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I would like to cook frozen chicken breasts in a pressure cooker for shredding and making chicken mole. I do not want to add anything except water, but I'm having a hard time finding specific guidelines on the time to cook frozen meats with no added ingredients or steps.

In my case, I have 3 pounds of frozen chicken breasts to cook. What are the general rules to follow for frozen meats and, in my case, how long and at what heat should I cook this for?

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  • As fluids won't transfer through a frozen item, it's possible that there might be a reason that no one calls for using a pressure cooker on frozen items.
    – Joe
    Commented Oct 3, 2015 at 1:29
  • Well, all of the frozen recipes I've seen so far are rather specific and so I'm looking for a more general rule statement to follow, eg: Pressure cooker recipe: From frozen chicken to delicious teriyaki
    – ylluminate
    Commented Oct 3, 2015 at 1:38

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I recently published a guide for pressure cooking frozen meat - so here's how to do your chicken breasts:

  1. Cover your chicken with water, salt and any other aromatics that you'd like to use.
  2. Pressure cook for 5 minutes at high pressure (the cooker will take MUCH LONGER to reach pressure, this is ok but some electric pressure cookers may time-out and need to be re-set).
  3. Open with Natural Pressure Release.

General rules for pressure cooking frozen meat plus my tips: http://www.hippressurecooking.com/how-to-pressure-cook-frozen-meat/

Frozen meat pressure cooking times: http://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooking-times/#meat

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  • With a whole skinless breast the internal temp was 30.5 degrees after 5 min pressure plus natural release on large Ninja Foodi at a high pressure setting. I had started with near boiling water. If you are starting with boiling water I’d recommend 20min pressure plus natural release, so 40min cook time.
    – John
    Commented Oct 9, 2021 at 0:49
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Based on the recipe to which you linked, I'd guess about 10 minutes after the pressure cooker starts steaming. (Until the chicken thaws and starts cooking you shouldn't get much steam.)

Since you're going to shred the chicken and put in a sauce anyway, overcooking might not be a problem.

Frankly if you have an extra hour put the chicken breast in a plastic bag and fill the pressure cooker with hot water from the tap. Dunk the bag in the pot to thaw the breasts so that you can control the cooking time more closely.

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