How do you quickly defrost chicken?

[airmide_m]

My husband eats chicken once in a while, and we never remember to defrost it ahead of time. I've been defrosting it by putting it in a ziplock baggie and then in a bowl of hot water in the sink. This seems to work great, but it feels so wasteful to use the baggie, and I never seem to have good luck washing and reusing them.

We've tried the microwave but it dries it out too much and it neve quite comes out right.

So I'm wondering if there's a better method I haven't yet thought of.

[Millie Ivy]

Well, I would have said microwave. Do you use the proper defrost function? Maybe putting the chicken in a bowl with a touch of water, covering with a towel,and THEN defrost?
Sometimes microwaves just vary.

I really try to just get the chicken out in the am or the night b4. I know that doesn't help much..

[stormborn]

You can just put it in water and skip the baggie, the result is the same.

[wendy1221]

I just put it in the sink w/ water, then wash the sink.

[JoyfulMomma]

When needed I would throw the chicken in the oven frozen. Came out great!

HTH
JM

[wendy1221]

I have also cooked frozen chicken. It just takes longer.

[Ms. B. Sprout]

Originally Posted by stormborn

You can just put it in water and skip the baggie, the result is the same.

Add some salt and bay leaf to your defrosting water & you'll have a brine. Yum.

Though I don't know if a quick defrost will give the brining effect, & a longer brine defeats the purpose of a quick defrost.

Sooo... never mind the brining idea.

[airmide_m]

The chicken doesn't get nearly boiled in the hot water? I guess it would in the baggie if it were going to out of the baggie...

A brine sounds like an interesting idea!

I've tried the microwave, and yes on defrost but it always cooks either too quickly or unevenly. Plus a friend of ours is constantly on one fad diet or another and has decided that microwaves are evil...I looked it up and it made some sense so I've been trying to at least slightly cut down on the microwave usage (it's been *very* slightly so far lol)

[Lady Lilya]

Science shows that the fastest way to defrost something is running cold water (not running hot water, not still hot water, not still cold water, not hot air, not cold air).

I put the chicken in a bowl in the sink and fill it with cold water, then i leave the cold water running in a tiny stream in the bowl. It doesn't take much movement to do the job. Just make sure if you leave the room that the drain of the sink is not blocked by the bowl.

[kallyn]

Originally Posted by Lady Lilya

Science shows that the fastest way to defrost something is running cold water (not running hot water, not still hot water, not still cold water, not hot air, not cold air).

I put the chicken in a bowl in the sink and fill it with cold water, then i leave the cold water running in a tiny stream in the bowl. It doesn't take much movement to do the job. Just make sure if you leave the room that the drain of the sink is not blocked by the bowl.

I was going to say exactly the same thing. Alton Brown did an experiment with this on his show Good Eats, and the one defrosted under cold running water was by far the fastest. I do this now whenever I need to defrost something quickly and it works great.

[Samjm]

I'll third the cold running water technique!

[airmide_m]

Wow that's really interesting! Now I'll feel guilty about wasting water instead of guilty for wasting a plastic baggie

[Lady Lilya]

It doesn't take a very strong flow of water to do the job.

I don't worry too much about water going down the drain because I figure all the water on the planet cycles around and it isn't vanishing off the face of the earth.

Perhaps there is a way to put it in a basin of cold water with something to make the water move? Some kind of agitator?