This situation has to have happened to you: you start cooking something with chicken, but it turns out you forgot to transfer the meat from the freezer to the fridge last night. In the following paragraphs, we will have a look at a few ways to quickly defrost chicken.
Microwave - undoubtedly the fastest way is to use the defrost setting of your microwave to defrost the chicken in minutes. Most microwaves have the option to set the weight of the meat and it will automatically calculate the recommended time. Watch the process carefully, because it can quickly start cooking at the edges.
The cold water method - works well, but for small pieces of meat such as fillets, chicken breasts, but not for whole birds and large chunks of meat. Remove the meat from its packaging and place it in a clean ziplock plastic bag, while trying not to remove the air from the bag.
Then dip the whole bag under cold water in a bowl and periodically change the water until the meat softens. You will usually need between 30 minutes and an hour for about half a kilo of meat. To speed up the process, break up the meat into smaller pieces once it has melted enough.
Cooking meat without defrosting - if you have a whole chicken that needs to be served or cooked quickly, it is best to cook it frozen.
It is extremely safe to cook frozen meat, but this will take about 50% longer.
Just use a meat thermometer to determine when the meat has reached a safe internal temperature.
Once you have defrosted your chicken, you can prepare a delicious roasted chicken, chicken steaks, stuffed chicken or a classic chicken soup.
