Frozen Chicken Breasts?

silhouettes

I usually buy fresh Harvestland chicken breasts to cook with, but this coming week I picked a bunch of chicken recipes... To buy fresh it would cost like $35 or more and to buy frozen would just be $10. We are very tight on our budget right now and I would love to save that money to be able to buy some fresh veggi's and fruit this week... but I have never bought frozen chicken before (that I can remember).

My question is, is frozen chicken ok to cook with? Can you marinate it to? How do you dethaw it to marinate it?

What's the heatlh difference? The taste difference?

Any help and I would appreciate it!

iWaffle

I was using frozen in the past. To thaw it out I just put the frozen pieces in a bowl of water in the fridge the night before. That works pretty well. After that you can marinate it or treat it just like you would fresh chicken. Grill it bake it or do whatever you normally do with chicken.

Personally I think the fresh non-frozen chicken tends to be more juicy and I like that I can just pull it out of the fridge and use it when I get the time. There were a few days I forgot to thaw out my chicken and I had to rethink what i was going to make that night. On the nutrition value I don't know if it's a huge difference.

How much chicken do you buy at a time that it costs $35?

Sean_The_IT_Guy

1. you hit a button with "dethaw". Something that is dethawed would be frozen. You mean defrosted.

Best practices say to thaw all chicken before cooking, but if the breasts are thin, or if you are cooking them low and slow (like a slow cooker), then it doesn't matter so much.

You can put them in a watertight drip-free container overnight in the fridge to thaw, or defrost in the microwave, or put in a container of cold water in the sink for an hour or so. Same way you'd defrost any meat.

There's no health difference, chicken is chicken.

Some frozen chicken breasts are "seasoned", meaning they have salt water injected into them to up the weight. Some people find this makes them have a mushy texture depending on how they're cooked. A 2KG box of boneless skinless breast here is about $15, so I think it's worth it to try, if you're budget minded.

myfitnessnmhoy

We keep a stock of frozen skinless chicken breasts in the freezer at all times, and you can do anything with them you can do with fresh - the freezing does change the consistency a tad but not noticeably so.

I thaw them in a bowl of water, which both thaws them more quickly and rinses off some of the sodium they add (the only real downside to them).

If you forget to thaw them ahead of time, if you are going to cube them up to cook them I just run hot tap water over mine to rapidly thaw them - the middle remains slightly frozen but it's soft enough to cut up, then I just cube them small and cook them over low heat to complete the thawing and make sure the cubes are cooked through.

spike90

I buy them all the time and put them in recipes, bake them or throw them on the grill (marinated as well). I love them and they are great if you just want to thaw out one or two breasts instead of opening a whole package of fresh breasts from the butcher shop. They proably are not quite as juicy as fresh but they are still good and cooked properly are still pretty juicy.
I have a "miracle thaw" that I thaw mine out on. It works like a dream. A bowl of water will aslo work well.

silhouettes

I was using frozen in the past. To thaw it out I just put the frozen pieces in a bowl of water in the fridge the night before. That works pretty well. After that you can marinate it or treat it just like you would fresh chicken. Grill it bake it or do whatever you normally do with chicken.

Personally I think the fresh non-frozen chicken tends to be more juicy and I like that I can just pull it out of the fridge and use it when I get the time. There were a few days I forgot to thaw out my chicken and I had to rethink what i was going to make that night. On the nutrition value I don't know if it's a huge difference.

How much chicken do you buy at a time that it costs $35?

The kind I usually get is about 3 breasts for around $8-10 according to the weight or you can buy 6, but I forget the price. I was needing around 10 for the whole week. You can buy a bag of frozen with 10 in it for around $10.. there are different brands I seen.

And sorry for my "misspeaking", My mom always called it dethaw. You learn what your taught *shrug* no one every corrected me. Guess now I know.

And I screw up the language all the time (and sentence structure).. You'd hate me haha.

But anyways, thanks for your help guys.

Melampus

Some of the producers of frozen chicken like to add water to them. They claim it is to make them freeze better though I suspect they like the fact that it increases the weight and makes them look better value than they are. In order to get the water to stick they may also add some salt - check for this on the label.

That said my instinct is that it would be better to substitute frozen chicken for fresh rather than miss out on fruit and vegetable unless you are already eating plenty of those.

If you want to marinade them then you'd need to defrost them first though perhaps you could do the two in one go, i.e. put them in the marinade while still frozen and leave them there long enough to defrost and then absorb the marinade. You can cook them from frozen, for example in a slow cooker. Also if you stir fry them then you can microwave them just long enough to cut (30 secs to 1 min full power) and then cut them into small strips so each strips is thin.

BamaGirl_Tricia

Unless you go to a butcher and get fresh chicken or dress it yourself, all meat in grocery stores come to the store frozen and the thaw it out and put it in the meat case. I used to work at a grocery store.

