breeding place for bacteria and when your food temperature drops from high temp to low temp say from 56 °C to room temperature, the bacteria inside your chicken will double every 15 to 20 minutes. 4.5 hours is long enough to get into that range and allow the food to spoil.
  • beatingobesityforlife
    beatingobesityforlife Posts: 121 Member
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    Thank you so much. I hate that, I was cooking dinner for tomorrow and chicken can get expensive. =( But thank you!
  • PhilipByrne
    PhilipByrne Posts: 276 Member
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    I wouldn't throw it out unless I saw things crawling around in it, but that's just me. Seems overcautious to me.
  • glovepuppet
    glovepuppet Posts: 1,713 Member
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    pft! i'd eat it.
  • clairabell2024
    clairabell2024 Posts: 194 Member
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    id eat it too! lol ive cooked chicken the night before and put it in a salad for the next days lunch? I didnt think anything was wrong with this! :-S
  • beatingobesityforlife
    beatingobesityforlife Posts: 121 Member
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    I just threw it away =;( it was for my husband and I didnt want to chance making him sick so I acted with my overcautious approach lol. Thank you all so much for your comments though..I think I will remember next time to store it after its cooked!!
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
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    Yeah. If you are using chicken for the next day, then you should refrigerate it fairly quickly. So, good judgment call throwing it out.
  • beatingobesityforlife
    beatingobesityforlife Posts: 121 Member
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    Yeah. If you are using chicken for the next day, then you should refrigerate it fairly quickly. So, good judgment call throwing it out.
    thank you ! =) I feel a lil better now throwing it out lol
  • stuffinmuffin
    stuffinmuffin Posts: 985 Member
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    I know you've since thrown it out but I'd definitely have eaten it! Must have a stomach of iron! I know that you should let meat cool thoroughly before refrdigeration though not 100% sure why....maybe it's for the good of the fridge LOL! : S
  • tadpole242
    tadpole242 Posts: 507 Member
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    I wouldn't throw it out unless I saw things crawling around in it, but that's just me. Seems overcautious to me.
    Ever had proper food poisoning? Guess not.
    I spent a month dashing between the sink and the toilet, 4 days in hospital, lost 28 in two weeks and took a month to get back on my feet. What was the cause...? Chicken that had been left out for too long.
  • cramernh
    cramernh Posts: 3,335 Member
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    I know you've since thrown it out but I'd definitely have eaten it! Must have a stomach of iron! I know that you should let meat cool thoroughly before refrdigeration though not 100% sure why....maybe it's for the good of the fridge LOL! : S

    If you put a fully hot-cooked item in the fridge, you are actually dropping the cool temps dramatically at the same time as well. When that happens, everything else risks spoiling because its coming down within the danger-zone of foodborne illess.. (39F-135F)

    That fridge needs to maintain 35F-37F, the freezer, 32F or colder (preferably 0F). You put in anything that is still steaming-hot (from a 350F oven), thats it, you might as well throw everything in the fridge out because in the first two hours, thats all it takes.

    I ran restaurants as both a Chef and Manager, with my Serv-Safe Manager's certification for a great many years - I took this seriously...
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    I would have eaten it too. The oven internals has been exposed to high temperature so isn't a source of bacteria. We cook things to kill the bugs that came with the raw food.

    At home we regularly have cooked meat at lunchtime and several hours later eat up the remains.

    Yes I have had real food poisoning, in India and elsewhere, but lasting paranoia wasn't one of the symptoms ;-)
  • Flafster
    Flafster Posts: 106 Member
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    I'd have eaten it too. The cooking would have killed the bugs and it wouldn't have had enough time to have been colonised and grow more within that time, especially within the oven/. what a waste