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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be pissed off with DH about this?

96 replies

Miltt · 10/12/2020 16:00

We did the weekly food shop Monday and DH thought we could have a curry today when my three step children come round (I have two here of my own too)

So for some ridiculous reason DH put the big pack of chicken breasts in the freezer, there was no need for that. He knew we would be having it today and the use by date was the 14th.

He omits to tell me he's frozen them.

Today comes and he goes to collect the DSC, he gives me a call on the way back to ask if I could start dicing the chicken and making the curry.

Chicken is nowhere to be found in the fridge, I find it in the freezer encased in a block of ice.

So no curry tonight, no time, they have to have chicken nuggets and chips.

I tried to defrost the chicken quickly on the hob but it went funny and I didn't want to risk it so it went in the bin.

This is the second time he's caused inconvenience by freezing things that didn't need freezing and then failing to tell me about it.

AIBU to be pissed off with him?

OP posts:

Frieswithanythin · 10/12/2020 18:06

I always chop up the chicken when it’s partly frozen, it’s easier to cut, then Chuck it in the wolk. I always cremate chicken when I cook it so it’s not an issue.

BlueFringe · 10/12/2020 18:25

I cook chicken breasts from frozen all the time. Cool until defrosted enough to chop up. Then just bags sure it’s thoroughly cooked. You wasted chicken for nothing and it would have just took a little longer on a higher heat to start.

MathsRocksMathsRocks · 10/12/2020 18:33

Chicken breasts from frozen are fine. It's legs/thighs (bone-in) that won't cook as well from frozen. But even legs/thighs will cook in the oven from frozen as long as you give them a low temperature over a long enough time (and it also helps to have a thermometer to stick in them to make sure they're at least 65-70C at their thickest part). But when they're cooked, just strip the meat and stick it in the curry.

Like others, a bit shocked at the waste going on here - and I've also had food poisoning from in-date chicken (albeit many years ago) but I still wouldn't have thrown away all that chicken for such a trivial reason in this case.

And why haven't you got a microwave? I only use mine to heat milk for coffee, cook frozen veg and defrost meat, but it's a Panasonic with loads of functions and only cost me about £125. Why wouldn't you have one?!

Debradoyourecall · 10/12/2020 18:47

@MathsRocksMathsRocks not everyone has space for a microwave. I used to have a tiny little kitchen with so little worktop space that a microwave would have taken away my only spot to put a chopping board down.

CaptainMyCaptain · 10/12/2020 19:24

Hell, even if she was throwing away a kilo of chicken a week, it wouldn't make a difference to the poverty issue in the UK, which is not caused by the situation given in the op! Not from this specific incident but definitely from the ignorance that led to it.

CaptainMyCaptain · 10/12/2020 19:25

Not that I'm suggesting people are poor because they throw away their chicken I'm thinking more globally.

BrumBoo · 10/12/2020 19:34

@CaptainMyCaptain

Not that I'm suggesting people are poor because they throw away their chicken I'm thinking more globally.

And what global catastrophe has the op caused by one defrosting mistake?

CaptainMyCaptain · 10/12/2020 19:39

Not the OP, I'm talking about the attitude and the widespread ignorance of food handling. Look at the number of threads on here asking if they can eat food one day after the sell by date etc.

Dawnlassie · 10/12/2020 19:47

Mildly annoying but all you need is a polite word in his ear saying dont freeze stuff in future.

Winterwoollies · 10/12/2020 19:53

YABY for wasting it for being ‘a bit funny’. It would have been absolutely fine if properly cooked through in sauce. I can’t bear meat being wasted like that, an animal died for that.

PlanDeRaccordement · 10/12/2020 19:56

Yes it’s slightly annoying when something has been forgotten in the freezer and so did not defrost overnight in the fridge. Buts that’s a minor annoyance that is easily overcome. I would be more upset that you are so inept that you don’t know how to safely defrost chicken or cook from frozen and ended up binning an entire package of chicken.

It is very easy to defrost chicken quickly without using a microwave by submerging in cool water in the sink for a half hour per kg or even cook from frozen in the oven in a covered dish with the curry sauce by allowing an extra 20mins or so cooking time.

So, yes I’d be slightly annoyed but you have no one to blame but yourself for the chicken ending up in the bin.

AuntyCandthefishfingersandwich · 10/12/2020 20:14

Why did you throw it away??
As long as you cooked it through it would have been fine. What a waste

MrsChuckBass · 10/12/2020 20:24

This would drive me mad I hate wasting food

Zerrin13 · 10/12/2020 21:19

My advice is to take control of the meal from start to finish. Do it yourself then you know it will get done.

BetsyBigNose · 10/12/2020 23:41

You need a new House Rule: When putting away food following a supermarket shop, meat is portioned out and wrapped/bagged before being frozen and any that is going to be used soon goes into the freezer with the 'Use By' date written on the bag (and if it hasn't been used by then, into the freezer it goes)!

I sympathise OP, last week I was feeling quite smug at having prepared (what would have been) a delicious chicken casserole in the slow cooker mid-afternoon, for us all to eat that evening. Except that when I went to stir it a couple of hours later, I realised that instead of switching it to the 'cook' setting, I'd accidentally switched it to 'warm', so the chicken (and all the veggies, gravy and herbs etc.) had been sitting, sweating in temperate climes for long enough to give us all a dose of food poisoning. I was pissed off with myself about that one!

HallFloor · 10/12/2020 23:46

It's annoying but not as annoying as ruining it on the hob.

Chicken nuggets were fine, if he couldn't get more chicken on the way home and you could have had the curry tomorrow or next time.

pippiphooray1 · 12/12/2020 16:44

@Miltt the restaurant trade is worse? Christ, that would never happen in a restaurant - you have heard of profit? Neither would defrosting chicken in hot water. Never hot water - always running cold water....

randomchap · 12/12/2020 16:52

Couldn't you have just made the curry vegetarian?

shas19 · 12/12/2020 16:54

Chicken u can place in a bowl of COLD water and it defrosts quite quickly.

SquishSquashSqueeze · 12/12/2020 17:38

encased in a block of ice

I feel you're being a little over dramatic about the whole thing.

Definitely no need to have thrown it away for the sake of having it sat on the chopping board for 5 minutes. How quickly so you normally dice it up?!

YABAbitU but YAdefinitelyBU not having a micro-wav-eh

Baluchistan95 · 12/12/2020 18:26

I can't believe you don't own a microwave!!

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