Chicken food safety question

I wouldn't freeze it...that just extends the thawed time even more, because when you pull it from the freezer to thaw (fridge thaw being the safest way) you're looking at 2-4 days to thaw it out before it can be cooked, which essentially takes the bird way beyond the sell-by date in a thawed state. My rule of thumb is if I buy something that close to the "sell by" date, it gets cooked ASAP.

You're not paranoid, either...nothing to mess with here. My advice would be to get your bird into your brine now...let it brine for 2 days, if that's what it takes until you can smoke it up. If it is non-enhanced (being it's organic it won't be) the brine will help to ward-off bacterial colonization for a few days past the sell-by date. It's not a 100% guarantee, but short of tossing it into the oven tonight or Monday evening, this will up your odds considerably. I've brined a few pork butts and yard birds for very similar reasons...well, a couple times my smoke day got blown out the window and I brined the pork butts to extend their fridge-life for a few days until I could get them smoked...it has worked fine every time for me with pork or poultry.

I would suggest a salt content of at least 10% in the solution...heat the solution to aid in dissolving the salt, then chill well before dunking the bird. For your dry rub, omit the salt if in the brine for two days, or cut it back by 50% if brined for 24 hours...otherwise a very salty bird will be on the menu.

Eric

Eric has given you some good info to work with.....

It is a sell by date....it does not mean it will spontaneously go bad over night.... assuming it was handled properly the entire time and putting it into a brine will help extend the life.... I would not push it to far past Tuesday and I would do a hot smoke to make sure you quickly go through the TDZ....