Microwaving a Whole Chicken

pennypincher3562

Hi

My main oven is currently broken, and to be honest I don't miss it that much.

I am still get good results for smaller items of food by using my microwave in conjunction with a frying pan e.g. fish cakes, 3 mins in microwave, then fry for 2 mins.

Anyway, I'd like to try and microwave a whole chicken.

Has anyone done this? Does it come out ok, or like a giant lump of rubber?

Thanks.

PasturesNew

It's fine, just doesn't colour. It does take quite a while though.
If you're not that bothered about the shape, then you could consider cutting it into pieces before you start, so you've got the opportunity of positioning/turning individual bits as you see fit.

pennypincher3562

Great, I'll give it a go. You quite often see the whole chickens reduced to about £1.99, as I'd imagine a lot of people can't be bothered with the preparation aspect.

HappyMJ

pennypincher3562 wrote: »

Hi

My main oven is currently broken, and to be honest I don't miss it that much.

I am still get good results for smaller items of food by using my microwave in conjunction with a frying pan e.g. fish cakes, 3 mins in microwave, then fry for 2 mins.

Anyway, I'd like to try and microwave a whole chicken.

Has anyone done this? Does it come out ok, or like a giant lump of rubber?

Thanks.

If you can use a frying pan then cut the raw chicken into smaller pieces and cook them in the frying pan. You can also cook a whole chicken in a saucepan which would give a better result than the microwave. I'm not a fan of microwaves myself. We have one but I always use the wok, frying pan and saucepan and only use the microwave to defrost meat quickly.

pennypincher3562

HappyMJ wrote: »

If you can use a frying pan then cut the raw chicken into smaller pieces and cook them in the frying pan. You can also cook a whole chicken in a saucepan which would give a better result than the microwave. I'm not a fan of microwaves myself. We have one but I always use the wok, frying pan and saucepan and only use the microwave to defrost meat quickly.

Never knew you could use a saucepan, and will do some research into it.

Thanks.

olgadapolga

I know that this doesn't answer the question about microwaving a whole chicken but have you considered getting a halogen oven? We use ours a lot (I dislike using my oven) - it does everything we put in it perfectly (from cakes to chickens).

sarah1972

olgadapolga wrote: »

I know that this doesn't answer the question about microwaving a whole chicken but have you considered getting a halogen oven? We use ours a lot (I dislike using my oven) - it does everything we put in it perfectly (from cakes to chickens).

I second that, I have never tasted such a juicy chicken until I used my halogen.

redfox

we move threads if we think they’ll get more help elsewhere (please read the forum rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

pennypincher3562

I ended up steaming a medium sized chicken I got from Lidl for £2.39. You can get them for less if they are reduced in various supermarkets.

I followed the instructions below:

http://www.frugalnutrition.com/easy-whole-roasted-chicken-in-the-rice-cooker/

The only difference was, I steamed it for 1.5 hours (due to weight of chicken,) and grated the garlic rather than crushed it.

As far as I am concerned the results were excellent, and superior to the prepared chickens costing £5 plus.