What does Gordon Ramsay mean when he says that defrosting chicken on a steam...

chef_carol

I was watching a video of Kitchen Nightmares where Gordon found the cooks defrosting chicken in a plastic bag in/on their steam table. He goes on to say that frozen food needs to be defrosted naturally, and that their method is a potentially lethal mistake. I do not understand how a steam table can be used like; my best guess is that it was a metal tub full of water that they placed the bag into to defrost from the hot steam. Although I don't...

Originally asked by Zhro on Stack Exchange (cooking) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

According to the USDA , this is considered unsafe: Perishable foods should never be thawed on the counter, or in hot water and must not be left at room temperature for more than two hours. It’s not immediately clear how long the raw chicken was sitting there defrosting, but the guidance does not recommend that method at all. For water thawing, cold water is an allowed method, however.

Full answer by fyrepenguin: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/126712 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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