Sensory quality and food safety of boneless chicken breast portions thawed rapidly by submersion in hot water

Boneless chicken breast portions were thawed by submersion in hot water (60 °C) and compared to refrigerator thawing. Thawing in hot water was significantly quicker (2–8.5 min) than refrigerator thawing (10–15.5 h). Thawing time in hot water increased with an increase in meat thickness. Sensory panelists could not distinguish a difference between hot water versus refrigerator thawed and subsequently grilled chicken breast portions. A model for Salmonella growth predicts that thawing chicken breast at the slowest rate in this study (0.5 °C/min) would result in a lower increase in the Salmonella concentration than that expected for room temperature storage for 4 h.