Chicken : can I defrost and refreeze?

[Ladyof2024]

I only cook for myself. Once the fortnight I get a food delivery from a supermarket with a pack of 12 chicken breasts. I decant these into freezer bags two breasts each and freeze them. They're like and take out a pack and that gives me two chicken breasts which will feed me for two days.

Unfortunately when my cleaner was here the other day she received the grocery delivery as I was elsewhere and she has put the whole 12 in the tray in the freezer. They are all stuck fast together and it is not possible to break the open break them apart.

Obviously I don't want to defrost all 12 at the same time as I will never be able to eat them before they go off.

Would it be okay to half defrost them, just enough for me to be able to break them apart into pairs, and then refreeze?

I wouldn't, I don't think you are supposed to refreeze chicken.

You need to defrost the whole lot and cook them before refreezing. In casserole portions or poach them then u can re freeze x

I wouldn't. I would bash the solid mass against the edge of the worktop until they came apart and put them back whilst still frozen.

If not possible, I would do some bulk cooking and freeze once cooked.

No you cannot refreeze uncooked chicken, you can freeze again once it’s cooked though.

You'll need to batch cook it all, then freeze in meal portions. You can't re-freeze it raw

Don't defrost them, working from the outside edge whack them on a work top (not if ceramic) or hit with a meat mallet.

If they are one big lump then I would defrost the lot and spend an afternoon cooking different dishes and freezing those.

No, don't mess with chicken. No worth the risk,you probably could bash a couple apart otherwise yes, make a batch of something nice and freeze it.

Thank you very much for the replies.

unfortunately what I always use my chicken breasts for is to do that thing where you cut them into strips and dip them into egg and then into pork panko and then fry them as schnitzels, which I don't think can then be frozen as they would be horrible.

Maybe I could make the world's biggest curry?

I will try bashing them against the worktop for a bit and see if they come apart if not then I guess it's curry.

Well I'll slightly go against the grain and say I'd let them out a little until they were bashable apart, I usually drop bags from a height onto the tiled floor to give added force, in fact I'd probably use defrost on microwave to help them to where I want. The advise from power outtage causes freezer to be off is that if there is still ice crystals in the food they can be refrozen. So I wouldn't refreeze anything that was obviously soft and fully thawed obviously, cook the outer ones if they soften too much before you can break the mass apart.

The danger in refreezing is that bacteria will have started to grow again in the thawed food but if it never actually fully thaws or is literally out of the freezer minutes if you use the microwave defrost function then there is no time for it to get in the danger zone.

This wouldn't be food safety approved but if it was me I would run cold water over the seam where the breasts are connected just enough to melt the ice crystals holding them together.
The chicken core temperature should then still be frozen. If you want to be cautious you could then cut off and discard the tiny section that has defrosted. You might end up with a couple of breasts being ripped slightly.

Or if you have one of those electric knives you might be able to cut them into the strips you ultimately want, while still frozen?

Look up few chicken recipes and make a number of meals you can freeze cooked.

Chicken breasts in the slow cooker (or a pan) with mushrooms, leeks, a tin of condensed soup and a big dollop of crème fraiche makes a nice stew and you can put half in a pastry case to make a pie.

Actually cook the lot and then work through these recipes

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search?q=Leftover+chicken+recipes

Katsu,that freezes well.

Thanks for the replies.

I cast my eye over the BBC recipes, it's a very useful resource I have never used.

Being allergic to all grains I cannot eat pastry, pie-tops, tinned soup (cornflour) etc and so the majority of recipes are no used to me - hence I stick to curries which I eat with cauliflower rice, and schnitzels (kievs?) which I make with pork-based fake breadcrumbs.

I'm gonna try smashing them, and if all else fails in desperation make a shedload of curry. Or maybe just coat them in yoghurt and curry paste, cook through in the slow cooker, then freeze in single breasts. I don't have space in the freezer for boxes and boxes of full blown curry.

You can't defrost and refreeze uncooked chicken but you could cook it up and then refreeze any cooked pieces you don't want to eat today.

Schnitzels can be frozen and will come out well. We used to just pop them in oven after straight from freezer