How to defrost food quickly and safely?

picklednut

What do you do when for those times when you've forgotten to take something out of the freezer but need to use it? eg. I was going to do chicken breasts tonight for tea but realise I haven't taken them out of the freezer so they won't have time to defrost properly today.

Can you put chicken breasts in microwave to defrost and then use as normal or can you even cook chicken breasts from frozen if you put them in the oven on a low heat and then bring the temperature up when they seem to have defrosted?

What about mince? Can you cook that from frozen?

Don't want to give anyone food poisoning but I'm always really annoyed when I do meal planning and then forget to get the stuff out of the freezer in time!!

Thanks in advance

gibson123

If you take them out now and defrost at room temperature they should take about 4 hours or so. Just make sure you separate them, put them far apart on a tray and cover with a cloth, once they start to defrost run under a cold tap. make sure that you cook them thoroughly when you go to cook them. Also if they defrost quickly remember to put them back in the fridge once defrosted. I wouldn't cook from frozen, but you can defrost in the microwave, I would do a quick blast on the defrost setting run under the cold tap and then leave to defrost the normal way. I have just taken my mince out of the freezer to cook for tea tonight.

cutestkids

They should defrost fine if taken out now for dinner tonight.
Just seperate them as soon as you can The only things I tend to take out the day before are large things like a whole chicken or a roast anything else gets taken out on the morning I am going to use it.

kittycat204

when i want to de-frost things quickly i put in warm water, or in a freezer bag in warm water. then agitate them and turn them round as they need it.

picklednut

Thanks all for the replies. I've always thought chicken breasts take a lot longer to defrost but i suppose that's because I've always just defrosted them in the original packet they came in and don't separate them so they took ages.

What about mince? How long does that usually take to defrost? Any ideas to speed up the process? Again, I usually just defrost the mince in the packaging it came it.

DundeeDoll

PN i freeze chicken breasts in individual (cheap) sandwich bags. I take one out the freezer, pop into a bowl of hot water and find it's defrosted enough for chopping up by the time i've chopped up my onion. I find defrosting inthe microwave always cooks the edges by the time the centre's defrosted

Kevie192

I hate defrosting in the microwave, with chicken it makes the edges hard and it cooks the top of mince and makes it stick together! Yuk!

I generally buy big packs of meat and vacuum pack it to freeze so I just pop them in some warm water and it takes no time at all. Sometimes if the meat is in an original pack, I will vacuum pack it when I want it to defrost quickly.

A vacuum sealer may be a big investment for just defrosting but I find it helps me keep meals fresh and organised in the freezer.

Kevin

Sue14

I can't advise on chicken, as if I don't remember to take it out I make something else, but I always cook mince from frozen.

Callie22

The safest way to defrost quickly anything is under cold running water - that's what I was taught during my food hygiene training. It's very unsafe to put food in warm or hot water, that's creating the perfect environment for bacteria to breed.

Waffle_On

Defrosting in hot or warm water is very bad! Cold water is fine.

You can use the microwave but usually parts will start to cook before it's fully defrosted. So only put it in the microwave immediately before you need it, then take it out and continue cooking by your usual method straight away.

Food being left in warm, damp conditions = food poisoning.

Nicki

I've forgotten how to use the defrost setting on my microwave and can't find the manual either in hard copy or online. Not all that fussed as defrosting in the microwave never worked very wel for me.

If I forget to take things out in time, I wrap them up well and leave them in a large bowl of cold water. I have a bigger family, so everything is in portions of 5, and always defrosts thoroughly enough to cook in a couple of hours.