Cooking chicken from (semi) frozen - would you???

[PoppyPopcorn]

Having chicken curry for dinner. Took chicken out of hte freezer late morning but it hasn't defrosted fully - would say it's 50% there. So have chopped it into bite sized cubes. it's frying merrily in the pan before I will add the sauce.

Mentioned to DH what I was doing and he was a bit dubious. He defers to me on food things though as I do all the shopping, cooking and have a food hygiene certificate.... I wouldn't be roasting a whole chicken from frozen, or even a whole breast.

But cubes is fine. Isn't it?

I would and have done exactly the same.

Just make sure that it fully cooked through and piping hot and you should be fine!

Should be fine.

You can always cut through a larger cube to check cooked through

Exactly my reasoning - easy to see when it's cooked through.

I have too.

If your cooking them in a low heat until they are all soft and then increase the heat I would say fine. If you've just chucked them in the pan and they are sizzling away with frozen middles that could be iffy.

Fine, as long as properly cooked.

I've done it. Cubes should be fine.

I wouldn't eat it cooked from semi frozen, I'd have defrosted it in the microwave beforehand.

You have a hygiene certificate and know the regulations do should feel comfortable with how you prepare food. Go for it

The thing with chicken is that cooking doesn't kill all the bacteria, it brings it down to safe levels. So if you start cooking it whilst the middle is still frozen you run the risk of not bringing it to the correct temperature to kill enough of the bacteria to make it safe. Of course it all depends on how much bacteria there is there to start with as well.

But if it's cooked to 70C right through that will kill the bugs, irrespective of how cold the centre was to start with, right?

Yes, that's my take on it! Make sure it's piping hot all the way through

I do the old water bath to speed up defrosting

I would and have. I'm still alive enough to be typing this.

I wouldn't, I would've finished defrosted it in the microwave first, but I am on the paranoid side about cooking chicken

It's fine, I've done this loads of times. You're basically defrosting it in the pan, just make sure it's cooked through properly

I cook chicken breasts from frozen. As long as the meat is cooked all the way through to right temperature you can cook any meat from frozen. It's getting the core cooked right that's hard so cutting up is preferable.

It's an urban myth that you can't cook chicken from frozen. Look at all the Iceland products!

Ps defrosting in a microwave is basically low heat cooking. Low heat is not good with frozen chicken so I'd avoid that and cook at proper cooking temperature to be safe.

It's an urban myth that you can't cook chicken from frozen. Look at all the Iceland products! That's pre-cooked chicken though, isn't it? So you're just heating it from frozen...

Don't Tesco and Asda do bags of frozen chicken breast that are cook straight from frozen?? Not pre-cooked ones, they're just like fresh?

I think cook from frozen products raw meats go through a flash freezing process that isn't the same as what you do at home and has more affect on bacteria.

I once had salmonella and I believe I gave it to myself doing this. I wouldn't.

FFS, there are no magic bacteria that know if the chicken has been cooked from frozen. The reason your not supposed to cook from frozen is that it takes longer to cook things through and so you are more likely to not do so. For something that is cooked for a relatively long time (much longer than you would need to just to cook the meat) like e.g. a curry, there is no difference.

I've done this for 25+ years - I am still alive.

This doesn't mention cooking from frozen being safe. It's all very confusing but maybe over cautious?

www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/defrosting.pdf