Sean_The_IT_Guy

I dont think that's the case everywhere. All the meats in the supermarkets here boldly claim "fresh never frozen" on them.

finaglingsock

I buy frozen breasts or breast tenderloins all the time, because I'm a college student and they're cheap. They're slightly less high quality, but in a good recipe there's very little difference. To thaw, I do what's been suggested and put them in a bowl with water overnight, or I use my microwave's defrost option. Good luck.

phatycake

I buy the organic harvestland chicken breast and freeze, taking them out the night before I need them. I cook them on my George Foreman grill and add to salads, sandwiches and pastas. HTH!

SPBROOKS68

I always buy frozen chicken breasts and never thaw it before using. I just throw it on the grill, in a pan in the oven or in the crockpot and it all comes out wonderful

AshleyRKnutson

I ALWAYS buy frozen chicken and have never had a problem with it. We simply thaw it out and then marinate it as we want. Or boil it and then put it in w/e we want, or cook it on the skillet...
Like I said, I've never had an issue with frozen chicken.

TerryJStroud

We buy frozen. We pay about... $22-24 for a good 15-20 chicken breasts or so at a place here called "No Frills". Honestly, we just thaw out the chicken and find that it's always really juicy. I haven't noticed a difference between that and fresh. I say just avoid buying anything that's pre-seasoned or anything. Get a straight up white chicken breast, thaw it, etc...

Of course, it can get dry if you're not using enough moisture to bake it, slow cook it, etc... but that's the nature of white meat!

sammniamii

I've also worked in a Meat/Seafood dept for 8 years... even if it's fresh, there is a chance that the truck they delivered it in is kept so cold that it "froze". (Plus, some items do come frozen and are defrosted in the store before packaging) This isn't the same freezing as true frozen - true frozen is deep chilled well below freezing to do it as fast as possible. As water freezes, ice crystals form which tears the cells, causing damage.

I buy frozen chicken (Great Value - Walmart brand) all the time. The worse thing I notice is that sometimes the meat is more.... soft before cooking [ie; the ice crystals did more damage] but after, you couldn't tell the difference one bit. Tasted the same as fresh.

WildFlower7

I buy frozen and get waaaaay more bang for my buck. Easy to prepare, most of the time I boil mine with a few spices and then I also put the broth into jars and use my own homemade chicken broth for things (waaaaaay lower sodium) You can also de-frost in the microwave, (takes me about 20min to do it that way) you can defrost in cold water (not warm, alot of people make that mistake, that's when bacteria grows) or take it out of the freezer a day or two prior and I put the chicken into a tupperware with a sealed lid in the fridge. Hope that helps.

P.s. Yes you can marinate it, but I've only ever done it after it's been defrosted. Good luck.

bear73000

If I have forgotten to thaw or defrost (what ever the proper anal way of stating that is), I will boil them in water for 30 to 40 minutes. I like to add my seasoning after they are cooked. They seem to be pretty juicy and tasty. I will also buy the pre-seasoned frozen chicken as well.

I also buy frozen fruits. Add a little water, ice cubes and non fat plain yogurt. I will add a little Splenda to give it a little sweetness and you have a really good treat after dinner.

Sean_The_IT_Guy

If I have forgotten to thaw or defrost (what ever the proper anal way of stating that is), I will boil them in water for 30 to 40 minutes. I like to add my seasoning after they are cooked. They seem to be pretty juicy and tasty. I will also buy the pre-seasoned frozen chicken as well.

I also buy frozen fruits. Add a little water, ice cubes and non fat plain yogurt. I will add a little Splenda to give it a little sweetness and you have a really good treat after dinner.

I didn't mean to imply I was a grammar stickler or "anal". "dethaw" and "unthaw" are things I heard growing up, and they just don't make any sense in the context... its like saying "unboil" when you mean boil or "defry" when you mean fry.

dls06

Not getting what you're paying for, Frozen chicken has added salt and lots of water. I would stick to fresh.

PinkEarthMama

I will buy high quality frozen chicken but I won't buy a big box of frozen breasts. We did once and they were awful.

mrmanmeat

I usually buy fresh Harvestland chicken breasts to cook with, but this coming week I picked a bunch of chicken recipes... To buy fresh it would cost like $35 or more and to buy frozen would just be $10. We are very tight on our budget right now and I would love to save that money to be able to buy some fresh veggi's and fruit this week... but I have never bought frozen chicken before (that I can remember).

My question is, is frozen chicken ok to cook with? Can you marinate it to? How do you dethaw it to marinate it?

What's the heatlh difference? The taste difference?

Any help and I would appreciate it!

Always tastes better unfrozen. I freeze some if I buy when it's on sale, but I always thaw it out.

rydn4h2o

We use frozen chicken all the time to cook with. In fact, i have some marinating now for fajitas tomorrow...i've noticed no difference
Enjoy! :happy:

tross0924

I only use frozen cause of budget. I never defrost them. They go from the freezer to the george foreman grill and when the meat thermometer says the inside is 160 degrees they go in my belly.

They do usually have added salt or chicken broth to them, but honestly it's not that much. It's not like after cooking they're 1/2 the weight they were before. And they probably have less sodium this way than if I salted them on my own after they were cooked.

kat5556

That's all I buy is the frozen Harvest Land chicken breast. I get them at BJ's Club, the ones that are individually sealed, take out what I need the night before and they taste great!

