How to Defrost Chicken

How long to defrost chicken in microwave tips are here! Thawing chicken breasts, drumsticks and wings works quickly even without the defrost button. Just one of many microwave recipes on our site.

How to Defrost Chicken in Microwave Without Defrost Button

Ok so you thought you were out of luck because your machine didn’t have the handy dandy setting to defrost all the things. NOT. True. I am here to tell you to not worry or buy a new machine, you can do it the same way manually. It’s easier than you might think.

This is the one I use. It is new only because the model that came with our house died. It does in fact have auto settings inside to make things easier (I guess) but it’s just as fast to set it yourself. To do this you just need the power level button, they all have that.

FAQ

Now that you have that down and understood we can move on to cook times necessary to thaw each piece on your bird. (you can use these tips on defrosting ground beef in microwave too friends!)

How to Defrost 1 Pound of Chicken in Microwave

• If you have the defrost setting /poultry button you will use that with how much weight you’re defrosting total.
  • For manual set to 30% power
• Turn every 2 minutes to defrost in microwave
• Tuck thinner cooked portion under the bottom of the fillet
• Cook until center reaches 165F.

Tips

• Never leave frozen meat out at room temperature.
• You can leave in a bowl of cold water, replacing every 15 minutes to keep cool, for about an hour to properly defrost.
• Thawed in the refrigerator overnight in a sealed bag is probably the most common method to avoid bacteria growth.

Low and slow cooking is key to avoid bacterial growth, food safety is always important in ensuring pieces are safe to eat. Similar to our our Crockpot frozen chicken, that takes all day.

Once that is successful you can cook the chicken any which way you’d like. Believe it or not you can cook chicken from frozen too, we do this often with frozen chicken wings in air fryer. Best way to cook the whole bird rock hard is to follow our slow cooker frozen whole chicken instructions. Game changer.

Cook Times

Total time until it is fully defrosted will be between 16-20 min, so 8-10 rotations. The breast will take longer. It will take approximately 8-10 cycles of 2 minutes. Total cook time will depend on the weight of and whether it’s boneless.

Chicken Legs

1. You’re going to heat in 2 minute increments at a time, no longer.
2. After each 120 second timing, open and flip the legs that are still icy to the other side and continue to defrost for 2 minutes at a time.
3. After 7 cycles of 2 minutes (14 mins), the legs were completely defrosted, ours looked like they were fresh as you can see below.
4. You really want all the drumsticks to be the same size or else some will cook faster and they will begin to start cooking which you don’t want.

Thighs

You’re going to use the same step by step method and cook time (will vary and be longer if you have bone in chicken thighs vs. boneless) as above for this cut.

Chicken Wings

Remove the wings from the packaging and place on a plate. Place in the microwave and defrost in cycles of 2 minutes. If you are confident in your microwave, you can increase the cycle to 3 minutes. But in this case, you can make the meat drier.

If you have auto buttons you can use defrost and the poultry setting with how much your meat weighs total. To manually defrost poultry in microwave you’ll push cook time for 10 min, power level, then adjust down to 30 (meaning 30% power).

• If the wings are frozen one to the other, then as they thaw, separate them.
• After the top wings become soft, you need to transfer them to the bottom of the plate. So you need to change the wings in places so that they evenly defrost.
• For the wings, 5-6 cycles of 2 minutes will be enough (10-12 mins).

Do not microwave for too long or else the meat will begin to cook.

How to Thaw Chicken Fast

This is how long to bake chicken drumsticks at 400 if you need those instructions.

How to Cook Chicken in Microwave after Thawing

This isn’t the goal but it can be done. If you want to actually cook let’s say a breast you can but just note that the texture isn’t ideal.

1. Place meat in a baking dish wish a glass lid or cover with plastic wrap tightly so it can steam.
2. Cook on HIGH in the microwave for about 4 to 5 min. for each chicken breast.
3. SO if you want two cooked thru, it would take about 8-10 minutes for thin cut, about 10-12 min. for an average size.
   1. boneless works much better than bone-in for this

Pair with a bowl of macaroni and cheese in the microwave and BAM you’re ready to eat.