Quick Answer: How To Defrost Chicken In The Microwave?
Chicken can be microwaved in a microwave-safe container using the defrost button, and turning regularly.
Life is busy. You work full-time, your children are scheduled in activities every night of the week, and you still have to put dinner on the table – preferably something healthy and nutritious to fuel the family.
With so many demands on your time, you need something that is quick and easy to prepare for meals.
Chicken has become a go-to, and with good reason. It is a healthy source of protein, is quick to prepare, is relatively easy on the budget, and kids and adults alike enjoy it.
While chicken is fairly quick to prepare and cook, sometimes we haven’t had a chance, or just forgot to take it out of the freezer the night before and set it in the fridge to thaw.
Don’t despair! You can still have chicken for dinner, and it can still be put in the oven, thawed. The microwave is your friend!
Thawing chicken in the microwave is safe, fast, and effective. It requires essentially nothing else but a microwave, and a microwave-safe dish.
This article will tell you in simple steps how to defrost chicken in the microwave. It will also give you alternatives to thawing chicken in a microwave if you do not have one.
Included are pro tips and FAQs to answer all of your chicken-thawing questions.
How To Defrost Chicken In The Microwave?
It’s important not to have the chicken pieces piled on top of each other. This will cause uneven defrosting, and some pieces might still be icy while others may be starting to cook.
The challenge is that when you take the chicken out of the freezer it may, in fact, be a big block of frozen bird, so how the heck do you achieve an even defrost?
The trick is to check the chicken in the microwave frequently, so that as the chicken begins to thaw and soften, you separate the pieces and set them out on the microwave-safe dish apart from each other.
You can do this with a sturdy knife or pull the pieces apart with tongs or your hands.
You may find that you have too much for the dish to make one layer. If this is the case, then set aside the leftover and defrost it in as many batches as is necessary for single layers.
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How To Defrost Chicken In The Microwave Without A Defrost Button Option?
Not all microwaves are made the same. While some microwaves come with a defrost button, others do not have this option. So how does this defrost button work anyway, and what do you do if your microwave doesn’t have one?
The defrost button automatically reduces the heat produced by the microwave by about 30%. What this does is ensure that whatever you are defrosting is just getting thawed, not cooked.
Some models also ask for the weight of the food or even the food itself to more precisely gauge the defrosting time.
While these options have obvious benefits, it is still totally doable to defrost something in a microwave without the defrost button or the option to input the weight and kind of food.
If your microwave does not have a defrost button, it likely has a power level option. Simply set the power level to 30% and you will achieve a similar effect.
Without a defrost button option, you want to be doubly certain that the chicken has defrosted fully.
You can check this by making a small cut through the thickest part of a piece of chicken, and touching it with your finger to see if there are ice crystals. If there are, then the chicken goes back into the microwave for 2 more minutes.
Heating chicken to the point where it defrosts takes it into the danger zone for growing bacteria. This means that it is important to cook the chicken as soon as it has been thawed.
If you are defrosting your chicken in batches, then put the chicken that has already been thawed into the fridge until all of the pieces are ready for cooking.
Pro Tip
How To Defrost Chicken If You Do Not Have A Microwave?
Not every kitchen has a microwave. If you are faced with the challenge of defrosting chicken and you do not have a microwave, there are a couple options.
- Defrost In Fridge
A super easy way to defrost chicken is to simply take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge for 12 hours or overnight. Voila! Your chicken is defrosted and is ready to be cooked.
Be sure to put the chicken on a plate when you put it in the fridge. As it thaws, water will drip off the chicken package and onto your fridge shelf making a nice mess for you to clean up later.
The key to using this method of thawing is, of course, planning. You must have enough lead time to allow the chicken to thaw completely.
- Defrost In Cold Water
A second way to defrost chicken without using a microwave is to use cold water. In this method, you take the chicken, leaving it in the packaging, from the freezer, put it in a pan, and set it in the sink.
You then turn on the cold water tap and run cold water over the chicken until it is covered in cold water.
Allow the chicken to sit in the cold water for 30 minutes, then empty the water and refill the pan, covering the chicken with fresh cold water. Repeat this process, changing the water every 30 minutes, until the chicken has defrosted.
The more chicken you have, and the thicker the pieces, the longer it will take to thaw it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When Defrosting Chicken In The Microwave, Do You Leave The Packaging On Or Remove It?
When you buy chicken it comes in the ‘store’ packaging. In all likelihood you left the chicken in the packaging when you put it in the freezer. That’s all good, but when you want to defrost the chicken in the microwave, remove the packaging.
Is It An Option To Just Set The Chicken Out On A Plate On The Kitchen Counter To Thaw?
Chicken develops bacteria quickly at room temperature, so it is never a good idea to let it thaw on the counter. Choose one of the above options for defrosting either in a microwave or without a microwave.
