Defrosting question: help, will I poison us all!

[tigerdriverII]

I'm cooking a chicken curry tonight and had some chicken breasts in the freezer. Got them out this morning, they're getting defrosted but still have a way to go.

I've separated them out, taken out of pack and put in a bowl. When I cook the curry, the chicken will be cut up into smallish chunks. It'll cook for a while, everything will cook through. I think that it should be ok to do this, even if the chicken is still frosty when I start cooking, as it will cook all through.

Any thoughts? I won't have time to do it tomorrow and really fancy curry tonight!

[ilovepowerhoop]

do you have a microwave? You could give them short blasts using the defrost function to get them properly defrosted.

[anchovies]

I take it you don't have a microwave? You can chop it into chunks while still frozen, put it in a bag then put it in cold water (change the water every half hour or so) and it should defrost in an hour or two :)

[tigerdriverII]

Thanks, both.

I do have a microwave but it's very old (probably not ideal generally!) and its idea of defrosting is either doing nothing or cooking stuff: so I prefer not to use it for anything but nuking ready meals etc.

Good tip, anchovies - if it's still a bit stiff come tea time, I'll chop it up and I doubt it'll need long to thaw out. My kitchen must be colder than I thought!

[VitoCorleone]

I usually put mine in a dish and run cold water over them for a little while, defrosts them nicely.

[Startail]

If it's thawed enough to cut up it will be absolutely fine, just bring to the boil and simmer the curry gently for a good 30 minutes and check the thickest chunk is boiling hot in the middle. Don't chuck in cream, yoghurt etc. until your certain the chicken is hot, since they aren't keep on being boiled if you decide it needs a bit more cooking..

[Startail]

keen not keep.

Also you will have to watch it if it's jarred sauce, some stick like buggery if you not watch and stir.

[tigerdriverII]

No - all cooked from scratch so no problems with sticking.

Thanks all for your ideas!

[Startail]

Hope curry was nice.

I tend to be lazy and use jars of sauce because I know fusspot DD2 will eat certain ones.

[tigerdriverII]

Hi startail. It was yum, and there is another portion for two to go in the freezer. Needless to say, by the time I went to cook it, the chicken had defrosted anyway!