Chicken soup questions

[legend_018]

I'm making the broth now. I already did the "whole chicken method". I put a "small" whole chicken in the pot and filled it with water, probabably about an inch over the chicken. It's in it's simmering state right now. My only worry is can I leave the whole chicken in the 2 hours i plan on simmering it, or should figure out when the chicken is done and take out the chicken before it's finished simmering. I'm sure I'll figure it out. I think I'm just going to leave the chicken in there. I plan on finishing my simmering process at noon time. I started the simmering process at around 9:30am. It's on a very low setting.
I might not be able to make the actual soup until tomorrow. We'll see.

 

[legend_018]

Can I freeze some of the left over chicken? Is it ok to do that?

 

[Katie H]

By all means, legend, freeze the leftover chicken meat. I do that all the time and use it for chicken tacos, chicken pizza, potpie, casseroles, etc. anything that calls for cubed/chopped/shredded chicken.

No only have you created some tasty broth for use in soups and other dishes, you are ahead of the game with some future meals. Congratulations. Good job!

 

[legend_018]

ok, just checking. I'll wait until it cools first. It will keep in the freezor for a few weeks at least right? GREAT!
Yes I have a chix pot pie I like to make. It's an easy version with cooked chicken, cream of chix soup, veggies and milk basically. My DH loves it though "lol".

 

[legend_018]

It was a small chix. It came out to about 6 cups of cut up chicken...little less.
I put 2 cups away for chix pot pie. I think I might use the 3/4 cups for the soup.

 

[kitchenelf]

6 cups? Wow - sounds like a big chicken to me! lol

 

[legend_018]

oh really. Hmmm. I think it was 5 1/2 cups of cut up chicken pretty much. Maybe it was bigger than I thought "lol".

 

[legend_018]

Wow it does take a long time for the broth to cool though huh? ; ).
I don't want to put it in the refrigerator until it's cooled. Than I'm going to leave it in there all night and skim the fat tomorrow and make chix noodle soup tomorrow. It's late in the afternon (2:30pm), I'm taking care of a 13 month old who won't nap today, and I have to get dinner ready in a few hours. It's on the counter right now cooling down. It's been cooling for a good hour and half now.

 

[Katie H]

Legend, your chicken broth has reached its time limit on the counter. It needs to go into the refrigerator now to avoid any possibility of bacteria growth and nasties. If you want to cool it down faster, look at my post #12 in this thread. If you don't have any frozen water, you might want to put some ice cubes in a zipper-lock bag and swish it through the broth.

 

[jennyema]

Wow it does take a long time for the broth to cool though huh? ; ).
I don't want to put it in the refrigerator until it's cooled. Than I'm going to leave it in there all night and skim the fat tomorrow and make chix noodle soup tomorrow. It's late in the afternon (2:30pm), I'm taking care of a 13 month old who won't nap today, and I have to get dinner ready in a few hours. It's on the counter right now cooling down. It's been cooling for a good hour and half now.

Legend,

Please make sure you read the link I posted above about the dangers of improperly cooling chicken stock.

Katie is right. Get it into the fridge. ASAP.

You need to quick-cool it using Katie's frozen bottle method or a cold water bath in the sink and then refrigerate when it is still warm. That's ok.

 

[legend_018]

Make sure you always use proper cooling techniques for your chicken stock.

I didn't pay attention to this article. i also just got this message. I didn't realize that you should try to cool down "quickly" before putting it in the refrigerator. I was upstairs with my 13 month old and just came downstairs and got this message. The broth is definetely not hot anymore and I put some ice inside of bags and put that in the broth and I put it in the refrigerator.

 

[legend_018]

I hope my broth is ok after cooling down on the counter for so long.

Does that hold true for homemade pasta sauce? I was wondering because my DH told me he grew up with his mother making sure it was cooled "even leaving it on the counter covered overnight if cooking late" before putting it into storage containors and refrigerating/freezing the homemade pasta sauce.

 

[Andy M.]

The danger zone for foods is between 40F and 140F. This is the temperature range in which bacteria that are harmful multiply at a rapid rate. Your best bet is to ensure any food is not allowed to remain in that range for an expended period.

Many people have left food out for long periods with no ill effects but that's a combination of luck and other factors. Acidic foods such as tomato sauces probably can remain safe for longer.

This is why some of the posters sugested using bags or bottles of ice to cool down the stock. You want to get it into the fridge ASAP. Also, 2 or 3 smaller containers will cool faster than one big one. Leave the lids off until the food is chilled then cover.

 

[Katie H]

I hope my broth is ok after cooling down on the counter for so long.

Does that hold true for homemade pasta sauce? I was wondering because my DH told me he grew up with his mother making sure it was cooled "even leaving it on the counter covered overnight if cooking late" before putting it into storage containors and refrigerating/freezing the homemade pasta sauce.

Your broth will probably be just find, but now you know how to handle it safely.

As for your MIL's pasta sauce being left out overnight, that was courting trouble. Fortunately, there probably weren't any ill effects. NOTHING should be left out overnight. Doing that is inviting trouble. There have been several ways mentioned in this thread for cooling foods quickly. Any of these methods can be used, depending on what needs to be cooled.

 

[legend_018]

Your broth will probably be just find, but now you know how to handle it safely.

Thanks for the tips and help!