How to cook frozen chicken breast?

How to cook in a slow cooker

In a slow cooker, chicken can be cooked either whole or chopped into pieces.

Recipe with a whole carcass:

Prepare the chicken carcass.
Place it in the multicooker bowl and fill it with cold water.
Set the “Cooking” mode for 50 minutes.
Check preparation periodically.
10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add salt, pepper, and bay leaf to the broth.

Recipe with shredded chicken:

Chop the carcass into pieces.
Place in a bowl and fill with cold water.
Set the cooking mode to 40 minutes.
Monitor the preparation.
5-10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add pepper, salt, and bay leaf to the broth.

Can you make soup from frozen chicken?

In traditional chicken broth, the main ingredient is added cold to water. For these purposes, it is better to use the back, wings, or parts where there are bones. In this case, the broth will really be rich.

Is it possible to cook soup from frozen chicken?

What to do if you don’t have time to defrost chicken? Please note that if you immediately put a piece of meat into cold or hot water, you will get a cloudy broth with white flakes. You can remove the foam and strain the broth, but you will not achieve any results.
This is exactly the reaction that frozen chicken gives without defrosting. The broth will not be the most delicious. To avoid such consequences and cook a delicious broth, despite the frozen meat, you can resort to a trick.
You need to pour cold water over the chicken, put it on the fire and wait until it boils. Drain off all the water along with the foam, and rinse the chicken that is in boiling water with cold water, removing any remaining foam. Fill the pan with new water, boil it, and lower the prepared chicken.
Of course, many may think that such a broth will become completely low-fat and non-nutritious. Actually this is not true. During the first minutes of cooking frozen fillets, almost all the water and dirt that is on the surface of the chicken are washed out of the fibers. All valuable, nutritional elements found in the bones and skin are still preserved.

Carcass

Can you cook frozen meat without defrosting?

Cooking frozen meat products is not prohibited, but there are several problems associated with it.

You can cook frozen meat without defrosting:

During the cooking process, dirty, cloudy foam will constantly form. The broth will contain white flakes and fibers. After all, with a strong temperature difference, fibers and nutrients are destroyed, and the meat turns rubbery.
During the cooking process of a frozen piece, the outer layer thaws first and only then the inner layer. This will cause the piece of meat to be unevenly cooked. The outer part will be cottony and falling apart, and the inner part will be dense and rubbery.
If you want to prepare delicious broth and juicy meat, it must be thawed using the cold defrosting method.

Steaks

How to properly boil meat that has been frozen?

In the daily hustle and bustle, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and forget to take the bird out of the freezer in advance so that it can thaw calmly. Then the housewife is left alone with the frozen carcass and the question: is it possible to cook frozen chicken?

The answer will be yes, but you need to take into account that the whole process will take more time, and you will have to comply with a number of technological features:

Thawed or simply chilled meat is dipped into boiling water, but a frozen carcass, on the contrary, is poured with cold water and sent to the fire.
After the water boils, the first broth must be drained. The second time, the chicken is poured with warm water and cooked, removing the foam that appears with a slotted spoon.
To make both the meat and the broth more aromatic and rich, be sure to put a few peas of allspice, a small onion and a carrot into the pan during cooking.

Nowadays, many ovens are equipped with a built-in defrost function, so it will not be difficult to bake frozen chicken. But even those housewives who have the most ordinary oven should not be upset - they just need to keep in mind that the carcass will be ready no earlier than in 2.5 - 3 hours.

In this case, the frozen chicken should be rinsed in cold water, rubbed with spices, wrapped in foil or a baking sleeve and continued to cook for the above-mentioned time as usual. Some housewives even claim that frozen poultry turns out even juicier.

If you simply place the product in water and bring the liquid to a boil, the broth will turn out to be quite cloudy and not very rich. The meat itself will have softened edges, and its taste will not be the most pleasant. To minimize the negative consequences, you need to do the following:

We carefully wrap the piece of product in paper towels, getting rid of all excess moisture.
Heat a frying pan with a non-stick coating, grease it with a minimum amount of vegetable oil (if there are no concerns about the condition of the device, you can skip the oil altogether).
Place the meat in a frying pan and fry for literally 10 seconds on all sides. It should turn white; we don’t need a crust.
We put the workpiece not in cold water, but in boiling water. Next, cook as much as usual.

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Sometimes even all the above manipulations are not able to save the meat and bring it to the desired state. To avoid this, you should always take care of defrosting the product in advance. Overnight in the refrigerator will allow the product to be brought to the required conditions without sacrificing its gastronomic characteristics.

How to cook frozen meat, beef?

Beef is a very healthy food, containing a large amount of vitamins and microelements. It is suitable for children's diet. However, the main problem with the product is that during the cooking and boiling process, such meat becomes tough. It is quite possible to boil frozen beef until it is tender. To do this you need to know some secrets.

How to cook frozen meat, beef:

Before cooking, the meat must be defrosted slowly, that is, on a shelf in the refrigerator. The longer the meat takes to defrost, and the lower the defrosting temperature, the more juice it will contain inside.
You need to throw the meat into boiling water. If placed in cold water, the beef will be tough and the broth will be cloudy. If it is not possible to defrost the meat first, you can resort to a trick. Cut it into pieces weighing approximately 300-500 g, brush with olive oil and only then lower into boiling water. Olive oil forms a film on the surface that prevents the juice from flowing out.
This way the meat will be soft despite being frozen. During thawing, the juice will not leak into the water, but the meat will remain juicy. Please note that pre-freezing prolongs the cooking process. On average, for a piece weighing 500 g, you will need 2 hours. The product must be cooked without a lid, over low heat.

