How to Pressure Cook Frozen Meat

A pressure cooker deserves its place in the kitchen for whipping up meals at the fastest times. The powerful machine's functions include thawing your meat or poultry exactly when you need it, and right when you've forgotten again.

Baking, stove-top simmering or slow cooking aren't options when you have frozen meat on hand. Get safe, nutrition-packed, delicious food on the table fast by learning of frozen meat pressure cooking tricks.

Understanding The Danger Zone

Cooking frozen meat presents some serious problems. The outer parts tend to slowly dry out due to overcooking, while the center remains uncooked. Meat left to linger long out in the cold is somewhat in limbo between frozen and cooked, falling in the danger zone with temperatures of 40 F to 140 F. Beef, pork or chicken becomes host to harmful bacteria and toxins that cause foodborne illnesses.

Pressure-cooking turns rock-hard meat to an easy dinner in half an hour. As raw meat comes to heat quickly, usually within a 10 to 20-minute transition, food shoots past this no-no zone and any contaminants are neutralized. The pressure cooker may take slightly longer to reach pressure. It's pretty much like there's a huge ice cube at the center of it! Depending on how much meat and liquid is in your pot, expect the cooker to take a few more minutes to build pressure.

The most important aspect of all is the peace of mind it brings. You'd know that any dish will be in its highest quality and at the best state when served.

Thawing frozen beef safely:

• Place a trivet in the base of your pressure cooker.
• Load it up with ground beef and pour a cup of water. Don't worry about the meat falling off- believe it or not, it stays together.
• Put on the lid then move the valve to sealing. Pressure cook for 25 minutes on manual mode.
• Do a quick release and check for the right temperature, ideally at 165 F.
• Crumble the thawed and cooked ground beef using a sturdy spoon.

Thawing frozen chicken safely:

• Place chicken into your pressure cooker pot and cover with liquid such as water, stock, wine, or unsweetened fruit juice.
• Increase the recommended pressure-cooking time of a regular recipe to 50 percent or more.
• Slip a meat thermometer through the bone to check the internal temperature, which should be at 165 F.

The Taste of Pressure-Cooked Frozen Meat

While browned meat shifts meat flavors into higher gear, you'll be surprised how delicious meat turns out from the pressure cooker! It's nowhere like rubbery microwave-cooking and the not-so-appetizing boiled grounds. Fact is, even those with the most discerning taste may not be able to tell the difference.

Meat generally has the same feel, texture, consistency and tang. The distinction lies in you not having to spend your time thawing, standing over the stove and keeping watch on every cooking phase. Pressure cooking requires very little effort on your part and produces the best results. Beef, pork or chicken emerges moist, juicy, and relished with rich flavors!