How Long Is Raw Chicken Good in the Fridge, and Where to Keep It

You grabbed the family pack because it was the better deal, and now it's Sunday night and you're staring at 6 chicken thighs you won't cook until Thursday. Here's the answer to how long raw chicken is good in the fridge: 1 to 2 days at 40 °F (4 °C) or below, according to USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, whole or in pieces. Keep it on the bottom shelf in a sealed container, and freeze anything you won't cook in that window the day you bring it home.

That window starts in your fridge, not at the date on the label. Houseland's 304 stainless steel cutting board is dishwasher safe, which helps with the splitting-up part, but no board, bag or container makes the 2 days any longer.

How long is raw chicken good in the fridge, really?

USDA says 1 to 2 days for raw chicken, whole or in parts, in a fridge at 40 °F (4 °C) or below. FSIS tells you to put chicken in the fridge as soon as you get home and use it within 1 or 2 days, or freeze it at 0 °F (-18 °C).

Ground chicken and giblets get the same 1 to 2 days. So does raw chicken sausage, on the FoodSafety.gov cold storage chart.

Not every food agency lands on the same number. Health Canada gives raw chicken pieces 2 to 3 days in a fridge at 4 °C (40 °F) or lower. Both agencies use the same fridge temperature, so the gap is a judgment call about margin, not a different fridge.

If you shop in the US, plan to the 1 to 2 day USDA figure. It's the shorter one, and it's the one written for your grocery store's chicken.

The clock doesn't care how fresh it looked in the store.

Temperature is the other half of the rule. The FDA says to keep the fridge at or below 40 °F and to check it with an appliance thermometer at least once a week, placed at the front where you can read it. A fridge that runs warmer than 40 °F turns every date on this page into a guess.

Fridge vs freezer: how long does each cut of raw chicken keep?

Raw chicken keeps 1 to 2 days in the fridge whatever the cut, but 3 months to 1 year in the freezer depending on the cut. These are the FSIS home storage times, with Health Canada's figures beside them.

The freezer numbers are about quality, not safety. FSIS says freezer storage is for quality only and that chicken kept frozen continuously at 0 °F is safe indefinitely. The FDA adds that freezing stops bacteria from growing but doesn't kill most of them.

So a bag of thighs from last winter is safe to cook. It just might taste like the freezer.

The fridge is a waiting room. The freezer is the parking lot.

Since most of a family pack belongs in the freezer, the real job is splitting it into meal-sized portions the day you buy it, on one board you can wash right after. Recommended for this use case: the cook splitting a family pack on Sunday should use the Large 15.4 x 11 in (39 x 28 cm) steel board, flat side up, because it gives room to lay out portions and then goes straight into the dishwasher.

From the shop

Stainless Steel Cutting Board, 304 Food-Grade, Double-Sided with Juice Groove

Best for portioning raw chicken and other raw meat; 304 food-grade stainless steel, 12 x 8 in (30.5 x 20.3 cm) or 15.4 x 11 in (39 x 28 cm), dishwasher safe; harder on knife edges than wood, and it does not add a day of fridge life.

View the 304 stainless steel board — 2 sizes & current price

Does the sell-by date change how long chicken lasts?

No: FSIS says product dates aren't a guide to how long you can safely store chicken at home. Buy it before the date expires, then follow the 1 to 2 day fridge rule from the day you bring it home.

That's the part the label hides. A pack with a sell-by date 4 days out still only gets 1 to 2 days in your fridge, because the chart time is the one FSIS gives for home storage.

FSIS's short list for the store and the kitchen:

• Buy the chicken before its date expires.
• Follow the handling instructions on the package.
• Keep the chicken in its package until you're ready to use it.
• Put it in plastic bags at the store if they're offered, so any leak stays off your produce.
• Make the grocery store your last stop before home.

The FDA points out that food can make you sick even when it doesn't look, smell or taste spoiled. The bacteria that make chicken smell bad aren't the ones that cause foodborne illness, so the sniff test only catches half the problem.

