Cooked chicken vac sealed & reheated and...?

[DaveD]

Hey folks, sorry for the lame subject line. For dinner last night, I pulled out two vac-sealed portions of cooked chicken from my first cook using the al pastor skewer plate that my Secret Santa SmokingSteve gifted to me. Each was about 10oz/280g, and I felt we'd need more than one, so I put two packages in the sous vide to reheat to 160/71.

But at dinnertime, after emptying one of the packages it was clear we didn't need the other. So it remained unopened after reheating, and I just stuck it back in the fridge.

So the question, is it likely to still be safe? My intuition is yes, because it was in a tight vac seal the whole time, no exposure to air, and spent plenty of time well above food-safe temps in the sous vide before getting chilled again. Other than any degradation to the texture of the meat from having gone through the unneeded reheat, should this be an issue? Thanks for weighing in.

[acorgihouse]

I vote yes, should still be safe. Would, myself, treat as cooked chicken in general, as far as time keeping it in fridge. Might be a bit of texture change, as you said, but for something like soup would be fine. MHO.

[realdocBBQ]

Absolutely still safe.

[fzxdoc]

Yup, I'd use it again. Just not with a sous vide re-heat since that can take a while moseying its way through the 40-140 danger zone. That batch of chicken has already gone through it 4 times already, and the zone time is cumulative, according to Modernist Cuisine.

Next time, drop it into some boiling soup or stew or toss it in the science oven to zip it right through the danger zone.

Just my 2 pennies' worth.

Kathryn

[realdocBBQ]

Well, the time is cumulative if you never get to the 100% kill zone. If you get up to 100, then chill, then up to 100 then chill, then back and forth, it's cumulative. If you get it to the 150+ range, you're golden, it's dead.

[DaveD]

Thanks for the good input!

[MBMorgan]

FWIW, Dave ... please be aware that time spent in the "danger zone" is indeed cumulative. That's due to the likely presence of one or more dangerous species of spore-producing bacteria that can encapsulate themselves in order to survive high temperatures (even above 165°F where they may not be active ... but they are there, dormant, & still very much alive). Also, there may be residual toxins present (produced while in the danger zone) that are not eliminated by heat (or cold, for that matter).