How Can You Defrost Chicken? Find Here Some Tips

Packed with nutrients, chicken is one food item that appeals to all taste buds and offers several health benefits. It is available in fresh, processed, and frozen forms in all supermarkets around the world. However, out of all three, frozen chicken is becoming a preferred choice among people for the right reasons. Firstly, frozen chicken is at par with their fresh counterparts on the parameter of quality and freshness. Secondly, this chicken is a better choice than processed ones for no preservatives are added while packing and storing it. Today, several frozen chicken suppliers are operating and distributing their products worldwide to keep up with this food consumption pattern and trend. So, have you picked a packet of frozen chicken for the first time? Can you not wait to prepare a savoury dish? But make sure you defrost the chicken before getting on with the cooking process.

 What are some ways of defrosting frozen chicken?

 Without defrosting, the chicken might remain uncooked and raw inside. Defrosting is, thus, essential if you want to cook a delicious and healthy chicken dish. As per USDA recommendations, there are three ways of defrosting chicken.

 Defrosting in the microwave

 Defrosting chicken in your microwave is a simple and quick process. All you have to do is keep the chicken in a microwave container and select the right power setting and time duration. For larger chicken pieces, choosing 30% power will suffice and allow even thawing without overcooking the outside of the chicken. However, smaller pieces are cooked the best at 50% power. Coming to the right duration of defrosting, set 2 minutes for defrosting 1 pound of boneless chicken, 4 minutes for thawing 2 pounds, 6 minutes for 3 pounds, and so on. Keep checking to see if the chicken has been defrosted sufficiently.

 Defrosting in water

 If you do not have a microwave at home, you can still easily thaw your frozen chicken using water. Keep the chicken in a sealed pouch bag and place the same in a big bowl of cold water. Make sure the water is cold for hot temperature can further promote the growth of bacteria on the chicken. Time required for defrosting depends on the amount of chicken you are thawing. So, defrosting 500g of chicken can take an hour approximately. On another note, if you are fond of preparing chicken dishes for dinner, you can buy in lumpsum. As several frozen chicken suppliers offer attractive discounts, take this opportunity to buy and stock your favourite frozen chicken.

 Defrosting in the fridge

This is the most recommended method of thawing the frozen chicken but it’s more time taking than the other methods. Use a sealed pouch bag to place the chicken and store the same in the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. However, do not forget to place a plate underneath the packet as any sort of juice leakage from the chicken can spoil other food in the refrigerator. According to the standard rule, it takes five hours to defrost one pound of chicken. On the other hand, defrosting a whole chicken might take over 24 hours. So, keeping a tab on time is extremely important.

Conclusion – No matter which thawing method you choose, keep checking to see if your chicken is defrosted properly. Touch to see if there are still ice crystals inside the cavities of the chicken. A squishy feeling will tell you that the chicken has been properly defrosted. Apart from following the right defrosting method, purchase products of only top-rated frozen chicken suppliers for savouring healthy and delicious chicken dishes.