Pressure Cooker Frozen Whole Chicken

How to cook a pressure cooker frozen whole chicken! From frozen to tender and juicy in 1 hour you’ll always be able to get dinner done. Get out your Ninja Foodi or any brand and get ready for the other frozen chicken in the Instant Pot recipe cooked perfect.

Ninja Foodi Frozen Whole Chicken

Like I always say, use what you have. If you don’t have chicken stock, use broth. Or just use water. An onion isn’t really a necessity either but I think it adds to the flavor of the chicken. As a Ninja Foodi recipe use the lid that is not attached, or make in a Crockpot Express.

We started this journey by making a frozen whole chicken in a Crockpot. That turned out well but of course took all day so this method was next. It was a total game changer. Now I use it weekly to shred and make tacos for Tuesday or when guests come over.

Instant Pot Whole Frozen Chicken

If this is kinda’ blowing your mind, we wouldn’t share anything that wasn’t a hit for us. Maybe you have made our Instant Pot frozen roast so you are kinda’ thinking this would work too. It will!! Here are a few questions you might have before you get started on this one. 😉

How do I cook frozen chicken without thawing it?

Using a pressure cooker is the answer I tell you. Here we will share how to cook a whole chicken, but you can also cook frozen chicken breasts in Instant Pot that are just breasts straight out of the bag. Super handy when you’re a forgetful person, like me. Just a bit of liquid and in under an hour you’re ready to eat.

This is not a sponsored post so the brands you see are not a necessity but I will say I buy organic and/or cage free chickens when they are reasonably priced and available in the stores, here’s why:

How Long Does it Take to Cook Instant Pot Whole Chicken Frozen?

This will take about 1 hour which is a fraction of the time of roasting frozen whole chicken in oven and it came out so good. The biggest difference between the two is the texture of the skin, which you could change at the end. Pressure cooked will keep it from getting crispy. If you broil for a few minutes with oil when done you can “fix that” though.

What size chicken will fit inside a pressure cooker?

6 pounds is the max that will fit in a 6 quart I found. Of course you can fit a larger one if it were thawed because it is pliable to get inside there snugly. In this case it is firm so smaller it is.

Cage free chickens have less fat on them overall. This means you can get a smaller chicken with the same amount of meat as a much larger non organic chicken, and size matters when it comes to fitting a whole chicken inside your pot.

The meat is more tender Of course it depends on a lot of factors but I’ve purchased a lot of whole chickens of various varieties and will say that cage free are the best That’s my two cents sort a speak, take it or leave it really but thought I’d share my findings. This chicken I bought fresh, then stuck it in the freezer until it was rock hard, and cooked it about a week after purchasing it.

This method allows you to purchase many whole chickens when they’re on sale and freeze them all, making them immediately ready to cook using this method whenever you want. We do this often since we have a deep freeze in the garage. It saves me money and trips to the store so it’s a win win.

I will tell you, I was surprised at how tender and flavorful it was….and like I said, the drippings made for some great gravy to serve on the side. The next time we made this I followed the same recipe but after putting it under the broiler (below photo) I shredded the meat and we made chicken soft tacos.

There was so much meat on this little 4.2 lb. chicken we had enough leftovers for lunch the next day. Like I said, there is a huge difference, hardly any fat at all which I prefer.

How to Cook Frozen Whole Chicken Pressure Cooker

I will tell you my all time favorite way to get it done the best though is making an air fryer whole chicken. Since yours would already be cooked you’d only need 5 or so minutes. It will gets yours just like the rotisserie version you buy at the store but better. You can add lots of seasonings with some olive oil when it is cooked.

Then pop it into your Cosori, AirWave or Foodi for a few minutes and all of those flavors (or just use salt and pepper) will flavor the skin. Crispy crunchy outside is what you’ll get after just a few minutes.

If you’re just going to shred it for tacos though you may not bother with these steps as you may just discard the skin anyway.

I only do it if I’m serving it as is, cut up into pieces. If I am making sliders or throwing it on top of rice it doesn’t matter. I rip the skin off beforehand in those cases so why bother.

Ingredients

1. Frozen whole chicken is used, size that will fit comfortably
   • if it is thawed you can use our Instant Pot whole chicken recipe instead
2. Onions sliced, yellow or white I use
3. Chicken broth – or stock, or water
4. Seasoned salt, I love Lawry’s for everything
5. Garlic salt or garlic powder for flavor

Equipment Needed

1. Trivet – I like one with handles on the sides (use the inner basket if using a Ninja Foodi machine)
2. Instant Pot – at least 6 quart Instant Pot or whatever brand you have at home, they all work the same

After cooking a frozen chicken here are a few other frozen meat and easy Instant Pot chicken recipes to try. Use your Ninja Foodi too or other brand of electric pressure cooker:

Instructions for this is almost identical BUT you can crisp the skin in the same basket and not move it anywhere!

How to Cook a Whole Frozen Chicken in Ninja Foodi

1. Put 1.5 c water into the inner pot so it will steam well
2. Place frozen chicken inside the inner basket inside your Ninja Foodi pot, lower into pot
3. Put pressure cooker lid on (lid that isn’t attached)
4. Close steam valve – set to seal. You need to do this for any pot you have so it can reach pressure and start cooking.
5. Push power on button on the lower right in the front of the pot.
6. Push pressure button
7. Adjust temp. to high
8. Set time to 60 minutes (to cook a chicken 4.5 pounds)
9. Press start
   1. Do a quick release when done
10. Lift lid, remove pressure cooker lid, replace with air fryer lid (one that is attached)
11. Push air crisp button
12. Set time to 8 minutes
13. Set temperature to 400 degrees

Lift lid and check, if you want it crispier set for a few more minutes. Then it will look like perfection as you see here. Only add a few minutes at a time so it doesn’t dry out, that would be tragic. The meat inside should stay nice and tender, you’re just browning the outside only.

Pressure cooking a frozen whole chicken really is a game changer. Instead of the normal 20 minutes per pound of baking in the oven, you can now get an even more tender bird in about 40 minutes. Of course timing depends slightly on how large your pieces are.

If you’re just cooking Instant Pot chicken breasts or wings your meal will be ready in under 30 minutes. That used to be unheard of before these fancy devices came about.

Can you put a frozen whole chicken in an Instant Pot?

YES!! Watch my step by step video in this post to see just how it’s done. Then follow directions below and enjoy friends.

• Pour chicken broth or water into your pressure cooker followed by your sliced onions.
• Place your trivet on top of that (if it rests on the onions that is okay). Unwrap your frozen chicken and place it on top of your trivet.
• Close your lid and steam valve and set to high pressure for 60 minutes.
• Allow to naturally release steam for 15 minutes.
• Carefully remove chicken (it will want to fall apart) and enjoy!

How to get crispy chicken skin

• Put cooked bird into an 8×8 dish, or your air fryer.
• Sprinkle the top with seasoning salt, and/or whatever you usually add on top of your whole chicken when you bake it.
• Turn your broiler on and put your chicken in for 3-4 minutes or until skin crisps up as much as you’d like. Serve!! (we love shredding it from there and making soft chicken tacos)

Use your Air fryer lid or CrispLid to crisp at 400 degrees for 5 – 15 minutes or until perfectly cooked outside, cooking time depends on how crispy you want it OR turn your oven broiler on – some countertop toaster ovens have a broiler setting too.

How to thicken gravy from drippings