Troubleshooting Frozen Chicken in DCB: Tips for Perfect Results

[wadesgirl]

A guest emailed me and said she tried to do frozen chicken breasts in the DCB and they didn't come out right. I normally do them fresh so I told her I would check here.

This is what she said:

the chicken had some dry spots. After 30 minutes the chicken was still not done, so I did it another 10.

My thought is she needs to defrost them in the DCB first before putting the microwave on full power?

 

[winklermom]

I cook the frozen chicken breast tenderloins in the microwave all the time with no problem. It could be that she's using the whole breast and it's just too thick to do that way. Defrosting in the DCB in the microwave sounds like good advice to me, though.

 

[minirottie]

When I've done chicken breasts, I don't recall doing them for that long. I can double check with my friend Kelly on how long she has cooked them for. Did she start them at 30 minutes without checking or turning over?

 

[minirottie]

In thinking this through more, a whole chicken (thawed) cooks for 30+ minutes...even frozen, it was too long in the microwave for those. I'd have done them for 15 minutes, checked, even turned them over and done another 8 after that to test (and potentially at a lower temp than full power)

 

[Sheila]

I put mine in a ziplock bag & soak the bag in hot water for about 10 min's first to thaw. Just because I can't stand the thought of NOT trimming the meat first.

 

[kristina16marie]

I have some recipes I've developed for frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts. It calls for microwaving them for 15 minutes, then chopping them up with the salad choppers and putting back in for 10 minutes. The middle of the chicken breasts are still raw when you chop them with the salad choppers but it helps keep the edges from getting hard which happens when you leave them whole for the entire time.

 

[BethCooks4U]

I thaw my chicken and other meat on a piece of Executve cookware (takes an amazingly short amount of time). But if I'm caught with not even that time i will either do as Kristina does or I will partially defrost on lower power in the microwave, then cook as usual. If ends start to cook, just trim them.

Tip: trim the chicken (or other meats) before freezing them. I repackage almost all meats before freezing as there are just two of us so most packages are enough for more than one meal. It just takes minutes to do it and saves time later.

 

[pchef2008]

Does anyone have problems with thermal shock? I always thought you shouldn't put frozen food on stones and start to cook or defrost them. Does the fact that you're using a microwave make a difference?

 

[nikked]

Does anyone have problems with thermal shock? I always thought you shouldn't put frozen food on stones and start to cook or defrost them. Does the fact that you're using a microwave make a difference?

Yes, it's the microwave that allows you do it. You would have problems doing this in the microwave...

 

[kristina16marie]

Does anyone have problems with thermal shock? I always thought you shouldn't put frozen food on stones and start to cook or defrost them. Does the fact that you're using a microwave make a difference?

Thermal shock happens when you put frozen things on a HOT stone. You can put frozen food on a room temperature stone & cook them in a pre-heated oven without worrying. But don't pre-heat the stone along with the oven.