How To Quickly Defrost A Chicken And Do It Right At Home, Including Without A Microwave + Photos And Videos

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

How to defrost chicken quickly and correctly

Since ancient times, chicken has occupied an honorable place on our table. Soups, goulash are prepared from it and baked whole in the oven. Magnificent pies and kurniki attract everyone who is nearby with their aroma. Unfortunately, not every person has the opportunity to raise chicken houses - most of the people live in high-rise buildings and megacities. Therefore, poultry meat is bought in supermarkets and shops. Frozen chicken carcasses filled the counters. How to defrost chicken meat after purchase or home freezing?

Content

• 1 What determines the correct ways to defrost chicken

  • 1.1 How quickly the carcass will defrost: in parts or in whole
  • 1.2 Which poultry to defrost faster - boiled or raw
  • 1.3 Types of freezing chicken meat

• 2 How to urgently defrost chicken

  • 2.1 Defrosting poultry in cold water
  • 2.2 Defrosting with a multicooker
  • 2.3 How to defrost chicken in the microwave
  • 2.4 How to defrost chicken in the oven
  • 2.5 Defrosting in a double boiler
  • 2.6 Can I defrost chicken in the airfryer
  • 2.7 Defrost in hot water
  • 2.8 Combined method

• 3 How to defrost chicken correctly

  • 3.1 Chicken carcass thaws in the refrigerator
  • 3.2 How to defrost poultry at room temperature
• 4 Which chicken should not be thawed
• 5 Errors when defrosting poultry
• 6 How much defrosted chicken is stored
• 7 Video: the right ways to defrost

What the correct ways to defrost chicken depend on

Experienced housewives know many ways to quickly thaw poultry. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, before choosing the most acceptable option, we will try to understand some of the nuances of this case.

How quickly the carcass will defrost: in parts or in whole

Tender chicken meat is truly indispensable in the preparation of lunches and dinners. Chicken is an almost universal find for a chef. But there is one not very pleasant news: chicken meat is defrosted for a very long time. A large broiler carcass, weighing 5–6 kg, can thaw for up to 30 hours. Of course, chickens sold in supermarkets weighing 1–1.5 kg are thawed faster: 12–17 hours. That is why experts advise to cut the chicken before freezing. Wings, legs, breast and back are frozen separately. These portions are thawed for 30-60 minutes at room temperature.

Easier to defrost cut poultry

Which bird is faster to defrost - boiled or raw

We boiled a chicken leg or fillet, cooled it down and put it in the freezer. And a few days later we decided to cook something delicious from them. Maybe in vain? And would fresh chicken defrost faster? Most of the liquid is removed from the meat during cooking. It becomes drier and more fibrous. Fresh chicken contains a large percentage of water. If we bought frozen chicken, then there is even more liquid in it - in the form of ice. Some production enterprises, for better safety, pierce the bird with water and freeze it additionally. Therefore, boiled chicken defrosts faster than raw chicken.

Raw meat takes longer to thaw than cooked

Types of freezing chicken meat

Shock freezing of chicken at home is carried out only if there is a “quick freeze” function in the refrigerator. The chicken is quickly frozen through. But if you just put it in the shock freezer, without foil or a tight bag, then the chicken will get a cold burn. When defrosting, this will affect the structure of the meat, it will become looser. But the taste, experts say, is preserved when frozen quickly. At the same time, the temperature regime remains the same as with a regular home freeze: from -18 to -24 degrees. So the principle and timing of defrosting chicken after shock freezing is the same as that which was simply put in the freezer.

Deep industrial freezing of chicken takes place using special equipment, where the temperature drops to -32 degrees and there is a faster air circulation in the chamber. In the chicken, with this processing, important for humans are preserved trace elements and vitamins. Deep-frozen meat takes longer to thaw than what we freeze at home.

Fresh chicken, frozen at home, thaws faster. Before the chicken is placed in the freezer, it loses some liquid, which can reduce the number of ice crystals when frozen. In addition, if the chicken is cut up, it also thaws faster. Whole chicken, frozen at home, can thaw for 12 to 17 hours.

At home, a whole chicken carcass can be thawed up to 17 hours.

How to urgently defrost chicken

In some cases, for example, if unexpected guests have come, you need to defrost the chicken as quickly as possible. How can this be done? What are the ways to quickly defrost meat?

Defrosting the bird in cold water

If the chicken needs to be thawed quickly, but still has a couple of hours in stock, use the following method:

1. We take out the frozen chicken from the freezer.

   

   To prepare a delicious dish, the poultry must first be defrosted

2. Pour cold water into a large saucepan and lower the bird into it.

   

   Defrosting chicken in cold water will take time.

3. After 2-3 hours, the chicken will be ready for cutting.

Defrosting with a multicooker

1. Taking the chicken out of the freezer, we put it on a stand, which is designed for steaming or manti.

2. Pour water into the bowl and set the steam cooking mode.

   

   You can defrost chicken using a multicooker

3. We put our chicken in a slow cooker and wait 10 minutes.

   

   From defrosted chicken, you can make tender cutlets or an incredibly nutritious and aromatic pie

How to defrost chicken in the microwave

1. We remove the packaging from the chicken.

   

   If thawing is done in the microwave, then it is better to remove the packaging from the chicken

2. We put the chicken in a deep plate so that the liquid does not spread during thawing.

   

   The dish is perfect for defrosting

3. We select the defrosting mode and set the weight of the meat.

   

   Thawing chicken in the microwave takes no more than a quarter of an hour

4. Turn the chicken every 1–2 minutes so that the meat does not cook.

How to defrost chicken in the oven

1. We remove the chicken from the package.
2. Pour water into a glass bottle.
3. Put a wooden cutting board on a baking sheet, on which we place the bottle.
4. We put chicken on the container and put everything in the oven.

