How do you cook a frozen chicken in a slow cooker?

Answer 1

First, it's not a very good idea. Licensed food handlers will tell you that it's a sure-fire way to get botulism--especially from chicken, which lacks the acidity needed to stave off those nasties.

Second, you will find that most "friers" (whole chickens) include the neck and giblets in a paper bag. Surely you won't want paper in your cooking!

That said, let me give you a few ideas.

It doesn't take very long (5-10 min) to thaw the bird enough so that you can take out the neck and giblets. You do this using cold water from the tap. Be sure you're using potable water (some countries do not have clean water from their tap). I take the bird from the packaging and while running water, I put it under the water and proceed the loosen the ice. By the time you've got the giblets and neck out, the meat is (according to my experience) thawed enough to be put in a crock pot. You can tell that it's thawed enough if you can easily flex the drumstick and can dent the breast with your index finger.

*Again do not place completely frozen meat in a slow cooker--especially if the thickest part is over 2" (5cm).*

Why? The problem is that the purposes of cooking food are: 1) break down the proteins for easier digestion, 2) loosen sinew, and 3) kill nasty microbes. Nobody likes raw fowl. But, bacteria do! If you were able to heat up the flesh uniformly, this would not be a problem. However, the heat transfer rate through meat is very, very slow. So while you're cooking the outside, the bacteria are sunbathing on the inside!

Before you start, you must make sure that the bird will fit in the pot, if you want to avoid cutting it up. Cutting up a bird is simple once you learn how [ask me!]. There needs to be enough room around so that it's not crammed. The only things that can be "crammed" are the drumsticks. Once you've gone through the motions of getting the bird prepped, place the bird in the crock and add *hot* water, up to the middle of the drumsticks.

Water is *very* important! If the meat were at refrigerator temperature (~34F), you can roast it in the crock pot. Roasting is merely placing the bird in--without water--along with salt, seasoning, butter, vegetables, etc. However, if your meat is partially frozen, you need to bring the temperature up as uniformly as possible. A bath of water is the only way. Period. Again--PERIOD! Oil does not carry and hold heat very well.

Don't worry about losing flavor by adding water, because you can use chicken or vegetable broth along with salt (very, very important for taste and bacteria retardation) and your favorite veggies. You may note that I didn't mention butter here. One reason is, as stated above, oil/fats don't carry heat very well; another is water essentially robs the sweet butter flavor. No way around it. Sorry.

Another thing: slow cookers usually have two settings, low and high. The only difference between the two is "high" reaches cooking temperature faster. They both keep the heat the same and put in the same amount of energy. In short: using low or high makes little difference when cooking with broth.