Major freezer stuff up

[Halex]

With the excitement of buying all my meat a while ago. I threw 4 chickens, 10 kgs of chicken breasts & 10 kgs of chicken thighs into the freezer. Thighs in 1kgs bags, breasts in 500g bags.

Yes you have gueswd it, they are all frozen together.

Imreally dont want to defrost all the chicken at once. Any suggestions or am i the only idiot.

Help please

[maddy]

Bummer Hally...I would suggest taking the big clump of chicken out, and pour cold water over the bags..you should be able to pry them apart with a butter knife.
I would then pop those bags into large zip lock bags...they don't stick together.  I stopped using freezer bags with our bulk meat as they were always getting frozen together.

[Halex]

Maddy I cant even get the chicken out. They are all stuck on the bottom of the chest freezer. Yes no more freezer bags.

i am so dumb sometimes, hits head in dubmness & then womders why it hurts, even more dumb, lol

[maddy]

Oh Hally...your not the only one its happened to  .  Perhaps turn freezer off a bit, and use a metal scraper to try & pry apart when starting to defrost just a little.  As long as it doesn't fully defrost, it should all be fine...and Hally, I have done the same thing   
I'm really not keen on the chest freezers...it's hard to keep organised & everything you want is always on the bottom  wished I bought another upright or 2 instead.

[cookie1]

Hally if you have to defrost some of it you will just have to have a major cook up. It can then be re frozen. Don't despair, we all do things like that every now and again.

[Nikkit]

Par defrost it and separate, it will freeze alright again. (I've done it once or twice before Hally  )

Or defrost and have a big chicken fest cook off, then refreeze like Cookie said. (I have done that too!)

[Halex]

A friend suggested ripping open a bag. & trying to get the chicken out that way. Will give that a go.

A cook up is ok, but have not enough freezer space & I really do t want to cook all the whole mt barker free range chickens.

Will let you all know how it goes.

Thanks everyone

Update, the plastic ripped off but that was it.

I have unplugged freezer and put warm water in to hopefully semi defrost.

Worst case scenario, cook all & eat & freeze.

[EmeraldSue]

When I bought my fish in bulk, I was told to put it in the fridge for 24 hours. This will keep the meat frozen, but defrosted enough to prize apart and rebag into smaller portions. Then put it back into the freezer. Good luck

[Halex]

Thanks ES,  but its stuck to the bottom of the chest freezee. So I now have water over it, defrosting the top layer in the hope the bottom layers will still be frozen. I have been trying to prise them apart vut so far no luck.

[cookie1]

I hope the freezer is off Hally, otherwise you will have it all frozen in a bigger block of ice. 

[Halex]

Dh walked into the garage with chicken covered in water in the freezer. I told him we had a major situation & to keep calm., I thought there might be another situation

He was brilliant, he pulled it all out & I only had 5kgs of chicken defrosted. My whole chickens were solid. So I  have a vindaloo on the go & I have 4kgs of chicken in the fridge to cook over the next few days.

Phew...............


 

[cookie1]

Hally I just had a thought. How about a hair dryer?  

[Bedlam]

What a pain for you Hally. I bet you can think of a million things you would rather be doing.

[BeezeeBee]

Yay...Hally's DH saved the day

[Halex]

All done & dh cleaned out the freezer. He is now having dinner & I am off for a spa bath & glass of.......

Very very lucky that not much had defrosted.

Cookie I thought about the hairdryer but figured somehow it wouldnt work for me & I would probably eletricute myself.

Happy all done