FP scare... PLEASE HELP

[phobos]

So last week I moved out with my boyfriend, and it's going very well. However, with moving out, comes cooking. I'm not a great cook but I can make a few meals, enough to survive off of in a healthy way. Anyway, I've always been iffy around cooking meat simply because I don't want to make myself sick, but I got some of this pre-made chicken souvlaki to cook up for dinner. It said to cook it on high for 14-18 minutes... I put it on high, but the outside was cooking (and burning) faster then the outside, so I went from high to medium heat. I kept turning and cooking them on there for a litle over 20 minutes. They were done before the rest of the food, so I put them on our plates. By the time we got to eat them, they had cooled off, so it was hard to tell if they were fully done; I put mine back in the microwave for 20 seconds to make the chicken hot again, but I'm still really worried.

It wasn't pink or cold in the middle, it was warm, but not hot. The directions said to cook on high heat, and I only did it on medium... could it be possible that it was undercooked? Also, we froze this stuff, and when we read the package afterwords it said that it should only be refrigerated unless it's being kept for a long time. Could this affect how it was cooked, since the directions are for cooking from already thawed meat?

Please help, I'm really scared, I don't want to get sick, there's too much stuff already going on right now [img]smileys/smilies_06.gif[/img]

[melissarene]

You should be ok. Normally, it would take an hour or longer for any major bacteria to grow on them and if they were cooked thoroughly and not pink anymore, you should be ok. If you left them sit out all evening, then ate them, you might be risking it, but you're fine.

[phobos]

yeah the meat was only out of the fridge for about five minutes before I had put it on the frying pan.

[kimmyc24]

Hi Phobos,


I don't think you need to worry too much about food thats pre-packaged or pre-made as its usually par-cooked already and you just need to warm it up. You should be careful about taking food straight from the freezer and onto a high heat as this can cause the levels of bacteria to rise - thats why it would've been better to defrost the chicken thoroughly before cooking it. The reason the packaging said not to freeze it, is probably because it had been frozen once already, and then defrosted, and you bought it at the defrosted stage, and it just needed heating up for the recommended time.


With chicken, as long as there is absolutely NO pink juice when you stick a fork in it, it is cooked. Also no pink meat in the middle. You should also be careful about constantly re-heating chicken, as this can cause bacteria levels to grow in the meat. As long as the temperature is the same ALL the way through, you should be fine. Its only dangerous when the middle is still raw/cold and the outside is cooked. Hope that all makes sense!