Slow cooker went off for 2 hours , still safe to carry on cooking?

[melissasummerfield]

As title suggests really! Put 5 hour chicken casserole type meal in the slow cooker at 1pm, DH turned off the electricity at 2, slow cooker didnt come back on and i only realised at 4 😭

would it be safe to continue to cook it now then eat about 8?

I absolutely wouldn't, and I am not overly picky about things usually. My understanding is that this can make chicken quite dangerous because all the nasty stuff replicates faster having not been killed off in the partial cooking - then cooking it again is a recipe for food poisoning.

I’d cook it faster in the regular oven instead of letting it stew longer in the slow cooker. One hour in the oven vs. four more in the slow cooker.

it also depends on how hot or cold your kitchen was during that time.

I wouldn’t for reasons PP said.

I guess it depends on how cool it got when it was turned off. If the lid stayed on it probably kept a lot of residual heat and it’s probably ok.

But either way if you do eat it probably best to amp the heat up and coot the shit out of it.

No, not with chicken and not as it went off quite early in the cooking process. 90 mins at room temperature is just about ok once throughly cooked but I wouldn't risk it based on what you have described.

I wouldn't risk it. Partially cooked chicken left in a warm but non cooking temperature? Risky.

No. Not worth the vom risk.

2 hours is fine. There is a window of time in food legislation for food not to be kept at a controlled temperature, 2 hours for hot food, 4 hours for cold.
As long as the chicken is (as quickly as possible) cooked to a pathogenic kill - time to temperature ratio eg 70 Celsius for 2 minutes or 75 for thirty seconds, you’ll be fine.
I would take it out of the slow cooker, and get the temperature raises quickly and serve sooner than later.
If any of you eat in restaurants, I can guarantee that you’ll have eaten food that’s been out of temperature control for that long more than once.

Chicken needs to reach 75 Celsius internally to be safe. Assuming you cut the chicken up into pieces, and that your slow cooker is a normal one that cooks at 85-87 Celsius, the chicken almost certainly would've reached that temperature within the hour, and will be safe. If you browned the chicken before you put it in, then it is even more likely.

Regardless, if you now reheat the meal to a safe cooking temperature (oven, saucepan, even microwave) to kill the bacteria it will be fine. Both Campylobacter and Salmonella would be killed if you reheat thoroughly, even if they have multiplied in the interim.

So yes, safe to carry on cooking if you bring to an appropriate temperature.

Let DH eat it, get something else for yourself.😀

I decided not to risk it - very frustrating but not worth the risk!

thanks all 😊