Trust the calendar, not your nose.

Where should raw chicken go in the fridge?

On the bottom shelf, in a sealed container or wrapped securely, so its juices can't drip onto anything else. The CDC and Health Canada give the same advice.

• Bottom shelf, because gravity. Anything that leaks lands on the fridge floor, not on tomorrow's salad.
• A sealed container, a rimmed dish or a zip bag under the store tray. The FDA says to store refrigerated foods covered.
• Away from ready-to-eat food like deli meat, cut fruit and leftovers, which won't be cooked again.
• Not jammed in. The FDA warns against crowding the fridge so tightly that cold air can't circulate.
• Marinating chicken belongs in the fridge too, never on the counter, and the FDA says not to reuse that marinade as a sauce unless you boil it first.

If raw juice does leak, the FDA says to wipe spills right away. Its reason: drips from thawing meat can spread bacteria from one food to another.

The bottom shelf isn't bossy. It's just the only one nothing can drip onto.

How should you split a family pack of chicken for the freezer?

Keep out only what you'll cook in the next 1 to 2 days, and freeze the rest in meal-sized packs the day you buy it. FSIS specifically suggests repackaging family packs into smaller amounts.

1. Decide which meals fall inside the next 2 days. Everything else is freezer chicken.
2. Portion on one board, set away from produce and ready-to-eat food.
3. Pack each portion in heavy-duty foil, plastic wrap, freezer paper, a freezer bag or an airtight freezer container. FSIS says those materials stop freezer burn.
4. If a store tray is going in whole and will stay frozen longer than 2 months, overwrap the porous store plastic, as FSIS advises.
5. Write the cut and the date on each pack, and use parts within 9 months for the best quality.
6. Wash your hands, the knife and the board right away. FSIS's example of cross-contamination is chopping raw chicken and then tomatoes on the same unwashed board.

For a stainless steel board like the one recommended earlier, the Large size has 15.4 x 11 = 169.4 square inches of surface, against 12 x 8 = 96 square inches on the Medium, so about 1.8 times the room. Houseland lists the board as dishwasher safe in both sizes, with a juice groove around the full perimeter of the other side for carving.

The trade-off is your knife. Steel is harder than wood or plastic, so it dulls an edge faster, and many cooks keep a wood board for piles of vegetables. The CDC also says to use a separate board for raw chicken, so that split works in your favor. More on that choice in whether you still need a separate cutting board for raw chicken, and the rest of the prep kit is in the kitchen and home collection.

A board makes the split easy. Only the freezer buys you time.

How do you thaw frozen chicken without restarting the risk?

Thaw it in the fridge, in cold water, or in the microwave, and never on the counter. Those are the only 3 methods FSIS recommends.

• In the fridge: boneless breasts, bone-in parts and whole chickens can take 1 to 2 days or longer. Once thawed, the chicken keeps 1 to 2 more days, and FSIS says you can refreeze it uncooked if plans change.
• In cold water: keep it in airtight packaging or a leak-proof bag, fully submerged, and change the water every 30 minutes. A 3 to 4 lb whole chicken or a package of parts takes 2 to 3 hours; a 1 lb pack of boneless breasts takes an hour or less. Cook it right away.
• In the microwave: cook it immediately, because some areas may start to cook while it thaws.
• From frozen: FSIS says chicken can be cooked straight from the freezer, just not in a slow cooker or the microwave.

Chicken thawed in cold water or the microwave has to be cooked before it goes back in the freezer. Fridge-thawed chicken is the only kind with a do-over.

Moving Thursday's thighs to the fridge on Tuesday night is the easiest food safety step you'll take all week.

Whatever the method, FSIS says to cook all poultry to 165 °F (74 °C), and the CDC says to check that with a food thermometer. Our guide on how long meal prep chicken lasts in the fridge picks up once it's cooked.

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