This is how to cook a whole frozen chicken in an Instant Pot! From frozen to tender and juicy in 1 hour you’ll always be able to get dinner done. You can use any pressure cooker too like a Ninja Foodi the same way too.
Need to know how to cook a frozen whole chicken to tender quickly?? We’ve got it! This is just one of our Instant Pot recipes that people are amazed by. I was too until we made it a few times, shredded to make tacos, and my kids didn’t know the difference between this one and using a fresh bird.
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.
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!! As a Ninja Foodi recipe use the lid that is not attached, or make in a Crockpot Express.
How Long Does it Take to Cook a Frozen Chicken in Instant Pot?
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.
Do all whole chickens have a giblet bag?
Some do not have a giblet bag inside, so no worries (this one had no bag). Others contain a bag that is paper which wouldn’t do you harm if cooked inside accidentally. If yours has a plastic bag inside and it is cooked you should discard everything as it is not healthy to eat anything that has come into contact with cooked/heated plastic. Look at the bag when you buy it, it will usually say. Choose one without it.
How to Crisp the Skin
I will tell you that you can crisp it a bit like our air fryer whole chicken, but not to that extent. 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 Instant Pot whole chicken 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.
How to Thicken Drippings to Make Gravy
Also when your chicken is fall apart done and you remove it DON’T throw away the delicious broth at the bottom. You can use it to make pressure cooker gravy to pour on top of your chicken if you want.
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.
Frozen Whole Chicken Instant Pot Recipe
Equipment
- 1 trivet
Ingredients
- 4.5 pound chicken , frozen, mine was 4.4 lbs. so timing is appropriate for that size
- 1 cup chicken broth, or water
- 1 small onion, sliced
- 1 tsp seasoned salt
- 1 tsp garlic salt
Instructions
- 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 put it into an 8×8 dish. Then you can make gravy from chicken drippings if you like.
- 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)
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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:
I have two small frozen chickens, each about 4.5 pounds. Would I need to increase the cooking time (double it)?
As stated in the recipe card mine was this same size and only cooked one. first off I don’t think two would fit, they wouldn’t in my 6 qt. I haven’t done two but if I had to guess off the top of my head I might increase by 15 min. but no more than that.
I have a frozen chicken that was deboned and stuffed with jambalaya… wondering if that would work too?
I haven’t tried that yet, probably would be the timing of boneless chicken so a bit less time???
I think this is the fifth time I have made this recipe and I have to thank you once again!! Such a game changer. So good and so easy!
Glad it has been a hit
I just got a Ninja Foodi so exploring recipes. We raise our own whole chickens so I’m excited to try recipes like these. Our chickens are bigger than 4.4 lbs for sure. No I’m realizing we should have butchered them a bit sooner lol Next round I will…let them get big as we have large family. Not sure my huge birds will fit in the pot now! Haha I have some smaller ones though so is there a chart or something you follow for different cool times dependent on weight?
@Kari,
Finally someone that gets it! I cook this for my life partner and it goes over well. He can’t keep himself out of there. Makes a huge mess but we’ll worth it.
Great recipe! Perfect for a quick, easy weeknight dinner