important question about thawed chicken

[yomama]

I tried putting this in the recipes section, but haven't got a response, so I thought I would try here.

I have a fryer chicken that I took out of the freezer to thaw, but didn't use it as soon as I thought I was going to, and I'm wondering if it still ok to eat.
Here are the "facts", lol. I froze the chicken ( store bought

) on the day I bought it. I believe that was 4/13. The expiration/ freeze by date is 4/19/2012. I took the chicken out of the freezer and put in fridge to thaw on 4/20/2012, thinking I was going to use it within a day or two. However, I still haven't used it. Everything I've researched has said that raw chicken should be used within 24 - 48 hours once thawed. So technically, being in the freezer since the 13'th has extended the exp date by 6 days. Since it takes about 48 hours for the chicken to thaw, the remaining 4 days would land on today making the chicken ok to use? Would it still be safe to bake and eat? I would hate to throw it out, but don't want to make my family sick. The texture of the chicken feels normal, and it smells fine from what I can tell. I'm usually a "when in doubt, throw it out" kind of person, but with our money being so very tight right now, I'd hate to throw out a meal like this.
Thanks for any advice!!

 

[dewey]

Put in the frig to thaw on the 20th, and thawed by the 22nd-ish, makes today as day 3 it's been thawed. I'm one not to take any food chances either, but if your frig temp is under 40 degrees and it was quickly frozen (no long ride home from the store) I'd probably cook it thoroughly according to internal temp and eat it. But I think you should do what you think is safe.

 

[yomama]

Thanks for the response. When I opened up the chicken, to pull out the neck and stuff, it didn't smell bad. It did smell weird though. Could be that it just smelled like meat, seeing as how I have never purposely smelled the inside of a raw chicken. Anyway, I went with my gut and threw it out. Better safe than sorry I guess.

 

[dewey]

Oh yeah, better safe than sorry is the way to go. Since it still had the giblets in it I would have done the same thing unless they were still partially frozen. They get funky sooner than the rest.

Ya know, it's odd, and I don't know why this happens with me, but even when something really is perfectly fine and well within safe guidelines for consumption, once a single thought otherwise has entered my mind then the item will seem to have a debatable odor so I toss it out. I did that yesterday with what was to have been used for dinner...so I ended up making potato cheese soup instead.

 

[redhen]

I would have boiled it up for my pets...
wasteful.. *tisk..tisk*

 

[yomama]

I would have boiled it up for my pets...
wasteful.. *tisk..tisk*

I did think of that. But if it had in deed spoiled, wouldn't it of made them sick too? Definitely can't afford any vet bills right now. Trust me, it was very hard to just throw out food like that. Nothing usually goes to waste around here.