[keepthelegend]

Our chicken is locked in the oven!!! We put the chicken in at 500 degrees, which may be the problem? Anyway, it won't open! We have turned it off, turned the circuit breaker off, and nothing. What do we do? Its a GE model. Thanks so much!

[twotrudoc]

I am so sorry but....


I can't even breath enough to ask why you put the poor chicken in the oven at 500 LOL!!

[Bluey]

Maybe get a bigger hammer and chisel?

500 is as high as most residential ovens go.
Were you cooking or incinerating?

[sk_pacer]

Betting you have a self-dirtying.......er cleaning oven and the dial for clean is turned to lock and clean. Check the switches/dials.

[keepthelegend]

The recipe said 500?!?! This is why I don't cook!!!! Mother and husband are fighting and our poor chicken is probably about to implode! But why is the oven so stubborn when the circuit breaker is totally off?

[tuppysmom]

Self cleaning ovens lock when the clean cycle is active. At 500 you may have triggered this lock. Different ovens unlock at different times, some are by temp and some are by amount of time. It *should* open when the temp goes down, but likely too late for the chicken.

[keepthelegend]

Betting you have a self-dirtying.......er cleaning oven and the dial for clean is turned to lock and clean. Check the switches/dials.

Its all little buttons and the clean is not on. Now the whole thing is off and the circuit breaker is off and nothing

[LexInVA]

Try removing the front cover and look at the lock lever to see if it's bent.

[To the MAX]

Just remember, you WILL laugh about this some day!
A few years ago on Thanksgiving, my mother flung our turkey gravy all over the kitchen. And I mean ALL OVER. The fridge, the walls, the ceiling. It was a disaster at the time...now it's a favorite holiday story in our family.

[MistyBlue]

Sounds like your oven put itself on clean.

So, your chicken will be very well done but also very clean.

Google your oven's make and model and the word "troubleshoot" and you should come up with some ideas on what to try.

[Teacup]

At least your chicken will be done. Really really done.

[NeedsAdvil]

It's going to look like the turkey in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation!

[To the MAX]

It's going to look like the turkey in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation!

Save the neck for me!

[Bluey]

Ok, seriously, that was a great idea to turn everything off, just in case you were about to start a fire there.

Now, maybe you could possibly, carefully, turn the breakers back on and see what happens and go from that.

If nothing happens see what you could do next if it still won't open.
It is hard to say, without being right there.

[subk]

My GE Profile did something like this this morning! It held the crumb cake hostage. mr. subk kept pushing buttons and it finally opened. The instruction book said wait and let it cool down...

[GrayCatFarm]

Not quite off topic - and I definitely feel for the OP in panic mode - I bet that there are more than 3 people (OP, DH and Mother) waiting for dinner. I also bet that your DH did not stand in front of the oven (as mine did) with you standing there with the roaster in both hands saying "How do you open this?"

Please let us know how it turns out in the end ( your day.....we think we know how the chicken is going to turn out). LOL

[LauraKY]

Sorry. You sound like my friend who joined the gourmet club. First time she hosted, the oven timer alarm went off and, because she had never heard it before, thought it was the smoke alarm. Good luck with dinner. Let us know what happened.

[CatOnLap]

Thank you for writing your Chicken Bonfire Christmas story! LOL!

I hope they have chinese takeout where you are, 'cos that's what I'd be doing about now.

[keepthelegend]

Ok, seriously, that was a great idea to turn everything off, just in case you were about to start a fire there.

Now, maybe you could possibly, carefully, turn the breakers back on and see what happens and go from that.

If nothing happens see what you could do next if it still won't open.
It is hard to say, without being right there.

So I did turn it all back on and it still won't open. We have tried unscrewing the front door - which made my mother scream "don't ruin my oven!" - that she never uses. Then she brought out the fire extinguisher and is going on and on about how cooking is something the devil invented. My poor english husband trying to recreate the culinary christmas memories of his youth is beside himself. The only ones excited will be the Jack Russells who will more than likely sometime tomorrow morning get the Xmas chicken to themselves!

[sickofcollege]

Is there a small hidden lever right below the stove top above the oven handle? I mean, mine is really small and took me forever to find it. It locks the oven to prevent children from opening it.

BTW, I hate the self-cleaning function on my oven. I tried to use it once and the smoke alarms went off and I had to open all of my doors and windows since I couldn't see.