Struggling with defrosting food

MalMonroe

I sometimes use the defrost setting on my microwave.  

But I'm not much help with meat as I'm vegetarian and the things in my freezer can be cooked from frozen.  

JIL

It's really only a whole chicken and big joints that needs a thorough defrost. Theres absolutely nothing wrong with a still firm chicken breast being cooked. It actually makes it easier to cut up, ready to be cooked. Ive cooked lots of meat from frozen, with the exception of whole chicken and joints of meat.
 Most websites will tell you it's safe as long as its cooked properly which will take longer.  
Theres a pdf from the food standards agency that advises how to defrost. 

getmore4less

Another freezing trick we use is to prepare before freezing if the product is going into a meal cut up.

most of ours gets marinated overnight before freezing.
when possible also freeze prepared in flatpacks rather than block 

Take stir fry strips we do  beef & chicken, slice up stick in a bag with marinade shake and chill overnight, than squeeze the pack as flat as possible and freeze.
Take out and it defrosts quite quick, can zap to kick start  or just straight in the wok.

Same with cubes try to freeze in a single layer

For whole chicken we spatchcock taking out the back bone, defrosts and cooks quicker also take up less room in the freezer and oven(get an extra tray in). 

one problem with micro defrost is you can get hotspots so food start to cook often we will just zap to kick start the process and leave out for the rest of the time. 

Bigbrown

I have a metal defrost tray bought from eBay for less than £10.  Speeds up defrosting.  Personally i would pay extra for rubber feet, mine has metal feet and inclined to scratch.  If I am in a hurry, I can stand it on top of double radiator to speed up defrosting.

coffeehound

I sometimes rapid defrost things like convenience meals in a sink of warm/hot water in preference to using the microwave due to that patchiness -- but only just before cooking.

richardw

Double check how cold your fridge is and re-set if too cold. Take meat out 2 days before cooking to be sure. Defrosting meat hanging around on the counter or in the sink is just untidy.

Marmaduke123

Bigbrown said:

I have a metal defrost tray bought from eBay for less than £10.  Speeds up defrosting. 

Putting the item on a stainless steel draining board works in the same way for smaller things. 

Wraithlady

richardw said:

Double check how cold your fridge is and re-set if too cold. Take meat out 2 days before cooking to be sure. Defrosting meat hanging around on the counter or in the sink is just untidy.

Surely you would put it in a bowl or container to catch any juices? I don't think anyone wants defrosted meat liquid oozing across their counters. 
 I would argue against your fridge advice - I always defrost things overnight on the counter (I'm asleep, so the 'untidiness' doesn't affect me), then put it in the fridge when it's (pretty much) defrosted, I've never had a good outcome sticking something large in the fridge to defrost because I find it doesn't  as a couple of Christmas dinners can attest (my fridge is set to 3 degrees C) and not everybody is organised enough to take things out 2 days before (not to mention a large joint taking up most of the space in a small fridge for 2 days!) - but, whatever works for you.

richardw

Some good advice here https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/chilling