Eating expired chicken: good idea or great idea?

How long can I eat chicken past the sell-by date? Hehe.

First, let me commend your instinctive mistrust for sell-by dates. I loathe the frightened sheeple who cull their refrigerators based on expiration dates. Not you! You are a cowboy and you give zero fucks about expiration dates.

The ‘sell-by’ date is not a measure of when food becomes treacherous to eat; it’s a decision by the manufacturer about when the quality of the food will start to decline from ‘peak quality.’ As your chicken (raw, I’m assuming) passes the sell-by date, it might change color or develop a mild stank.

I would go 3 days past the sell by date without batting an eyelash.

I would go 7 days past the sell-by date if the chicken passed a rudimentary smell test.

You sound like you might need a flow chart to keep you in line. Here’s one:

What actually matters is that you cook the chicken to an internal temperature of 165ºF. This will exterminate the bad bacteria in the chicken that could make you sick.

Do this during cooking by plunging a meat thermometer into the thiccest [sic] part of the bird. If it reads 165º then you’re good to go. If not, keep cooking.

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