Totally NSAIFR: Thawing chicken question

nicolita14w · October 2011

This is going to make me look like a complete moron in the kitchen, I know, but here goes.

I'm trying to thaw chicken for tonight's dinner. It's been sitting in cold water for over an hour and seems to not have thawed even slightly. I need to get it thawed and get it in the crock pot!

When I research thawing chicken online, it says that you can thaw it in cold water in about 45 minutes. Um, not so much.

I know you are not supposed to thaw in warm water, because that makes an environment where bacteria can multiply. However, I don't really understand this, because don't you then kill all those bacteria by cooking the chicken?

Thawing in the microwave never seems to work because the edges of the chicken start to cook and get rubbery before the middle finishes thawing.

Any tips on thawing chicken more quickly? Can anyone explain the whole "no warm water even though you're going to cook it" notion to me? I know you can cook meat frozen, even though it doesn't taste as good, and I don't really get why that's okay but thawing it in warm water and then cooking it is not.

sescms2004 · October 2011

How much are you thawing? What are you thawing it in? I always put mine in a big ziploc baggie in a huge bowl (giant mixing bowl) of cold water. For 1-2lbs of chicken, usually within an hour or so, I can start breaking apart the pieces so that they separate and thaw faster. For 1-2lbs of breasts, mine are usually thawed in a couple hours.

GypsyEsq · October 2011

The goal is to keep thawing food at 40 degrees F or lower as it thaws, anything more than that and the bacteria that is there can multiply rapidly. The trick is to keep replacing the cool water, any water warmer than freezing is going to help thaw. And I tend to keep replacing the water every five minutes and as I can, work the chicken apart to speed up thaw times (but I keep the chicken in a zip lock).

If you were thawing to pan sautee or something at high heat then I personally, would use slightly warmer water, but since you're putting it in the crock pot where it will sit at a lower temperature for a longer time then no, you're giving it even more opportunities for bacteria to grow. At this point if it were me, I'd scrap that dinner, thaw the chicken in the fridge and plan something else.

nicolita14w · October 2011

Thanks, ladies. Martha Stewart I am not. I didn't think of replacing the water. I almost always let the chicken thaw in the fridge and I thought we had ingredients for something else for dinner tonight (which we don't), so this is last-minute thawing attempt. Maybe we'll just order pizza.

Mouseygail · October 2011

is it a whole chicken or does it have bones? I always thaw my boneless, skinless breasts in the microwave... not sure what I would do with bones

nicolita14w · October 2011

Mouseygail:
is it a whole chicken or does it have bones? I always thaw my boneless, skinless breasts in the microwave... not sure what I would do with bones

They're just 3 frozen chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag. I never have success thawing them in the microwave b/c the outer edges start to cook before the middle thaws, even if I move them around and flip them repeatedly. Sigh. I'm probably doing something wrong.

ladychicago · October 2011

What are you trying to make? I use frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot all the time. Can you just put them in there frozen? It will take a bit longer...but not too much longer.

SeaSoul · October 2011

DH is the cook at our house (especially when it comes to meat) and he always thaws meat in an ice bath - with lots of ice in the water, so it stays very cold.

nicolita14w · October 2011

ladychicago:
What are you trying to make? I use frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot all the time. Can you just put them in there frozen? It will take a bit longer...but not too much longer.

Hmmm, could I? See, that's what I don't get. Why would warm water not be okay but having them thaw/cook slowly in a crockpot would? I'd happily put them in there frozen if it's safe! But with James already having been throwing up for 4 days with some sort of stomach virus, I don't want to food poison the rest of the family!

GypsyEsq · October 2011

nicolita14w:

ladychicago:
What are you trying to make? I use frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot all the time. Can you just put them in there frozen? It will take a bit longer...but not too much longer.

Hmmm, could I? See, that's what I don't get. Why would warm water not be okay but having them thaw/cook slowly in a crockpot would? I'd happily put them in there frozen if it's safe! But with James already having been throwing up for 4 days with some sort of stomach virus, I don't want to food poison the rest of the family!

