Can i simply bake frozen chicken or does it actually need to thaw over several hours or immersed in cold water or something?
Im hungry now!
You can do anything once.
if you dont defrost it first you will most likely over cook the outside while the middle will be frozen or undercooked. potentially dangerous for chicken.
pro tip for fast defrosting? cut it up in smaller pieces, while its frozen. this gives each piece a greater surface area, meaning it will defrost and cook much faster. in this case, baking would be slowest option, i would chop into cubes and pan fry.
whip up a slice of nice verse pie.
pro tip for fast defrosting? cut it up in smaller pieces, while its frozen.
This is also a pro tip for cutting chicken breast into cubes - it's way easier to do while it's still partially frozen.
Another pro tip is putting the meat in a ziplock bag and putting it in lukewarm water. It will defrost much quicker than in the ambient air.
Defrost in fridge, no other safe way to do it.
I cook from frozen all the time, but I use a sous vide stick in a cooler box (keeps the water insulated so less heat loss), then finish in the air fryer.
EDIT: ITT people who clearly win the lottery every time they buy a ticket
LOL, I throw my meat (wrapped) on the hood of the pickup and let it cook in the summer sun for a couple of hours. Always astonishes me at what people deem unsafe. Some y'all would starve to death within 2-weeks if teleported to the middle ages.
My wife wraps the dinner leftovers, leaves it on the table, we eat it for lunch, or sometimes dinner the next day. And here come the rebuttals:
YOU WILL DIE!
We haven't had a single tummy ache.
YOU WILL DIE!
Lived like this our whole lives, into middle age. No tummy aches.
YOU WILL DIE EVENTUALLY!
Got me there.
Most of y'all would be horrified at how we lived Hurricane Ivan. Buddy brought a 5g bucket of meat over. No electricity, no refrigeration. We cooked everything to hell and back, ate the seafood that evening, munched on the beef and chicken for 3 days after.
I suspect everyone took a health or food prep class and decided any meat left under 140°F for X minutes instantly and magically turns to poison. Now I'm going to go all anti-vaxer: I hAve aN ImmUnE SySTem!
Yeah, the health and safety standards are for a commercial kitchen, and are wildly conservative. I'd follow those standards if I was serving food for someone else. But, I'd also take the "expired" leftovers home and eat for a few more days.
The people who throw away leftovers after a day or two (or refuse to eat leftovers) are insane. They’re the same ones who won’t drink a bottle of water after its “expiration date”. Smell the thing. If it’s gross, get rid of it. Otherwise, it’s fine. I mean damn, people.
I had consistent results with my instantpot/pressure cooker when cooking from frozen. The breast was always cooked thoroughly and tender.
You can cook it however you want as long as it gets to 160F. I sous vide frozen chicken all the time. I bet you could roast it at low temp just fine. Or just defrost it in the microwave.
How long would you say, do i flip it? What do you say about the other response saying absolutely not to do that?
Quickest way I know of to cook frozen chicken is in a Pressure Cooker aka Instant Pot. It’s done in like 30 minutes to an hour depending on what your cooking. full bird I think was an hour and change. Wings are super quick.
You can as long as you get the center hot enough. However baking frozen chicken often makes the meat mushy. I'd recommend a thaw first.
Cooking from raw can result in a beautifully delicate interior. The key is to start at a lower temp and then raise it to your normal temp after a certain temp is hit. I did my turkey this way this year all because of this video. In case you don't know who Chris Young is, he was the science consultant at The Fat Duck, co founder of ChefSteps, inventor of the Joule, and co-author to The Modernist Cookbook.
Yeah honestly I either sousvide or use a control freak.
Salt 1.5% or 3% equilibrium brine. I pound the breast about 3/4 of an inch thick and set the control freak to 160c 5 min a side. It won't be completely done in the center but a 5 min rest will get it there.
You can defrost quickly with the microwave.
Instant Pot:
Yes. About twice the cooking time as thawed. Check that it's cooked before you eat it though.
Same temperature, just double time?
If you are intent on doing this, get a meat thermometer to confirm internal temp of at least 165F.
Microwave defrost function. Usually there is one for poultry and it will assign a time based on the weight you enter.
Every time it beeps mid cycle, dump the water from the plate and flip the meat.
This works for all frozen goods, but some veggies do not survive this process and get all mushy.
You would have to chop it up into manageable pieces, somehow, while it's frozen. Then bake or fry or whatever.
Basically make your own chicken nuggets, which are designed to be baked from frozen.
Then the problem becomes cutting solid chicken into slices or strips or bite size cubes. Not sure how to do that reliably or safely
Actually, partially frozen chicken is much easier to cut anyways.
This is how you quickly defrost a chicken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2jlCx_xqFw
I find it amazing they never revealed their identity and it will forever remain a mystery.
You can pressure cook frozen chicken in an instant pot.
Absolutely don't bake frozen chicken
You can defrost it in the microwave, they usually have a "defrost" setting with some different options which may take 5-10 minutes. It's a little less optimal than waiting, but it's fine. Definitely don't bake it frozen.
I dont have a microwave, just a toaster oven or an actual oven
😬
If it was me, I would just throw it in the fridge and find something else, and eat it tomorrow. If you have a meat thermometer you can try to make it work with low heat, or there are other ways to cook it that work fine (maybe thaw in cold water and then cut it to strips and sort of stir-fry it for example), but I think the 1-2 times I tried something like this I was not happy with the result.
Run it under lukewarm water from the faucet. A tiny stream will do. It'll thaw in 30minish. Certainly quicker than just shoving it in the oven as is
The most difficult thing about cooking chicken is getting the inside cooked all the way through without burning or drying out the outside.
If it's frozen, that's much more difficult.
So yes - you can cook it from frozen, but if you don't know what you're doing, the odds are that it's going to end up cooked on the outside and raw on the inside or cooked on the inside and burnt on the outside.
This is why air fryers or a sous vide are perfect for frozen foods. Air fryer chicken is super simple and pretty quick. Sous vide even easier but takes a bit longer.
Edit: because you lot seem to not understand that an air fryer is just a convection oven...
https://foodess.com/air-fryer-frozen-chicken-breast/
https://realsimplegood.com/air-fryer-frozen-chicken-breasts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/budgetfood/comments/13ez0io/frozen_chicken_breasts_can_be_delicious_without/
https://savaskitchen.com/frozen-chicken-breasts-in-air-fryer/
Are you all putting the air fryer on broil at 450 or something? Lol
Air frying a frozen chicken is like the perfect way to burn the outside while keeping the inside raw.
Please explain how you think frozen chicken in an air fryer would turn out ok. I'm curious.
I feel fundamentally uncomfortable with sois vide using plastic.