Cooking Chicken Episode 2: Cooking Frozen Chicken 🐔

In the last episode of cooking chicken, chicken was baked after being dethawed. This was considered a drawback due to needing to allow extra time for dethawing the chicken. A solution has been found!

There are bags of frozen chicken at the grocery store that can be cooked from frozen. The potential drawback is that the cooking time is longer (at least for the brand I bought), but in my opinion, not needing to pound or defrost the chicken makes up for it.

Different brands will come with different instructions, but here are the steps for the kind I have.

Step 1: Preheat the Oven

Pretty standard for baking chicken. This particular kind asks for 375 degrees F. The chicken can also be grilled, but that is more involved than I would like to be in the cooking process for this episode.

Step 2: Lay Out the Chicken on a Baking Sheet

Get that parchment paper ready. It's not a requirement, but it makes for less sticking and easy clean up. This particular brand of chicken instructs that it be cooked uncovered.

Step 3: Season the Chicken

Because the chicken is frozen, the seasoning doesn't stick as well as when the chicken is thawed. Using lemon juice can help this, or just making sure the seasoning sits on top of the chicken so it integrates and flavors the chicken as it cooks.

Step 4: Bake the Chicken

Mine asks for 90 minutes. There is also an option to thaw the chicken first, which reduces the baking time to 50 minutes and still takes out the step of needing to pound the chicken.

Step 5: Check the Temperature

Checking the temperature of the chicken is one of the best ways to make sure it's done and safe to eat. I highly recommend investing in a meat thermometer. Finished chicken reads 165 degrees. It could be helpful to check the temperature before the timer goes off to make sure the chicken is not overdone; however, for convenience sake, I blindly followed the instructions. Time to find out how that turned out.

The Big Finale

Was it good?

This chicken was dry, chewy, and a bit overcooked, but the seasoning makes up for it, and I still enjoyed it.

Was it easy?

Very easy. That was the awesome part. Easy production and easy clean up.

Would I do it again?

I would do this again—I actually have to because I only used half the bag 😋—but I would buy this and make it again. Next time, I would maybe try dethawing the chicken, or I would check the temperature around the 60 or 75 minute mark, as it immediately registered 10-20 degrees F past done when I cooked from frozen for the full 90 minutes.

Best wishes to you on your own chicken cooking journey. This recipe will give you decent, convenient chicken, but if you prefer something a little less dry, check out Episode 1: https://chelstrainer.wixsite.com/chelstrainer/post/cooking-chicken-episode-1-baked-chicken.