We’ve been through those times when we spend loads of time planning the perfect meal, get all the ingredients ready and then just remember that the chicken is FROZEN!! Luckily, there are many ways to safely and quickly thaw your frozen chicken ready to cook your meal.
Before we get to the tips, if you’re defrosting chicken breast, try to grab the thinnest one out the freezer. This will make the thawing process much faster.
Conventional methods will tell you that chicken must be thawed slowly to prevent the food from getting contaminated. But through many years of using this quick and easy method we are going to share with you, how you can safely defrost your chicken in no time! Through our research, we’ve found that thawing chicken in hot water does not make it unsafe to eat. This is because the chicken hasn’t been in the hot water or ‘danger zone’ for long enough for the bacteria to start multiplying.
Before we get to the method of how to quickly and safely thaw your chicken, here are two things you definitely shouldn’t do:
1) Leave your chicken on your countertop to thaw at room temperature. Bacteria thrives at room temperature, it will rapidly multiply!
2) Don’t rinse your chicken under hot water, this will splash around the kitchen causing cross-contamination.
Now that that’s out the way, just one bit of preparation needed before we can start thawing. All you need to do is make sure that your chicken is in a resealable bag. This will make sure that the chicken is not waterlogged!
- Grab a large bowl and fill it with hot water. You’re looking for around 60 degrees celsius. (you can check it with a temperature probe)
- Put your sealed chicken inside the hot water. (Don’t use boiling hot water)
- Depending on the size of your chicken, it should be ready to use in approximately 30 minutes!
(if the edges do go a little white or look a little funky, don’t worry, the hot water is just barely cooking the edges but this doesn’t affect anything)
