Defrosting Chicken Quickly...HELP!
 

Alright, im a dumbass....

I need to defrost a tray (30 thighs) of chicken in about 3 hours. How should I go about doing this. Ive started with turning the oven on warm and putting in for a few mins at a time.

Microwave is not an option

Any suggestions?

Wrap the thighs in plastic, making sure that they are water tight. Ziploc would be nice.

Submerge in cold tap water. Change the water every thirty minutes.

EDIT: the oven idea might be a bad one, you don't want warm uncooked chicken sitting around...

the water method should take about an hour, if you have containers to hold all of the thighs in water at once.

I defrost my chicken in Ziploc bags in the bathroom sink all the time. It works like a charm, not counting those rare times when water leaked in.

Lordjeebus has the right idea...and if you are worried that the middle won't be defrosted, defrost for a couple minutes in the microwave.

Yep, throw 'em in the sink.
If you've got a big mass of frozen chicken, throw 'em in the sink and start separating them as soon as the ice thaws enough, don't be afraid of using a little warm water either, especially if they're going right in the oven.
Judging from the time you posted this, I hope it's in the oven by now though.

.... Out of curiosity, why did you need so much chicken thawed so quickly?

..or just defrost it the night before in your refrigerator. Since this is not the case, submerge it in cold tap water and let it sit there for some time. That should do the trick. If you need to break apart the pieces while frozen follow these steps carefully.

1. Place in a plastic bag and seal.
2. Step outside
3. Slam again't concrete.

Hey man, this works!


woOt?

The idea is to remove the cold from the chicken. The best conductor of heat is metal. Believe it or not, the best way to defrost meat is to put it on a metal tray. Copper best, then iron, aluminum last.

Don't believe me? Google it.

Step one: Find a flamethrower.
Step two: Light the flamethrower.
Step three: Use the flamethrower.

I have a metal plate that I warm up under hot water and it will defrost a boneless chicken breast in 15 min.

the metal theory makes sense; I'll be sure to try that next time. But usually, if I'm going to make meat for dinner that's frozen, I leave it out to defrost when I leave in the morning and it's ready when I get home.

(In its original packaging, of course!)

I would also recommend changing the water occasionally to allow the heat to diffuse into a different temp water again.

personnally I just use steaming hot water and a plastic bag; a pot of water will fully thaw a couple of chicken breasts in about 10 minutes since water has such a high specific heat. Metal will thaw things quickly because it transmits heat to the environment, but the metal itself is limited by the fact that the specific heats of metals are an order of magnitude lower than water.

Using hot water would work, but who wants a shitty poached chicken breast? Double shitty considering you are poaching it in tap water. Now if your tap produced a nice fumet, I would wholly suggest thawing all sorts of shit in there, but alas, it does not.

I second, third and fourth the cold water method. That Alton Brown guy even proved it with a rubber duck made of ice. Cold RUNNING water thaws fastest.

I am a bit fascinated by a rubber duck made of ice

you can get chicken wet and it will be fine. Put any meat you need to defrost quick in a container in the sink, and leave cool water running over it. Let the container overflow... the meat will stay in there. Doesn't take long at all.


For those of you that defrost meat by leaving it on the counter, please don't. If a restaurant leaves any meat at room temperature for more than 4 hours, it must be thrown out or it will pose a health hazard for the customers.

Either do it overnight in the fridge, or thaw quickly under running water.

At least that's how all the restaurants I've worked in have done it...