is it safer to thaw chicken in cold water or warm water?!

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the first answer is the best but just adding once the water gets to room Temperature you need to change it till it's thawed

The USDA recommends three ways of thawing meat safely.
1) In the refrigerator
2) Under a trickle of cold water
3) In the microwave

"Never defrost foods in a garage, basement, car, dishwasher or plastic garbage bag; out on the kitchen counter, outdoors or on the porch. These methods can leave your foods unsafe to eat.

"There are three safe ways to defrost food: in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave. It's best to plan ahead for slow, safe thawing in the refrigerator. Small items may defrost overnight; most foods require a day or two. And large items like turkeys may take longer, approximately one day for each 5 pounds of weight.

"For faster defrosting, place food in a leak proof plastic bag and immerse it in cold water. (If the bag leaks, bacteria from the air or surrounding environment could be introduced into the food. Tissues can also absorb water like a sponge, resulting in a watery product.) Check the water frequently to be sure it stays cold. Change the water every 30 minutes. After thawing, cook immediately.

"When microwave-defrosting food, plan to cook it immediately after thawing because some areas of the food may become warm and begin to cook during microwaving."

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/fact_sheets/foc…

You have to think about the temperature of the water vs. the temperature of the chicken. So even cold water will seem "warm" to frozen chicken and will thaw it.

You also don't want to keep the chicken or other foods in the "danger zone" of temperatures for more than 4 hrs (of its total life, including during transportation, etc) because the bacteria will begin to multiply too fast. The "danger zone" is between normal refrigerator temperature (40 F) and 140 F.

So, if you want to "quickly" thaw chicken pieces (or anything else), the usual and safe way is to put the pieces in a plastic bag (closed) or something similar, then sit them in a bowl of cool water.
The frozen chicken will make the water in the bowl colder and colder though, so you'll want to put in new cool water a few times, or you can just let a trickle of water from the faucet fall into the bowl so it will continually overflow and new cool water will be added to the bowl all the time.

If you had a whole chicken though, that method would take too long unless you used a really big bowl so you'd probably need to thaw that in the frig overnight or longer--or I guess you could combine the two methods.

You can also defrost in a microwave, but the Defrost setting will take a long time and usualll the outer portions of the item will end up cooking a bit, so not that satisfactory.

I dissolve chicken in ice water. I cover the chicken with water and add ice on the top. I will add 1 tablespoon of salt to draw the blood out of the chicken. Through out the day I will add more ice. This way I can thaw it on the counter. If I am not going to be home I will stick it in the fridge for 5 - 6 hours and it will be thawed.

Submerge it in cold water for a few hours, in the morning if you're making it for dinner. Warm water would thaw it faster but it's not very safe. Enjoy your chicken :)

Its safer to thaw it in the refrigerator over night, but if you can't wait then cold water.

cold water, if you thaw it in warm or hot water bacteria will grow.

cold water

Cold :)