Can I freeze this... again?

[PanchoHambre]

Ok I am always wary of re-freezing something but in this case I am not sure:

Scenario:

last night I poached a whole chicken. for the poaching liquid I used 1 part light chicken stock and 1 part vegetable stock and some additinal water. Added herbs onions and fennel peppercorns. This made a lovely poached chicken... sweet and juicy meat....

I was intending to discard the cooking liquid but in this case the resulting broth is really tasty and sweet. Both the veg stock and chicken stock used were previously made by me and frozen. They were defrosted for this purpose. After cooking the liquid was strained into a pot which was cooled in a sink of cold water. It now resides in my fridge.

Now I have 6qts of tasty broth I hate to discard but have no immediate use for. Can I freeze it for use later?

 

[TATTRAT]

Hrmmm....the at home part of me says sure, the Chef side of me say pitch it...tough call.

Though there is no particulate matter to speak of, it is water, that has had a bird poached in it. Poaching isn't a boil, so there is no real "killing off" of anything, so that would be my concern.

 

[PanchoHambre]

well it was brought to a boil befor adding the chicken and again afterwards...basic process was this:

bring liquid to a boil... add whole chicken....return to boil... reduce to low simmer (approx 30min? maybe longer I lost track) trun off heat and let chicken cook in residual heat (approx 1hr) Remove chicken (still very hot at time of removal),... strain liquid.... cool in sink of cold water.... place in fridge.

 

[Andy M.]

Refreeze it. Use it for a soup or braise sometime in the future.

The reason refreezing is discouraged, primarily for meats, is the loss of texture from thawing and refreezing. The creation and recreation if ice crystals breaks down the meat structure and changes its texture to a mushier consistency,

If the stocks/broths were handled safely throughout the thawing and usage processes, there is no reason to believe they are unsafe. There is no texture issue with liquids.

 

[TATTRAT]

If the stocks/broths were handled safely

that is what I was shooting at.

Agreed 100%

 

[PanchoHambre]

thanks... I was as safe as I know how so I guess it will be fine nothing was left out or defrosted irresponsibly. I was just worried becuase it was cooked frozen thawed and cooked again I think it will make some great potatoes or rice because it is really sweet from the fennel.

 

[archiduc]

Hi,
I would say it depends upon how long the liquid was held at a boil to kill bugs/pathogens and how quickly and how quickly was cooled (IN ICED WATER) and should be frozen as soon as possible. 6 quarts seems to me to be an inordinate amount of liquid to have left after poaching 1 chicken and I suspect that you used too big a pot for poaching your chicken!

There are too many questions for me so I would suggest boiling for 10 minutes at a rapid boil and then cooling VERY quickly in a metal tray previously placed in the freezer. Portion and freeze the cold stock. If, when you boil the stock, it bubbles like a fizzy drink you should thow it out.

Archiduc