How Long Can Turkey Be Frozen Before Cooking

According to Feeding America, 108 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States each year. And many households can contribute to that by not properly storing, thawing, and cooking the food they've bought. A lot of times, we noticed that perishables, like meat, are getting tossed. But we're here to help put an end to that by walking you through how to store and freeze turkey (whether whole, chopped, ground), and how long it will stay good for whether it's raw or cooked. All of this info. perfect just before Thanksgiving hits!

Before tackling the specifics though, it's good to make sure you're in the habit of marking your frozen foods with dates and labels. This way, you'll be able to quickly and easily tell what goes bad when. This means less wasted food, which means less wasted money. And that's something everyone can get on board with, right?

How Long Is Turkey Good In the Fridge?

If you've just purchased some turkey at the store and its smell/texture seems OK, you might be wondering just how long it'll stay good in the fridge. This all depends on whether it's cooked or not.

Raw meat should be cooked within two days. Once meat is cooked, you should eat it within three to four days.

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Any raw, ground meat (including turkey) should be cooked within two days to aim for maximum freshness, according to The Kitchn. Once the turkey is cooked, it's good in the fridge for three or four days, according to The Sun.

How to Tell If Turkey Is Good

Say you have some turkey in the fridge and you're hoping to freeze it to make it last as long as possible. Before you do anything else, it's important to try to figure out if the turkey is good to begin with.

The best way to tell if turkey is still good is smell and texture. As StillTasty.com points out, if the turkey has a sour odor and/or a slimy texture, it's probably not good anymore — no matter what the date on the package says. So if you give your turkey a sniff and things seem a little off, then now's the time to toss it and choose something else to cook for dinner or freeze.

How to Properly Store Turkey In the Freezer

All meat is good in the freezer indefinitely, but only if it is stored at 0°F consistently. This rule applies for meat stored at exactly 0°F without fluctuation, and it must be uniformly frozen at that temperature to keep harmful bacteria away.

How Long Is Frozen Turkey Good For?

how to properly store turkey in the freezer

If your turkey is stored in air-tight packaging, then it can last up to two years.

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If your turkey is good when you freeze it (and you properly thaw it — more on that below) then you should be able to eat it at any point after freezing it, whether that's in two months or two years. Just remember to keep that temperature at 0 degrees and you're good to go.

If you're storing cooked turkey (as opposed to raw), it should stay good in the freezer for up to two or three months, according to the Globe and Mail.

How to Properly Defrost Raw Turkey

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are a few different, safe methods for defrosting turkey (or any meat) safely. What you choose to do will probably depend on what appliances and how much time you have available to you. The first is refrigerator defrosting. Simply put the meat in the refrigerator and let it thaw down slowly. Keep in mind, though, that the key word here is slowly. Even ground turkey will take 24 hours to fully thaw, according to the USDA. The bigger the piece of meat is, the longer this will take.

The second, more attentive method is cold water thawing. As the USDA explains, your meat must be in a leakproof package or plastic bag, which you will submerge in cold tap water, changing the water every 30 minutes so it continues to thaw. Like fridge thawing, this will take time. USDA notes you should "estimate about 30 minutes per pound."

The third method is to defrost the meat in the microwave, which is the quickest option. Like the cold water method, the FDA instructs to cook the food immediately after thawing it. However, Catherine Lo, Woman's Day Senior Food Editor, notes that for a whole turkey, the edges and wings would start to cook before the turkey is fully defrosted, which, while safe, isn't ideal.

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