Expert: Keith Patton - 1/2/2008

Question
All right, I've done something kind of bad.  I bought a whole chicken from the grocery store and left it in my freezer.  I've been somewhat preoccupied and completely forgot it's been there.  I just happened to pick up the chicken now and glanced at the sell-by date; apparently it's been sitting in my freezer for three years.  Should I just junk it now--or miracle of miracles, can it still be cooked?  I appreciate your help (and your patience with this non-chef).

Answer
Take it out of the freezer and open it up.  Sniff it, if it has this nasty smell, the fat has turned rancid.  My mom and dad were notorious horders.  They shopped once a month at the military commissary and had two full freezers full of stuff when my mother died.  Some of it had been in the back of the freezers for 10...yes TEN years.  I carted off three tall yard type garbage cans full of meat that was not edible.  The fat goes rancid and it will taste the way it smells.  Not only that, but plastic is porous.  I if you look at it under a microscope it looks like a chain link fence.  This means stuff can move through it and explains why old latex helium balloons deflated and why they now coat them with aluminum.  So moisture moves through over time, explaining freezer burn.  I personally would toss it.  If it has the dry looking patches on it it is freezer burned and will probably not be worth cooking.