Steak

How many minutes should you cook the chicken until done?

Cooking time for chicken depends on its quality, age and integrity.

A whole chicken carcass is boiled for 25-30 minutes after the water boils. Since the meat is young, it cooks much faster.

Old chicken takes about 3 hours to cook. Broiler - about 1.5 hours, this is due to the fact that it is large. Poultry takes 1.5-2 hours to cook due to the fact that its meat is tougher, but it produces a thicker and richer broth.

Of course, chicken parts cook faster than a whole chicken. The fillet will be ready in 30-40 minutes. The readiness of the thigh and drumstick can be checked after 30-35 minutes. And the wings cook even faster - 20-25 minutes.

How to properly cook a whole chicken

If the chicken is cooked for broth, it is done as follows:

The prepared carcass is poured with cold water and placed on the stove.
Bring the water to a boil, remove the foam with a slotted spoon.
Add salt, pepper, onion and carrots.
Reduce the heat and cook until done.

For delicious boiled chicken, this is done a little differently:

The chicken carcass is placed in boiling water.
Bring to a boil.
Add salt to taste.
Reduce heat and cook until tender.

Another delicious recipe for chicken broth with offal:

The prepared chicken carcass and well-washed heart, liver and stomach are placed in a saucepan.
Fill with cold water and put on fire.
Cover the pan with a lid and bring to a boil.
The resulting foam is removed with a slotted spoon.
Reduce the heat and leave to simmer until done.

How to quickly defrost chicken at home

Every housewife knows how to defrost chicken in the standard way by removing it from the freezer. However, this method usually requires a lot of time. Let's look at the most popular methods for quickly defrosting poultry.

Is it possible to defrost chicken in hot water?

When using hot water, the meat will defrost in 15 minutes, but this method has significant drawbacks. When interacting with hot liquid, the top layer of meat loses protein, which is why the taste and juiciness also weaken. If this does not bother you, then fill a deep container with hot water and place the chicken there. After 5 minutes, change the fluid as it cools quickly. If the meat was purchased at the store, then leave it in the package to preserve the flavor.

Is it possible to defrost chicken in cold water?

This method will preserve the beneficial properties of the meat, but it will require approximately 2 hours. The water temperature should not be lower than 5 degrees, since defrosting can last up to 5 hours. Pour clean liquid into a deep container and place the chicken there. To prevent the meat from becoming watery, place it in store-bought packaging or in a tied plastic bag.

Defrost in a warm place

Defrosting at room temperature is considered one of the longest, but this way you will get juicy and flavorful meat that has not lost its beneficial properties. Remove the chicken from the freezer, remove from the packaging and place on a large plate to prevent water from escaping as it thaws. The time for complete defrosting depends on the temperature in the room, but on average the process takes at least 5 hours.

In a water bath

To use this method you will need two pans, one of them should be deep enough to completely submerge the chicken. Pour water into a container without meat and put it on fire. Place the frozen chicken in the second pan and place it on top of the bottom one. As soon as the water boils, it will begin to slowly heat the upper pan with its steam, thereby defrosting the meat. The process takes no more than half an hour.

In the oven

Take a 0.5-1 liter glass jar and pour water into it. Open the oven, place a wooden cutting board on a baking sheet and place the jar on it. Then we take the chicken out of the freezer and place it on a container with liquid. Close the oven door and set the temperature to 160–180 degrees. Complete defrosting takes no more than 15 minutes, but check the carcass regularly to ensure it doesn’t cook. To speed things up, you can make cuts first, but this is provided that in the future the chicken will not be cooked entirely.

The method is considered one of the most effective, but very risky, since if you overcook the bird, it will begin to cook from the inside, which means the meat will become dry.

In the microwave

The most practical and fastest way, without losing the beneficial properties of meat. Remove the packaging from the chicken and place it in a deep plate. We set the defrost function on the microwave oven and wait. Turn the carcass over every 2-3 minutes to prevent it from baking. The average defrosting time is 10–15 minutes.

In a slow cooker

Place the frozen chicken in the stand for cooking manti, fill the multicooker with water and start the “Steam” mode. The average duration of the procedure is 20–30 minutes, depending on the power of the device.

In a convection oven

We pack the chicken in a baking sleeve and place it in the air fryer. We set the temperature on it to 60–65 degrees and medium fan speed. We start the heating process for four minutes, and without taking out the meat, we determine the degree of defrosting. If the bird is still icy, then extend the heating for a few more minutes. When defrosting, the air fryer lid must be slightly open. The method is quick, but due to the increased temperature, the meat dries out and loses its beneficial properties.

Combined method

If you combine several defrosting methods, then the chicken will retain its beneficial properties and structure, but it will take more time. We remove the bird from the packaging, place it in a deep plate and place it in the main compartment of the refrigerator. After three hours, take out the meat, transfer it to a container with cold water and wait for complete defrosting. The duration of the process is 5–6 hours.

How to properly cook frozen meat and pork?

If it is not possible to defrost meat even by quick methods, including the microwave, you can use our tips.

How to properly cook frozen meat and pork:

Rinse the meat with lukewarm water and blot up the liquid with a paper towel. Next, brush the pieces with olive oil and place in a dry, hot frying pan for about 20 seconds on each side.
Please note that there is no need to achieve a golden brown crust. It is necessary that the edges of the meat, its surface, turn slightly white. This is a sealing layer that prevents juice from leaking out. Such meat must be boiled exclusively in boiling water.
Under no circumstances should such a piece be immersed in cold water. This way, you will be able to preserve the taste of the meat, but the broth will not be as rich. This method is suitable exclusively for preparing second courses, but not for soups and broths.

Steak