rotisserie chicken and food safety

[phoebe]

This is embarrassing. Yes, I'm ashamed of myself. Yes, today I am putting cooking second to my "other job." Mea Culpa.
I am going to buy (shudder ) a supermarket rotisserie chicken. There are real reasons for this drastic move, but I won't go into them here. But I have a few questions:

1. How long can I keep it outside the fridge before it turns into a stew of evil microbes?
2. Should I take the plastic off or leave it on?

We'd like it to stay warm (we don't own a microwave), so I'll buy it later in the day, but there will still be a lag time between purchase and dinner.

Thanks for your help and please don't think less of me

[Suzanne]

WHAT!?!?!? Letting "real life" take precedence over cooking?? Da noive!




Obviously, you know you should buy it as close as possible to mealtime. As for time, how many hours are you thinking about? Just a couple should not be a problem. (The sticklers among us -- Phil, are you there? -- might scream, but I don't worry too much.)

Keep it in the packaging, as that will keep in some of the heat. Some stores put them into foil-lined bags; others into plastic clam-shell containers.* The more you can wrap it, the more you'll save the heat.


* How do I know? I'm guilty of the same behavior!

[phatch]

I've bought them on occasion too. They're better than other "fast" options imho. And when I want to make chicken salad, but don't have any cooked chicken at hand, I like these better than the cooked strips that are available by the cold cuts.

I'd say you've got the standard 2 hours for sure, probably more. If you have a SMALL convenience cooler, you could put it in there and help keep it hot. Add some tupperware of hot to help keep things hot and take up space too.

But yes, buy it as close to eating time as possible.

When I lived in Germany, there were trucks that would drive the neighborhoods like we have ice cream trucks. These trucks had racks of these chickens cooking on the sides, all basting each other. And there was a chain that specialized in rotisserie chicken, WienerWald that I indulged in too.

Phil

[phoebe]

Originally Posted by Suzanne

* How do I know? I'm guilty of the same behavior!

Suzanne! I'm shocked!
Thanks for the advice. I didn't know if keeping it wrapped made it homier for killer microbes or not.

And PHIL, you too? Actually, this is for a salad as well. And the cooler suggestion with hot (water?) in tupperware is a great idea. Thanks!

Confession truly is good for the soul. I feel so much better now.

[diane]

When I go sneaking up to the beach house with my good friend, we buy a cooked chicken in Warkworth, stuffed if possible, with fresh crunchy bread, some coleslaw, a red onion, and half a dozen on the vine tomatoes and a can of beetroot. Or so. Dinner. And we have it when we want it. I think one would have to be very unlucky to get a chicken tumbling with meanies. I really do. I never worry about it. And have never been subjected to revolting response.

[katbalou]

guilty. i'm all in it for the convenience.
kat

[Pete]

Remember that the temperature danger zone is 40 to 140. When you buy a rotisserie chicken it is being held at a higher temperature than that and they package them as such that they try to keep them warm for a decent amount of time. Then after that, once it drops to 140, it takes time for all those little buggies to grow, get married, and reproduce. The government states that foodmust take less than 4 hours to pass through the temperature danger zone. Add that to the 45-1 hour that it will take the bird to drop to 140, if left in packaging and considering the ambient room temp., and you have a considerable time before it becomes a microbe bomb. Of course, I probably wouldn't try to stretch it that long but 1-2 hours, following government safety standards, should be more than safe.

[diane]

How can this be different from buying any other meat? Are the fowl so foul? I would be more inclined to be watchful of seafood, in all its forms.

[Pete]

Diane, I don't know how they raise chicken for mass consumption in NZ, but here in the US they are raised under pretty horrible conditions. Most times kept entirely in small cages stacked on top of each other. Thus when the birds...uh..."do their business" it falls down into the other cages. This creates an environment ripe for the birds to pick up salmonella. Chicken meat is responsible for much, if not most, of the food borne illnesses in this country. Thus everyone is a little leary about how well to cook it, and how long to keep it.

[starlord]

A recent episode of Good Eats had the perfect answer to your dilemma. Yep, Alton Brown will eventually answer just about any question about food.

You can keep food hot in a cooler by folding a towel and placing it in the bottom of the ice chest, heat a common red brick under your range's broiler and place it on the towel with another towel over it. Place your food in the chest, and cover it with yet another towel. It will keep your food toasty for quite a while. and the more heat you can hold in, the slower will be the growth of any micro-organisms. Hope this helped.

[diego]

I just put package and all in the oven set as low as possible and cycled manually as necessary to keep it below 200 F.