How to defrost and work with frozen chicken efficiently with Epichef's "Defrost" function.
Hey guys!
I'm sure you guys are aware of the 30% price hike of fresh or chilled chicken since Malaysia announced a temporary ban on its poultry export from 1st June.
So, our first instinct was to turn to frozen chicken.
However, people have complained that it's just not as good as fresh in terms of taste, texture and juiciness.
Our reply to that?
No, it's not true and this article is here to prove it to you.
As quoted by a Singaporean Chef from The Black Hole Group on a CNA article,
"To a layman, it's very hard to tell (frozen apart from fresh) especially even harder when the chef is good enough to make it as such"
We heard the word "chef", how about Epichef?!
So the goal of this article is to guide you on defrosting a whole chicken (Or any protein, for that matter) quickly with Epichef's "Defrost" feature so that you can minimise the defrosting time, maximise the marination time and still get delicious, tender and juicy chicken while mitigating the price hike.
But before we move on, we would like say that, the best way to defrost any protein is to leave it in the fridge for at least 18-24 hours.
However, not everyone will have the patience to wait or the luxury of time.
Defrosting
Firstly, all you have to do is to put the frozen whole chicken in the basket.
Press the "Defrost" button and press start.
The "Defrost" preset is set to 65°c at 10min by default. That usually works with smaller parts.
For a whole chicken, we adjusted the temp and time to 55°c at 15min.
The goal is to just melt the icy crystals away so that you can start seasoning it.
Allow Epichef's capabality to maintain a low temperature to help you defrost the chicken until it looks something like that.
Seasoning/Marination
Well, this article is not about recipes, but we took the opportunity to make a Chinese style roasted chicken. If you like to view the recipe, click here.
Looks pretty damn good doesn't it?
Dry? Doesn't look like it at all!
Resting
Now, this is a VERY important part.
Allowing your meat to rest!
Take it out and leave it on a chopping board to rest for about 10min before you slice into it.
We know you're gonna be excited to slice into something that looks so good, but, the whole idea of resting the chicken is to allow the flesh to re-absorb all the juices so that your chicken will be super juicy!
Pluck your favourite part out and eat it like a caveman or slice it and serve.
Your choice! But what we guarantee you is, with frozen chicken, neither taste nor texture will be compromised if you do it the right way.
There you go! Mitigate the price hike of fresh chickens and still serve delicious, juicy and wonderful meals with Epichef.
We hope this article will help you stay informed and confident when working with frozen proteins.
If you think this article is useful and will help people around you, share it with your loved ones and friends!
That's all for now.
With so much love,
Team Kyvol Singapore