How long does it take to defrost chicken?

cristinaec
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4 Comments

Marcmarc October 4, 2015
Put it in a big cambro or bowl and put it in cold water in the sink, with a constant trickle of water. About an hour.
 
cristinaec October 4, 2015
How large is the chicken?
 
702551 October 4, 2015
Actually, *you* need to answer that. Chickens come in various sizes, from 2-lb. pullets to 6+ lb. old stewing birds.

Like I mentioned, I bought a 3-lb. bird at farmers market today which is rather small. Some of your supermarket birds might be 5-6 pounds, nearly double the weight of mine.

In the same way, there are turkeys anywhere between 12 to 20+ pounds and the larger birds take more time to defrost than the smaller one.

Up to you to pick a bird and adjust the defrosting time to adjust for the mass of the item. It's the same as defrosting a 1-lb. ball of ground beef or a 3-lb. ball.
 
702551 October 4, 2015
It depends on if you are defrosting parts, quantity of parts, a whole chicken, size of chicken, how you defrost it, etc.

I bought a 3-lb. frozen whole chicken at farmers market today; it will defrost quicker than a 4-lb. bird. For my bird, I'd expect at least 24 hours in the fridge, maybe longer.

Since I "dry brined" (season well with salt and pepper) poultry for 24 hours before I cook, it means I really need to put this thing out of the freezer probably 2.5 days before I plan to cook it.

Again, it hinges mostly on the size of the defrosting item and how you defrost. I prefer the "low and slow in the fridge" defrosting method, but some others here seem to be content using defrosting methods that accelerate the process.

It's really a combination of these factors that determine defrosting time. There's no one magic number.
 
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