- Alton Brown shared on social media his hack for thawing a frozen chicken in two hours.
- We tried Brown’s hack, which calls for an aquarium pump, thermometer and a cooler, on a frozen turkey.
- While the turkey thawed in under seven hours, the method had its challenges.
Of all the mishaps when hosting Thanksgiving, forgetting to thaw the turkey is perhaps the most detrimental. The vast majority of turkeys for the big holiday are sold frozen, and these birds require some serious thaw time. This means you need to plan well in advance, especially if you want to dry-brine or marinate the bird.
Thawing any poultry, whether chicken or turkey, takes careful attention to avoid the spread of bacteria. According to the Department of Agriculture, thawing frozen meat or poultry on the counter for more than two hours is unsafe because “the outer layer of the food is in the ‘Danger Zone’ between 40 and 140°F—at a temperature where foodborne bacteria multiply rapidly.” Thawing a whole turkey in the refrigerator can take three to six days, depending on the size, and once thawed, the USDA recommends cooking the turkey within two days.
This Viral Thawing Hack Caught My Attention
If you don’t have several days to thaw your turkey, there is another method. You can place your frozen bird in a large container and cover it with water. This is called cold-water thawing, and it’s a great method for quickly thawing meat and seafood, especially shrimp and Cryovac-sealed portions of fish. The challenge with this method for a turkey is that you need to keep the water cold—below 40°F—to avoid spoilage, and you need a giant container to hold the big bird.
When I saw this video from celebrity chef Alton Brown explaining how he quickly thaws whole chickens with an aquarium pump, I had to see if it would work for a frozen turkey. In his video, Brown places an inexpensive aquarium pump in a small travel cooler, along with his frozen chicken, and fills the whole thing with water. He then turns on the pump to circulate water, closes the cooler, and his chicken is thawed in two hours. That’s impressive considering it would take 12 hours or more to thaw in the fridge, but does the same technique work for turkeys?
The Science Behind the Hack
“Alton Brown’s method for quickly defrosting a chicken is clever,” says Jessica Gavin, a certified food and culinary scientist. “It uses water circulation to speed up thawing. Scientifically, it works through convection, or the movement of water molecules, which transfers heat much more efficiently than still air and helps the poultry thaw evenly.”
You can actually get a similar effect with smaller packages of meat, like shrimp or chicken breasts, by placing them in a bowl in your sink and letting the faucet drip cold water into the bowl. Just a small drip of water will circulate, and the shrimp can thaw in about an hour, while the chicken breasts may take closer to 2 hours.
But a whole turkey is massive compared to shrimp, chicken breasts and even a whole chicken. It seemed to me like Brown’s method would be best for smaller packages of meat, but I had to see if it could work on my turkey.
Testing the Hack with Frozen Turkey
I picked up an aquarium pump at a local pet store and grabbed a 17-pound frozen turkey from the grocery store. I used my large Coleman hard-sided cooler to hold the turkey. I filled it with water from a garden hose, added the pump and placed the whole thing in my shed. The turkey wanted to float to the top, so I closed the lid and put a small weight on top, which did the job just fine (plus it kept water from splashing out and making a mess).
It should be noted that the air temperature here in Vermont was quite cold, just above freezing. Despite the cold ambient air, the water temperature reached 44°F after a couple of hours. I added enough ice to lower the temperature and had to do so multiple times throughout the test.
“The key is to keep the water below 40°F (4°C) to stay out of the bacterial ‘danger zone,’” Gavin explains. “Once the surface of the turkey rises above that point, bacteria like Salmonella can multiply quickly. If you try Alton’s approach, use a digital thermometer to monitor the temperature, and keep the turkey sealed in its original packaging to prevent cross-contamination.”
My Take on This Hack
The good news is the turkey thawed relatively quickly, but it still took about 6.5 hours. So, yes, you can use this hack to thaw your turkey, but I can’t actually recommend it over refrigerator thawing. It requires a fair amount of planning ahead, ensuring you have a cooler or container large enough to hold the turkey and, of course, an aquarium pump. But even if you have all those things, it still has its challenges.
My biggest frustration with this method was the need to add ice to the container to drop the water temperature. Every 30 minutes or so, I had to go check the temperature with an instant-read thermometer. And adding all that ice increased the volume of liquid in the cooler, so I had to drain off water periodically (luckily, the cooler has a spout at the bottom for just this purpose). Plus, at the end of the test, I spent a fair amount of time disinfecting the cooler and the pump.
This is an excellent hack for whole chickens and smaller portions of meat and seafood, but I felt it took too much babysitting for a turkey. Having said that, if you happen to have forgotten to thaw your bird ahead of time, and you have the space and equipment, you should absolutely use this method to (relatively) quickly and safely thaw your turkey. Just be aware that it will take at least six hours and needs some regular attention.
“Be sure to sanitize the cooler or tank before and after use,” Gavin says. “If you have time to plan ahead, the traditional refrigerator thawing method remains the safest and most consistent option.”
The Bottom Line
Forgetting to thaw a frozen turkey before Thanksgiving can truly throw off the big meal. It can take nearly a week to safely thaw a large bird in the refrigerator, which is why cold-water thawing is so appealing—it can take about 30 minutes per pound. And using Brown’s method of adding an aquarium pump to circulate the water, adding an element of convection, is a clever way to thaw the turkey quickly.
However, it has some serious disadvantages. You’ll need a large container to hold the bird, space to keep it and the ability to add ice and remove excess water to keep the water at a constant 40°F and prevent the spread of harmful bacteria. Still, so long as you know what you are getting yourself into, it is a much faster way to thaw a turkey than the refrigerator and safer than simply leaving the bird in a big container of water, which can be dangerous. I recommend planning ahead instead to thaw your bird safely in the refrigerator—and saving Brown’s hack for whole chickens and smaller packages of meat.
