Thaw

A whole chicken will take two to three hours to thaw. If you have a giant chicken, it may take even longer. You can thaw it in cold water, and if you can pull the pieces apart, you can thaw the chicken even faster. If you don’t have any leftover chicken, you can place the frozen chicken in a bowl with cold water and add ice cubes to prevent the water from getting too warm. You should thaw the whole bird in two to three hours.

When defrosting chicken, the safest way is to place it in the refrigerator.