The Safety Tips You Need To Know Before Boiling Frozen Chicken

It's time for dinner and you realize you haven't thawed the chicken. Sure, in an ideal world, you'd remember to take it out of the freezer. But, well, sometimes life gets in the way. One option — with a simple trick, you can keep frozen chicken breasts from drying out when you make them in the oven. Another possibility is that you can thaw chicken safely in cold water, and then cook it in any recipe. But can you take frozen chicken right out of the freezer and boil it on the stovetop? Yes, and it's perfectly safe to do, but there are some steps and precautions you should take.

First of all, dark meat is the best option when boiling frozen chicken. Legs and thighs need to reach a higher temperature than white meat for optimum taste, so they're easier to cook from frozen. They can handle the heat of a fully-submerged boil. Frozen chicken breasts, or even a whole frozen chicken, can be boiled on the stovetop, but the more delicate proteins in the breast meat will expel more moisture, leaving the white meat tougher the hotter it gets. So, yeah, you can boil frozen chicken, but for optimal texture and flavor, dark meat is best.

Completely submerge your frozen chicken in a pot and turn the flame on high. Once brought to a boil, you can reduce to a simmer. When working with the preferred dark meat — legs and thighs — you'll want to get the internal temperature to around 185 degrees Fahrenheit to be sure it's at maximum flavor. (And from a safety perspective, make sure it reaches at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.) It should take about 90 minutes, and you'll need to skim some of the frothy foam off of the top of the water. Boiling frozen legs and thighs will actually produce a richer broth. It works great for chicken soup because you can boil it with celery, onions, carrots, or any veg. Once cooked, simply shred the chicken and you have a full soup. (Or use in any recipe, but shredded is probably the way to go.) Other spices and aromatics will add more flavor, like garlic, rosemary, thyme, black peppercorns, even ginger.

While you can boil a whole frozen chicken or breast meat, it may be tougher to regulate the temperature, and you're likely to end up with tougher meat. Boiling frozen white meat denatures the protein too quickly and will be more difficult to arrive at 165 degrees Fahrenheit, which is where you want to be for tender white meat. For frozen chicken breasts, an instant pot is the best method because it can easily hold a steady temperature. That said, it's perfectly safe to boil frozen chicken breasts on the stovetop, you just need to be sure they're at 165 degrees Fahrenheit or above. And, depending on how you're using the meat, shredded in tacos, soup, or a chicken salad, the results can still be more than acceptable.