Chicken’s one of the most popular foods in the world, and what’s not to love. But what’s the safest and quickest way of defrosting chicken? The very best thing you can do to defrost poultry is to take it out of the freezer and defrost it in the refrigerator.
Place it on a plate at the bottom of your fridge up to two days before you want to cook it. But sometimes we forget to take it out of the freezer in time to defrost in the fridge. If you only take it out of the freezer around two hours before cooking, place the chicken in a leak-proof bag and seal it before submerging the bag in a bowl of cold, not hot, water.
Make sure the meat is fully submerged. Change the water every 40 minutes to keep the water cold. Depending on the cut of the meat, thawing could take from 60 minutes for ground chicken, to a few hours for larger cuts.
Cook as soon as the meat has thawed. If you’ve got no time, just cook your chicken from frozen, allowing for 50 percent more cooking time. You won’t get a crispy skin or browned meat, but this method is fine for slow cooking or braising.
What you should never do is just leave the chicken to thaw on the counter top because harmful bacteria will breed and could make you sick.
