DH put a full chicken in a cold oven

[Pinkkahori]

Our oven is old, it takes a while to heat up. DH just told me that he forgot to preheat the oven today so he put the chicken in to a cold oven. He didn't allow any additional cooking time.
I didn't eat it but he and the kids did.
I'm worried about the possibility of food poisoning.
Does everyone preheat their oven?
Is it likely to be a problem?

Just RTFT … Sorry OP, he’s an arse.

Can’t believe a pp sometimes cooks a whole frozen chicken! It needs to be thoroughly defrosted first. You can get chicken bits that cook from frozen but not whole ones!! Asking for food poisoning.

He's got eyes, presumably he can tell if a chicken is cooked. Check the carcass, see if there is raw meat attached to it. Everyone will almost certainly be fine.

The main issue is that he's punishing you for being home late by refusing to cook, or only cooking meat, not a whole meal. Wtf??

I'd talk to him once more about this. If no improvement, I'd make sure I had batch-cooked meals for me and the Dc that I could defrost and heat up quickly on days I was working. I would not cook for dh, or do anything for him as a matter of fact, until he had changed his behaviour and stopped acting like a dick.

Regarding preheating, if you've a fan oven you don't really need to preheat but your will still add some extra cooking time.

It's still sensible to let it heat up (so a few minutes or so) while preparing the food going in.

Try not to worry. Any meat can be eaten raw, we cook it (apart from flavour/texture reasons) to kill off any bacteria that might be in it. You can only (possibly) get food poisoning if the chicken was contaminated to begin with and as long as it was thoroughly cooked, you will be fine. I realise you don't know whether it was thoroughly cooked, but hopefully someone would have noticed if bits were still pink and raw.

There's obviously more going on than whether or not to pre-heat - but FWIW, OP, I always pre-heat the oven, and I would cook a big chicken for longer than 1hr 20 mins, even with the oven pre-heated. However, I worry about food poisoning!

LOL how on earth has this turned into a thread where the husbands done it on purpose to spite the OP - you lot think the husband would give themselves food poisoning to get out of sticking something in the oven?? Come off it 🙄 OP I’ve never preheated the oven and I’m still alive.

There's a name for this, when someone does things badly so the other person takes over, then that person just ends up doing it all the time.

"Oh I don't think I cooked the chicken properly so I made myself a sandwich, by the way, the kids have the shits, I'd help out but don't forget I'm off out cycling with Dave, see you later".

Do you follow the time instructions on the packet? If so it will be fine. The instructions always make an overcooked chicken. I always knock off 10-20 minutes off the cooking time for a roast chicken. Otherwise you get a dry stringy chicken. Everyone I know overcooks a roast chicken.

I never preheat ovens for anything. I always cook chickens for less than the recommended time because I think that's too long. If your children have food poisoning you'll know about it. That's it.

My mother used to moan at me all the time for this but I never preheat my oven.
i haven’t got time.
food in, get changed, or hair wash no time to be waiting around for the oven!

I'm confused as to how an adult man wouldn't notice whether chicked was cooked or not. Undercooked chicken is really obvious.

This thread has become very intense.
DH bought the chicken. He has cooked chicken before. He prefers to cook a 'chuck it in the oven' dinner and was going to do roast potatoes and broccoli with it. He forgot to pre-heat the oven, knew I'd be fed up coming home late to find they hadn't had dinner (again).
I wasn't having dinner with them. I had a meeting.
I've been back at work over a year. DH is working from home. He agreed to do the dinner on the 2 days per week I'm home late.
He agreed but he actually doesn't really want to be bothered.
I don't think on any level he was trying to give anyone food poisoning.
I don't think he's consciously trying to do a bad job he just seems to think it's not a job worthy of much care and attention.
I didn't even ask him about the chicken. He brought it up.
I'm probably overly cautious about food poisoning so I thought I'd check on here to see if the not pre-heating is an issue.
He does contribute to family life in other ways. The cooking has become a bone of contention.

Clearly your main issue isn’t this chicken, it’s his attitude

you need a stronger word with him. He has TWO evenings to cover. He needs to do that properly or he goes back to the office every day. He doesn’t get to reap the benefits from hybrid working AND have you running around ragged doing way more than your fair share. How dare he punish you for working!

Well OP hopefully he won’t “ bring it up” literally! And was it a chicken bone of contention?! 🤣🤣🤣 Sorry couldn’t resist!

I'm astounded by the number of people who do not preheat their ovens. Like not for anything, ever? It literally wouldn't occur to me not to, but I might try it now, to save energy!

😁😁

I'm probably overly cautious about food poisoning so I thought I'd check on here to see if the not pre-heating is an issue

I don't think you can ever be over cautious about food poisoning when it comes to chicken.

Ive recently found that supermarket cooking instructions massively overcook chickens. We've started using a thermometer and the cooking time is significantly less and the chicken is much juicier and better cooked.

Im sure your DH would have been able to spot if the chicken wasnt fully cooked through.

Your husband is a moron, prepared to seriously poison his children to make a point.

YOU are in huge denial about it.

Your poor children stuck between you.

He knows well what he is deliberately doing.

It's called strategic incompetence.

People behave like this, usually men, so that they are not asked to do it again.

This is deliberate on his part.

Your children deserve better than you denying what is perfectly obvious to anyone reading your OP.

He doesn't want to be responsible for cooking two nights so he will scare you with poisoning his children and doing a really shit job.

He's a shit husband and a shit father.

Your children need YOU to protect them from a man who would do this deliberately to score a point off you.

Raw chicken can make a child very ill.

He's scum to do this and then tell you about it.

The above may be harsh but you need to wake up to how absolutely deliberate this all is.

Regardless of how the cooking goes you do the obvious checks that something is cooked right? With a chicken you check there are no pink juices flowing when you pull leg open. Even if you’ve heated the oven in advance you still do this? Did he? Anyway you’ll know by now if all ok or not

If no-one is ill yet it is likely fine.

I’m surprised at so many not preheating the oven before cooking raw meat. All raw poultry is contaminated with bacteria. That’s why we’re advised to use separate chopping boards, utensils etc. it’s why we’re advised to separate raw meat from cooked products and wash hands after touching it.

The oven needs to be hot to start destroying the bacteria as soon as the chicken is put in. Otherwise a cold/gradually warming up oven encourages the chicken bacteria to multiply.
Preheating your oven helps ensure your food goes from refrigerator cold to blazing hot more quickly — spending as little time in the danger zone as possible. And even if this is a short amount of time, just know that some bacteria can multiply in the danger zone in as little as 20 minutes

I would never rely on suggested cooking time on any packet they are a guideline. When cooking anything you check whether cooked or not before eating. This much more important than cooking times.