Can You Put Frozen Food in a Crock Pot?
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A very common question we get from readers and at speaking events about freezer cooking is, “Can I put frozen food in the Crock Pot?” It’s a common question because there is a lot of mixed information out there.
The answer is nuanced and requires consideration of food safety and cooking efficiency.
The Short Answer
The USDA recommends thawing meat and poultry before putting them in a slow cooker or crock pot, but it’s possible to cook frozen vegetables or vegetarian soups like our Tomato Bisque in the Crock Pot.
The Longer Answer
So yes, technically, you can put some types of frozen food and some types of freezer meals in the crock pot. However, it’s not generally recommended by food safety experts and many Crock Pot manufacturers.
The primary concern is that the slow cooker may not bring frozen food up to a safe temperature quickly enough, potentially allowing harmful bacteria to grow. This is especially true when it comes to recipes with any type of meat or poultry in them.
Food Safety Concerns
When cooking with a Crock Pot, the goal is to keep food within the safe temperature range, which is above 140°F (60°C). Starting with frozen food can keep the food in the “danger zone” (40°F to 140°F or 4°C to 60°C) for too long, where bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli can multiply rapidly.
The USDA advises against cooking frozen meat in a slow cooker. Instead, they recommend thawing the meat in the refrigerator before adding it to the crock pot. This ensures that the meat reaches a safe temperature quickly and stays there long enough to kill any potential bacteria.
In Conclusion
While you can put some frozen food in a crock pot, it’s generally not recommended due to food safety concerns and potential impacts on cooking quality.
For the best and safest results, thaw your ingredients before adding them to the slow cooker. This small step can make a big difference in the taste and safety of your meals.
FAQs
Never fear. We break down the three easy, USDA-approved ways to thaw your food in this post.
Good news, you can still safely use an Instant Pot for freezer meals! Because the cooking time is much faster, the food won’t sit in that danger zone for too long. (Many of our crockpot recipes have Instant Pot directions as well!)
So my husband just flipped his lid on me because he saw me put a frozen steak in the crock pot for tomorrow.
Here’s my take.
I grew up in my parents’ restaurant and was the youngest person in my state at the time to get a food handler’s permit (at age 9), on which I scored 100%. I have passed that same test many times since and have never missed a question.
What I learned is that not all meat is created equal. There is a reason that beef, poultry, pork, and seafood are cooked at different temperatures. Intact red meat (not ground meat) is cooked at the lowest temperature and is even considered safe to eat raw so long as the outside is cooked, because the deeper layers of uncut meat are sterile for much longer than the outer surface. It takes a while for bacteria to infect those deeper layers. The thing with a slow cooker or almost any other method of cooking is that the outside surfaces reach foodsafe temperatures much faster than the interior. It can be 145° outside and still be frozen in the middle. The surface, which is where the bacteria are growing, will run through the danger zone to safe temperatures, almost as fast as refrigerated meat. The deeper layers of interior meat take longer, but also have less bacteria because of the nature of red meat.
Furthermore, the dimensions of the frozen meat also play a factor. The greater the surface to volume ratio the faster cooking meat will travel through the danger zone. A piece of meat that is long and thin will always cook faster than a piece that is closer to a cube. A steak will thaw and cook more rapidly than a roast will. Not that it ultimately makes a difference because of what I have previously described.
The reason that this applies to red meat only is because Pork carries parasites which introduce bacteria to deeper layers of meat, chicken does not have the same densely compact muscle structure as red meat which allows bacteria to migrate inward more quickly, and Seafood is much more likely to develop toxicity then other meats.
TL;DR: Intact red meat is fine to slow cook from frozen because science.
Thanks for your comment Alyssa. Sounds like you’ve learned a lot. Do you mind sharing your sources?
Can a thawed crockpot meal with chicken be cooked the next day and be okay? (I took it out yesterday afternoon but won’t cook it until tomorrow morning…)
It should be just fine. We always teach to think about how long your meal has been thawed in total–both before and after the freezer. Fresh food has about a 5 day life in the fridge. So if you used up your chicken in the freezer meal right away and froze it, then you should have several days left on the other end of the freezer. Does that make sense?
Crock Pot has issued a statement saying it is safe to cook meat from frozen as long as you add at least 1 cup of liquid and cook an extra 2 hours on high and an extra 4 on low (I think).
Thank you for this update. I saw that. I’m just waiting for the USDA to confirm it before we change our recommendation.