My favorite recipe is to put the chicken in a casserole dish, cover them with A Taste of Thai Peanut Satay Sauce (60 calories per serving - 0 sodium - 0 Cholesterol - how great is that!!) and mix the rest of the jar with a bag of frozen Japanese style veggies. Put the veggies on top of the chicken cover and bake of 45 minutes. It's super delicious.

Kathy

gpstrucker

Nothing wrong with frozen chicken if you read labels and check the sodium content. Some of it is very high in sodium.

kat5556

Not getting what you're paying for, Frozen chicken has added salt and lots of water. I would stick to fresh.

Most brand do so watch the labels. But, if you can fine Harvestland, get them because they are great - nothing added including salt and the chickens are cage free. They're individually sealed no there's no freezer burn. And at BJ's Club they are only about 3.00 per pound.

hdsqrl

I'd been buying the bags of frozen boneless breasts from Walmart for years, but then noticed that more often than not, several pieces would be freezer burned. Might just be my local Walmart, though. The other week I was in a regular grocery store and there was a lady standing by the Smart Chicken in the meat case, handing out coupons. The cost for one package of Smart Chicken was the same as the cost for a whole bag of chicken at Walmart, but she explained to me that the difference between the two was that the Smart Chicken was never soaked in the vats of salt water, did not have that added disclaimer of "may contain up to 5% water", etc. I figured it was worth a try, so I picked up a package.

The difference in taste and quality floored me. The Smart Chicken had zero fat or weird bits of gristle hanging on. Each piece was solid meat, and the flavor was much better than the frozen bagged chicken I'd been buying for years.

I think I've reached a point in my head that it's worth the extra cost to buy the Smart Chicken, and just accept that we'll be eating less chicken and more of other things that the budget will allow in order to make sure the chicken we DO eat is really good.

carol5822

I buy 5 pound bags of frozen chicken breasts. what I do most often is open a bag or two of frozen brown rice. put it in the bottom of a large baking pan. I then put the frozen chicken breasts on top of the rice. I chop an onion and scatter all over the chicken and rice. you can put herbs or whatever you like best on the chicken. I also squeeze a lemon over all of it. I put a little dot of butter on each piece of chicken. I only mean a dot. this help the chicken to brown and adds flavor and richness to the dish. I add a half can of chicken broth to the pan.

This process takes 10 minutes at the most. put in a fairly hot oven, 380, for an hour, covered with aluminum foil. go about your business, take the aluminum foil off for the last ten minutes. this helps to brown the chicken and absorb the cooking liquid.

this is all very adjustable, you don't want to have too much liquid at the end of the process and if you do just let it simmer a while until the liquid evaporates. if it needs more time, that is fine too.

you can do anything to this basic chicken and rice recipe. you can add chopped celery, you can add salsa with a sprinkle of cheese on the top, you can add some green peas towards the end.

mrmanmeat

I was using frozen in the past. To thaw it out I just put the frozen pieces in a bowl of water in the fridge the night before. That works pretty well. After that you can marinate it or treat it just like you would fresh chicken. Grill it bake it or do whatever you normally do with chicken.

Personally I think the fresh non-frozen chicken tends to be more juicy and I like that I can just pull it out of the fridge and use it when I get the time. There were a few days I forgot to thaw out my chicken and I had to rethink what i was going to make that night. On the nutrition value I don't know if it's a huge difference.

How much chicken do you buy at a time that it costs $35?

I can easily hit $35 in chicken for less than a week. Even when it's on sale at $2.99-$3.99/lb. When you eat 2-3 breasts a meal, sometimes 2 meals a day, it adds up.

mrmanmeat

I'd been buying the bags of frozen boneless breasts from Walmart for years, but then noticed that more often than not, several pieces would be freezer burned. Might just be my local Walmart, though. The other week I was in a regular grocery store and there was a lady standing by the Smart Chicken in the meat case, handing out coupons. The cost for one package of Smart Chicken was the same as the cost for a whole bag of chicken at Walmart, but she explained to me that the difference between the two was that the Smart Chicken was never soaked in the vats of salt water, did not have that added disclaimer of "may contain up to 5% water", etc. I figured it was worth a try, so I picked up a package.

The difference in taste and quality floored me. The Smart Chicken had zero fat or weird bits of gristle hanging on. Each piece was solid meat, and the flavor was much better than the frozen bagged chicken I'd been buying for years.

I think I've reached a point in my head that it's worth the extra cost to buy the Smart Chicken, and just accept that we'll be eating less chicken and more of other things that the budget will allow in order to make sure the chicken we DO eat is really good.

Stop buying at Walmart, problem solved

wftiger

Throw it in the crockpot frozen and it will cook up great. I never thaw mine out. I rarely buy frozen because of the sodium content in the IQF but I often buy it fresh and freeze it to use later.

Works great. I sometimes let it thaw and then marinate and bake but I'm generally too lazy and just use crockpot. Then throw in some spices at end or a jar of salsa and I am good to go.

** If you have a Sam's Club in your area check them out. Mine almost always has chicken breast for less than $2 a pound and not the IQF.