Two schools of thought on this. My own feeling is no, it's not safe, particularly if you're cooking on low heat for a long period of time. It certainly leaves the thawed or thawing chicken in the danger zone for bacteria growth for a lot longer than it would be normally. On the other hand, I've used frozen breasts in the crock when I'm cooking on high for a short period of time. Depends when dinner is I guess.

RoxBride · October 2011

Crock Pots do not reach a high enough temperature to kill bacteria, so I would agree, don't rely on that to kill any germs.

That said, it does cook food at a temperature high enough (and surrounding air) to keep the food safe and not growing fresh bacteria while it is in there.

I would put them in frozen, but you'll need to account for that with a longer cooking time / higher temp.

ladychicago · October 2011

nicolita14w:
ladychicago:
What are you trying to make? I use frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot all the time. Can you just put them in there frozen? It will take a bit longer...but not too much longer.
Hmmm, could I? See, that's what I don't get. Why would warm water not be okay but having them thaw/cook slowly in a crockpot would? I'd happily put them in there frozen if it's safe! But with James already having been throwing up for 4 days with some sort of stomach virus, I don't want to food poison the rest of the family!

I do it all the time. No one has ever gotten sick. Of course, I usually have 8+ hours of cook time, but this article says 8 hours on low OR 4 hours on high should be safe for frozen chicken in the crockpot.

https://www.ehow.com/facts_5477300_can-put-frozen-chicken-crockpot.html

artygirl · October 2011

I use frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot more often than not. Like ladychicago said, it just takes longer to cook.

ladychicago · October 2011

GypsyEsq:
nicolita14w:

ladychicago:
What are you trying to make? I use frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot all the time. Can you just put them in there frozen? It will take a bit longer...but not too much longer.

Hmmm, could I? See, that's what I don't get. Why would warm water not be okay but having them thaw/cook slowly in a crockpot would? I'd happily put them in there frozen if it's safe! But with James already having been throwing up for 4 days with some sort of stomach virus, I don't want to food poison the rest of the family!

Two schools of thought on this. My own feeling is no, it's not safe, particularly if you're cooking on low heat for a long period of time. It certainly leaves the thawed or thawing chicken in the danger zone for bacteria growth for a lot longer than it would be normally. On the other hand, I've used frozen breasts in the crock when I'm cooking on high for a short period of time. Depends when dinner is I guess.

I would add that it depends on when your slow cooker was made. Newer crock pots have much higher temperature settings than the ones our mothers had. Mostly because they regulated it for food safety issues. I know my 4ish year old crock pot boils on low all the time....something it really isn't supposed to do, but the temps are just higher in there than the used to be. Hence why I never worry about frozen chicken. It gets boiled in there half the time.

ladychicago · October 2011

I will also add...frozen chicken in the crock pot aside... Meat will thaw faster in the sink if you put it in ice water and run water into the water bath. The running water will keep things circulating and thaw it more quickly. Of course, it isnt the most eco-friendly use of water, but it will speed things up.

dusk42 · October 2011

Second vote for ditching the chicken for tonight (if only because it would suck to have dinner not ready and be starving).

Like pp said - crockpots are fine for cooking cold or maybe even frozen chicken breasts because there isn't a critical load of bacteria on there yet. Thaw in warm water or on the counter, get lots of bugs, let them make whatever toxins they want, and then kill them slowly in a crockpot = bad combination.

superned · October 2011

dusk42:
Thaw in warm water or on the counter, get lots of bugs, let them make whatever toxins they want, and then kill them slowly in a crockpot = bad combination.

And thanks to this quote, I won't be eating chicken for a long, long time!

I was just going to suggest that when I'm in a pinch I use very cold running water to thaw.

futureMrs.Eanes · October 2011

My husband works in food safety, and there are two safe ways to thaw chicken.

1. In the refrigerator over the course of a couple days.

2. A continuous stream of cold water running over the frozen chicken.

Any other way and there is potential for the growth of harmful bacteria.

nicolita14w · October 2011

Thanks, everyone. I ended up mostly thawing them with cold water, then putting them in the crockpot (which is newish-- I got it within the last 10 years) on high. I will cook them at least 4 hours and if I get sick I promise not to blame anyone on the board.:)

Next time, I will either thaw in the fridge or with the stream of water idea.

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