5. Keep the chicken at 180 degrees for 5-10 minutes.

   

   Defrosting in the oven is one of the fastest defrosting options

Defrosting in a double boiler

1. Put the chicken out of the package in the steam basket.
2. We put on the upper tier of a double boiler, so we will not cook the chicken, but we will defrost it.
3. The minimum amount of water that is poured into the bowl is 1/4 of the volume of the container.

4. We select the automatic heating function, thanks to this, the chicken will be heated for 2 minutes with breaks for 8 minutes.

   

   When defrosting in a double boiler, the bird must be placed on the upper level

Can I defrost chicken in the airfryer

It would seem that with the same result, you can put the bird in a frying pan and it is immediately fried outside. But no, in the airfryer both chicken and meat are really thawed.

1. Place the chicken in the roasting sleeve. It can withstand high temperatures.

   

   The roasting sleeve keeps the chicken at the right temperature when defrosting in the airfryer

2. We set the temperature to 65 degrees and the average fan speed.

   

   Chicken will not roast at medium fan speed

3. We set the timer for 6 minutes, leave the lid of the airfryer a little ajar.

Defrost in hot water

Let's say right away that experts do not recommend defrosting poultry, meat and fish in hot water, since protein coagulation occurs in the upper layers of the meat piece. Whether to use this method when defrosting, everyone decides for himself.

1. To prevent the chicken from being saturated with water, we leave it in the bag in which it was in the freezer.
2. Pour hot water into a saucepan and put the chicken in it.
3. As it cools, the water needs to be changed to a hotter one.
4. After 10-15 minutes, remove the meat from the pan, rinse it and start cooking.

Chicken thaws in hot water for 10-15 minutes

Combined method

1. Remove the packaging from the chicken and put it in a deep plate.
2. We put it in the refrigerator in the middle compartment, here the temperature is most acceptable for defrosting.
3. After 3–4 hours of thawing in the refrigerator, first put the chicken in a plastic bag. We tie it.
4. We put it in cold water. Let it stand for another 1–1.5 hours.

How to defrost chicken correctly

Correct defrosting methods will preserve all vitamins necessary for a person.

Chicken carcass thaws in the refrigerator

Defrosting in the refrigerator helps to preserve vitamins, fats, proteins and other trace elements necessary for a person. The longer we defrost the chicken, the tastier it will be when cooked.

1. We take out the carcass from the freezer, remove the packaging.

   

   When defrosting in the refrigerator, it is recommended to first remove the packaging from the chicken

2. We put the chicken in a deep bowl so that the liquid does not stain the refrigerator and products on the lower shelves when the ice melts.

   

   Metal utensils can be used to defrost chicken.

3. We cover the top with cling film or a plate so that the smell of raw meat does not spread through the chamber.

4. After a day, drain the released liquid and rinse the chicken in cold water.

   

   Chicken must be thawed in the refrigerator for 24 hours

How to defrost poultry at room temperature

If the defrosting time is still limited, and you can't wait almost a day, you can speed up the process. This method also applies to proper defrosting and will not harm chicken meat.

1. We remove the packaging from the chicken.
2. We put the carcass in a deep plate and place it on the kitchen table.
3. In this form, the chicken will defrost for 5-6 hours. If the kitchen is hot enough, then 4–5 hours.

To shorten the defrosting time slightly, you can make cuts on the carcass. But this is only useful if the bird is not then baked whole.

Which chicken should not be thawed

• It is better not to defrost a bird of a gray-pink shade with brown splashes. This color suggests that microorganisms are actively multiplying in the meat. This means that the meat was stored incorrectly.
• Gray-green and green colors indicate that the chicken is hopelessly spoiled. She “suffocated” even before she got into the freezer.
• The smell and sticky surface of the meat also indicate that it does not need to be thawed.
• Moldy chicken or poultry that has been stored in the freezer for more than 9 months should also not be thawed. The product is spoiled, and trimming pieces of meat with visible defects will not help here. By the way, remember that mold is a spore fungus. Spores may be invisible to the eye, but present on deeper meat fibers.

Moldy chicken must not be thawed

Poultry defrosting errors

Unfortunately, no one is immune from mistakes, but we decided to outline the most common mistakes during defrosting:

1. In an effort to save time, we submerge the chicken in hot water. This deprives the bird of its unique taste and protein that our body needs.
2. When we put the chicken in the microwave, we turn on the auto defrost mode and do not even turn the chicken over. Boiled meat - this is the result we get. But if it were just boiled … The microwave adds a firm, dry crust to the chicken.
3. You cannot freeze and thaw the chicken several times, because this is how we create a favorable environment for the development of microorganisms harmful to humans. And raw meat contains a lot of them.
4. While defrosting in a double boiler, we squinted incredulously at the upper level and … put the chicken in the lower compartment. No, there will be no dry crust like in a microwave oven. The meat will be cooked on the outside, but will remain frozen on the inside.
5. Defrosting the chicken in the airfryer, we turned up the temperature, but we didn't remember the fan speed at all. As a result: fried chicken with blood. Rather, raw meat inside.

How much defrosted chicken is stored

To preserve the freshness of the meat, put the chicken in a bag or container after defrosting. The shelf life depends on the temperature in the refrigerator. If the temperature range is from +4 to +7 degrees, the bird can be stored for no more than 48 hours. With values from 0 to +4 degrees, the shelf life is increased to 3 days.

Video: the right ways to defrost

We hope these tips will help you defrost chicken correctly and quickly while maintaining its unique flavor and health benefits. After all, observing some simple rules, you can later create real culinary masterpieces.