Hate waiting for your chicken to thaw before you cook them? Me too! Here’s my easy trick for how to cook a frozen whole chicken or just a few frozen chicken breasts!
Hopefully I’m not alone here, but I very often go to put a chicken in the oven for dinner, only to realize that I never thawed it! It never even occurred to me to try and bake a frozen chicken…
But after about the 47th time this happened (a slight exaggeration) I knew I needed to figure something out! So I did some experimenting to figure out how to cook a frozen chicken.
Turns out, it’s pretty darn simple! And just like my secret for making a tender pot roast, this trick involves just a bit of aluminum foil.
In fact, this method for roasting a frozen chicken is so easy that I don’t even bother trying to remember to thaw a chicken before baking! It’s so tender and flavorful that we make it at least once a week.
Related Reading:
<< How to Freeze Mashed Potatoes | How to Cook the Perfect Roast >>
First I cook the frozen chicken, then we strip the meat off and turn the bones into chicken bone broth soup! Then we use the meat to either fill out the chicken noodle soup, or to make chicken salad, lemon honey chicken, or any number of other chicken recipes!
Not only is baking a whole chicken while frozen quick and easy, it’s also a great way to save money! Just one whole chicken will create up to 15 meals for our family!
10 meals of bone broth soup (just as some veggies and noodles)
5 meals using the meat!
Just check out how simple it really is to cook a frozen chicken and I can almost guarantee your life will never be the same!
Note: If you are just looking for information on how to cook a frozen chicken breast, nothing could be easier! Just place your chicken in a pan and top with whatever seasonings or sauce you’d like to use. Then bake for 45 minutes at 375°!
DO YOU HAVE AN INSTANT POT: If you are fortunate enough to have grabbed one of these crazy popular kitchen tools, then you are in for another treat! Check out how to cook a whole frozen chicken in your Instant Pot!
- 1 Whole Frozen Chicken
- Deep Roasting Pan
- 3 lbs Potatoes, Chunked
- 3 lbs Carrots, Chunked
- 2 large Onions, Chunked
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic
- Rosemary (optional)
- Remove packaging from frozen chicken. If the padding on the bottom is stuck, run the chicken under warm water until the padding comes loose.
- Rinse outside of chicken well and pat dry.
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Place in dry roasting pan and season to taste with Salt, Pepper, Garlic, and Rosemary (optional).
- Bake uncovered for 15 minutes. Remove chicken from oven, add vegetables, and cover with aluminum foil shiny side down.
- Reduce heat to 350° and bake for an additional 3 hours, or until internal temperature of the thickest part of the chicken reads 165° or higher.
- Thawing meat in warm water is not recommended due to the environment it creates for bacteria to grow. However, running it under the water for a few minutes right before putting it in the oven is not a problem. 🙂
Thank you so so very much for these temperatures & times. As a single parent I. always prep the bird with all my spices then freeze. Today, I forgot to defrost!
Hi Therese, that’s a great idea! I need to start doing that! I’m glad the times and temps helped, and you gave me a really great tip too! Thanks for stopping by!
Could you just cover it with a lid?
Of course! However, it doesn’t make the skin crispy if you do it without the foil 🙂 Either way, it’s still delicious!
I am always hesitant to cook a whole chicken because I never remember to thaw. I made this yesterday and it was delicious. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. Thank you for the recipe. Will be making again!
Awesome Kayla!! I’m so glad you loved it! Would you mind rating the recipe for me (the stars above the comment), so other people can see it’s worth trying?
I would so appreciate it! Thank you so much and I’m super excited that you liked the recipe! We use it at least 2x a month these days and then save the bones for stock. Yum!
Thanks again!