# Thawing chicken question.



## buck2001 (May 15, 2018)

Hello everyone, this weekend I am preparing 40lbs of chicken quarters for our twin daughters birthday party. My question is what would be a safe way to thaw the chicken in a cooler, or am I safer using giant bags and thawing in the refrigerator?


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## Bearcarver (May 15, 2018)

This is one of those questions I like to defer to ChefJJ.   @chef jimmyj

Bear


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## biteme7951 (May 15, 2018)

Are you brining the quarters prior to cooking? When I cook for the masses I brine the quarters for overnight or a couple of days and add cure to give that "hammy" flavor that is well accepted. I just drop the partially frozen quarters in a cooler lined with a bag and pour the brine in and set a temp probe in the cooler to monitor the temp. If the temp starts to creep up I lay frozen bottles of water on top in the bag to bring the temp where I want it (36-38 degrees for me)

Barry.


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## CajunChris (May 15, 2018)

thaw under running cold water, I understand its 40 lbs so that is hard, if your thawing in coolers you safest bet is to thaw in water (even if it is not running) and change the water out every 30 minutes.


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## noboundaries (May 15, 2018)

Event this weekend. Today is Tuesday. 40 lbs of frozen chicken quarters. Were they flash frozen and still individual pieces, or is it just one big frozen mass?


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## buck2001 (May 15, 2018)

biteme7951 said:


> Are you brining the quarters prior to cooking? When I cook for the masses I brine the quarters for overnight or a couple of days and add cure to give that "hammy" flavor that is well accepted. I just drop the partially frozen quarters in a cooler lined with a bag and pour the brine in and set a temp probe in the cooler to monitor the temp. If the temp starts to creep up I lay frozen bottles of water on top in the bag to bring the temp where I want it (36-38 degrees for me)
> 
> Barry.


Definitely going to brine the night before.


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## buck2001 (May 15, 2018)

noboundaries said:


> Event this weekend. Today is Tuesday. 40 lbs of frozen chicken quarters. Were they flash frozen and still individual pieces, or is it just one big frozen mass?


It is a whole case frozen separated in layers by wax paper.


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## noboundaries (May 15, 2018)

I have three "extreme" coolers I use for thawing meat when I have several days. The two largest (70 quart) are labeled "5 day" coolers, my smallest one is a "3 day" cooler.  Usually I'll put meat alone in the cooler overnight to start thawing. Then the next morning I'll add a couple frozen water jugs. The jugs help maintain cold temps, but more importantly are indicators of the thaw rate of the meat. I'll also put a Maverick probe hanging in the cooler about mid-level. Temps stay about 34-36F, plenty cold enough to safely thaw the meat over 5 days. I thaw 20-50 lbs of frozen turkey like this all the time.

The water thaw method works too, and is one I use quite often, but I generally don't change the water out like you read online. All you're doing by changing the water is adding warmer water to the meat to thaw it more quickly. As long as the water isn't frozen, heat from the water is going to transfer to the frozen meat. I'll put the meat in big Ziplock bags, then add faucet cold water to the cooler. Once you add frozen meat to cold water, the water temp will drop to about 34F. Since heat is transferred 25 times more quickly from water than air, it will take roughly about 18 hours for the leg quarters to thaw and you don't have to worry about the water getting above 40F.  I'll check the condition of the meat after 12 hours, then every 6 hours or so. You'll know when the meat is thawed.


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