Re-Freezing Previously Frozen Chicken?

[TasunkaWitko]

Putting aside the possibility of bacterial growth, every time the same piece of meat protein is frozen and thawed there is a loss of quality. You might not notice it, but it's there.

Mickey almost had it right. The culprit is ice. But it's not surface ice, which is irrelevant.

When the liquid in cells freezes, ice crystals can puncture the side walls. This damage is more likely the larger the crystals. And crystal size is a function of speed.

Those breasts were flash-frozen in a liquid nitrogen environment. Which means the crystals are very small, and do little damage---providing the breasts are thawed slowly, in the fridge. When you refreeze them raw, the home freezer acts relatively slowly, producing larger crystals, with greater likelihood of cell damage.

First time around you probably won't notice much or any difference, particularly if the breasts have been marinated. But each subsequent time there is more cell damage, which becomes progressively more noticeable as mushiness, dryness, and lots of liquid in the container.

Obviously, the way to minimize cell damage is to treat the breasts the way you want, then break them down into portion-sized packages, and only defrost as much as you need at one time.

What Brook describes is exactly what I've noticed in my experience butchering and packaging my own deer. After doing some reading on it, my conclusions are exactly the same as his, word-for-word.

As far as food safety goes, your practice seems sound - partially-thawed is still way below 40 degrees, so no worries there. Cut the chicken, portion it as you please in ziplock bags, add marinade as you please, then squeeze out all air and refreeze. No need to let the chicken marinate now, because it will marinate as it thaws in the fridge before preparation, right?

Best way to re-freeze is by flattening the packages to spread out the area (with all air squeezed out) into a single layer of meat, if possible. The thinner package of meat will freeze faster, minimising degradation of the meat. Also, when putting them in the freezer, don't stack them on top of each other, but rather side-by-side or otherwise apart from each other so that they can freeze quickly - once again minimising the degradation of the meat via ice crystals. Once frozen, they stack nicely.

It can be done, no problem - but HOW you do it is important!

[Jimh]

wash your hand..

[HawgHeaven]

wash your hand..

[Mikey]

wash your hand..

Just one?

[HistoricFoodie]

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

[HawgHeaven]

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

The sound of one hand clapping is the same as the sound of two hands clapping, depending on the surface that single hand meets.

[Richtee]

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

This can be heard from the NRA section at a PETA rally...

[curious aardvark]

Its fine, as long as you keep a few things in mind. It must be thawed under refrigeration, and not on the countertop or sink. If you stray from that, you can get some bacterial growth, that freezing will only halt, not kill, and then you have that much more of a bacterial load ready to go once thawed.

what he said - but also bear in mind that italian dressing is very acidic and will kill any surface bacteria - but also start to tenderise the chicken - even while frozen.
Probably not enough to worry about - but leave it in the freezer for a year or two and it might come out as mush :-)

[HistoricFoodie]

from the NRA section at a PETA rally...

People Eating Tasty Animals?

Probably not.

[Fishawn]

Re-Freezing Previously Frozen Chicken?

Got aboot 7 pounds cut up and marinaded overnight in Italian Dressing. Does wonders to boneless skinless breasts. Cooked up some last night, and vac packed the rest and frozen. Hope it works ok.....

[HawgHeaven]

That'll work! What's your Ital-LEE-an dressing of choice? Also, get you summa them Fire Wires... they rock.