How to Safely Cook Chicken From Frozen, According to an Expert
How to cook those frozen thighs, wings, or chicken breasts in your freezer, without thawing first.
Simply Recipes / Sally Vargas
I love maximizing the use of my freezer. Aside from the classics purchased in the frozen aisle (ice cream, popsicles, etc.), I keep it equipped with frozen veggies, steaks, portioned leftovers, and containers full of homemade broth. Having a well-stocked freezer not only allows me to quickly throw together a meal when my pantry and fridge are low on supplies, but it also helps me reduce waste.
However, there is one item that I find myself hesitantly pulling from the freezer: chicken. Why? Although I’m well-versed in preparing fresh birds, I am nervous about the safety aspect of cooking frozen chicken. To calm my fears and use the chicken thighs in my freezer right now, I chatted with Lisa Yakas, a trained microbiologist with decades of food safety experience who works at the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), to get her insights on cooking frozen chicken.
Simply Recipes / Sally Vargas
How to Safely Cook Chicken From Frozen
Cooking frozen chicken safely is not as tricky as it may seem. The main difference, says Yakas, is that frozen chicken takes longer to cook than thawed chicken. “When cooking frozen chicken, the cooking time takes approximately 50 percent longer than the recommended time for fully thawed or fresh poultry,” she explains. “It’s not really dangerous to cook from frozen, just be aware of the extended length of time needed to fully cook.”
When it comes to preparing the bird, there are no culinary limitations (besides placing the frozen meat directly into hot oil for frying—do not do this) that set frozen chicken apart from fresh or thawed. “Frozen chicken can be cooked in various ways, including in the skillet, in the oven, or in an Instant Pot,” she says. If you’re going to cook it in a skillet or baking dish, Yakas suggests ensuring the pieces are placed in an even layer across the cookware’s surface for balanced heat distribution.
The three most important steps to safely preparing and consuming frozen chicken have to do with sanitization, thawing, and temperature:
Yakas recommends always washing your hands before and after handling the frozen bird. She also says it’s extremely important to “clean, sanitize, and disinfect the area where you handled the chicken,” just as you would with fresh chicken.
In terms of thawing, you either want to cook the chicken when fully frozen or completely thawed—“avoid cooking partially thawed chicken.” Partially thawed chicken leads to unevenly cooked meat, which means sections of the poultry could be undercooked even if the thermometer’s probe reads a safe temperature in a different part of the same piece.
The most important step when cooking chicken in general—whether fresh, frozen, or thawed—is ensuring its internal temperature is at least 165°F once cooked. “When preparing frozen raw chicken, it’s very important that you cook the meat thoroughly,” says Yakas. “Remember to take the temperature in the thickest part of the meat (with a certified meat thermometer) to make sure you’ve reached the full cooking temperature.”
Finally, advises Yakas, “If there’s ever an unpleasant smell with chicken, please discard. When in doubt, throw it out!”
Read More: The Best Way To Freeze Chicken, According to an Expert
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