Be very careful with any option, that you are not leaving the thawed chicken to sit out on the counter. The last thing you want to do is go to all of the effort to defrost the chicken, and cook it up only to make everyone ill.
How Do You Determine How Long To Defrost Chicken?
Like any food, the more there is, the thicker it is, the longer it will take to thaw. There are different cuts of chicken and some of those will take longer than others.
Wings, drumsticks, and thighs are all smaller cuts and will typically take less time to thaw than legs and breasts which are meatier and larger in size than wings, drumsticks and thighs.
The other aspect to consider is how much you are defrosting.
Even though there is more meat on a breast than on a wing, if you are defrosting one chicken breast compared to a large pile of chicken wings, then the breast will take less time than the wings will to defrost.
Due to these differences, there is no one, easy answer to the question of how long it takes to defrost chicken.
This also underlines the importance of staying close to the microwave, and checking every 2-3 minutes to see if the defrosting is complete.
Is There A Really Fast Way To Defrost Chicken?
When time is of the essence, and you simply do not have half an hour to defrost chicken in the microwave, there is a faster method. Rather than using cold water to thaw the chicken, you use very hot water.
You begin by removing the frozen chicken from its packaging and placing it in a zippered freezer bag.
Now you fill a pot to ⅔ full that will be large enough for the chicken to fit into. Allow the water in the pot to get very hot. You are aiming for 140 F. You will have some bubbles in the pot but do not let it come to a boil.
Once the temperature of the water has reached 140 F, submerge the freezer bag with the chicken into the water. Let it sit in the water for no more than 45 minutes.
Can Chicken Be Cooked From Frozen?
While it is best to cook chicken that has been defrosted, cooking chicken from frozen is safe and doable. The big difference in cooking chicken from frozen rather than thawed is the increased cooking time. It could take up to 50% longer.
The other issue is even cooking. When chicken is cooked from frozen there is the challenge of some parts of the chicken being done while other parts are still cold.
How Should Defrosted Chicken Be Stored?
Once chicken is defrosted, it can be stored in the fridge if put in a freezer bag with a zippered closure and the air pushed out, or in an airtight container.
The sooner it is cooked, the better. Defrosted chicken should not sit in the fridge for longer than a day.
Defrosted chicken can also be refrozen for up to a couple of months, again in a freezer bag or airtight container.
It is really best if the chicken is cooked once it is defrosted initially as storing defrosted chicken takes away from its flavor and the texture will not be as good.
How To Defrost Chicken In The Microwave?
Frozen chicken is placed in a microwave-safe dish, and placed in the microwave on “defrost” according to weight. The meat is checked regularly and is turned, and rearranged in the dish if necessary. It is left for the amount of time necessary to thaw the chicken completely and then is removed from the microwave for cooking.
Materials
- Frozen chicken
Tools
- Microwave
- Microwave-safe dish
- Tongs
- Hot pad or oven mitts
- Knife
Instructions
- Remove the frozen chicken from the freezer.
- Place the chicken in a microwave-safe dish.
- Set the microwave to “defrost” and punch in the weight of the chicken which will automatically determine the time required.
- Check the chicken after 4 minutes and separate the pieces, placing them in a single layer in the dish, and turn the pieces using tongs.
- If there are leftover pieces, put them aside, and defrost the chicken in batches.
- Continue to check every 2 minutes, turning each time, until the chicken is soft through.
- Remove from the microwave with a hot pad or oven mitts.
- If there are additional pieces of chicken to thaw, repeat the defrosting process until all of the chicken has been defrosted.
How To Defrost Chicken In The Microwave Without A Defrost Button Option?
Frozen chicken is placed in a microwave-safe dish. Adjust the power level to 30% and check the meat regularly, turning each time. It is left for the amount of time necessary to thaw the chicken completely and then is removed from the microwave for cooking.
Materials
- Frozen chicken
Tools
- Microwave
- Microwave-safe dish
- Tongs
- Hot pad or oven mitts
- Knife
Instructions
- Remove the frozen chicken from the freezer.
- Place the chicken in a microwave-safe dish.
- Set the power level of the microwave to 30% and set the time to about 25 minutes.
- Check the chicken after 4 minutes and separate the pieces, placing them in a single layer in the dish, and turning the pieces using tongs.
- If there are leftover pieces, put them aside, and defrost the chicken in batches.
- Continue to check every 2 minutes until the chicken is soft through.
- Remove from the microwave with a hot pad or oven mitts.
- If there are additional pieces of chicken to thaw, repeat the defrosting process until all of the chicken has been defrosted.
Through this blog I hope to help others learn the basics and more intricate details of cooking. I know from personal experience how frustrating it can be to cook a meal, only to realize you are missing one ingredient from your list. This is why I love to write articles chatting readers through some great substitutes that can be used in an emergency.
I hope you will find this blog useful, and that it will help you to develop your culinary skills, to help you cook up a storm!
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