Anon doesn't wash

Unwashed Chicken is totally safe if you do this one amazing trick.

Cook it properly.

If you don't know how to do that by sight or touch then buy yourself a instant read thermometer.

Do people wash pork chops? steaks? hamburgers?
- People of West Indian descent often wash meat like pork and beef with a vinegar solution, but not ground meat

ITT: people who undercook their chicken think that washing is what's saving them when in reality, washing your chicken only enables a host of cross-contamination issues. Congratulations for turning your sink into a biohazard facility.

Rinsing and scrubbing will spread micro droplets a lot further than your sink.
- This is why I don't clean the dishes in my sink... Not trying to spread any micro droplets.
Red meat can be eaten rare, because even if the inside is raw, it's not usually contaminated by anything dangerous, while chicken meat has to be throughly cooked because it's the opposite... So washing the outside is useless.
- Only if it's a slab of meat, like a steak. Ground meat mixes up all those contaminants, so unless you grind it yourself from a slab with the outsides cut off (still iffy), cook your ground meat thoroughly (medium well is probably enough). You can get away with a sear on pretty fresh steak though.
Wait, you don't eat chicken medium rare?
- If you hold your chicken for ten minutes at temperature, you can cook it medium rare and pink. https://blog.thermoworks.com/chicken-internal-temps-everything-you-need-to-know/

Lots of people really do.

Losing taste is one thing, but it can actually be dangerous by spreading salmonella&friends.

Adam Regusea going into detail

You should absolutely not wash your chicken, it is unnecessary and can splash bacteria around. Cook it to 165 F and youre 100% safe from bacteria.

You want 150f for 3 min for white meat. 165 is unnecessary unless you flash cook it, and then put it in the fridge. 165 w8ll be tough and dry. https://blog.thermoworks.com/chicken-internal-temps-everything-you-need-to-know/
Dark meat will be at like 170 when it cooks for flavor so you don't need to worry if it is cooked through it will be safe.
- For the lazy:
  you want 65°C for three minutes
  75°C is unnecessary
  dark meat will be at like 77°C
- Pretty sure you need to cook chicken for more than 3 minutes
Just make sure you test the coldest part of the chicken. For good measure, check a few areas, like breast, thighs, and drumsticks.

Apparently washing your chicken was an old practice to "rinse the germs off". In reality it just sprays germs everywhere. I can't believe anyone thought it was a good idea.

I think it's common where meat is sold in open-air markets. I read an article about the practice last year.
- In the days before plastic packaging?
It's a leftover practice from days when standards were lower. Just like cooking pork to 165, it's not necessary anymore, but habits die hard

It’s recommended you DON’T wash your chicken because that just throws bacteria around your kitchen.

Cook it thorougly. Use a meat thermometer to be sure and you’ll be fine.

I remember hearing the same thing.
I believe that's a myth. If you cook thoroughly, you don't need to worry about bacteria. Why would it matter if its being moved around then?
There sure are plenty of 'under no circumstances' articles and testimonials parroting each other.
Washing removes the gooey protein film on the surface, which otherwise ends up cooking into a egg-white-like membrane.
You can also wipe it with a paper towel to accomplish the same.
You should, at the very least, always dry your chicken to allow the surface to brown properly. Otherwise you end up with the hospital patient pale white.
reading around, it's spreading the bacteria from the chicken to the environment thats the problem, so I was wrong there. Paper towel it is from now on.
- It’s recommended you DON’T wash your chicken because that just throws bacteria around your kitchen.
  I believe that’s a myth. If you cook thoroughly, you don’t need to worry about bacteria. Why would it matter if its being moved around then?
  I think they mean that if you wash the chicken before cooking you might propel the not-yet-dead bacteria around your kitchen, which is worse than putting it all in the oven together to kill it.
- Yep, you nailed it in your edit. We do exactly that - dry it off with a few paper towels, then roast. As long as you can resist devouring the paper towels or dragging them all over the house (I'm looking at my sleeping dogs as I type this), it's safe.

Yes people do it.

No they shouldn't.

Maybe we all should once Trump disbands the USDA.

I used to not until ~~prime~~ people who worked at the processing plant informed me of what goes on. Wash it, it's disgusting. Also clean off the gross white stuff and as much fat as you can. I leave the skin though. @
- If you do want to wash raw meat, don't just stick it under running water in the sink, because that'll just splash raw meat juices all over your kitchen surfaces. Wash it in a bowl of water or something
- Do you wash pork chops, hamburger meat, other cuts of meat?
- Fat is fine, the body needs fat.

Your chicken should already be clean enough when you unpack it. Just choke it thoroughly and don't contaminate any surface with its juices.

when you unpack it. Just choke it thoroughly
This is sounding extremely unsanitary
- Well… you don’t want it flapping around everywhere in your oven now, do you?

I'm confused what they think they're washing off. If you don't believe the cooking kills the germs then you're not cooking it right (or are confused). If you think it's something that won't come off with cooking like dirt or dust, then, ew, why are you getting chicken from somewhere that gets it covered in dirt or dust?

I’m confused what they think they’re washing off.
A LOT of kitchen practices in families are passed-down traditions, with a lot of people not really knowing why they do the things they do.
My Filipino family-in-law washes their cuts of meat, which yeah is entirely unnecessary and I always wondered why they do it, then I traveled to the Philippines and saw the town where they lived, and most of the local butchers hang fresh cuts of meat up on hooks, uncovered, right next to busy roads and sidewalks.
I genuinely don't know how everyone there hasn't died of acute food poisoning from the unrefrigerated meats in high heat and humidity, but they at least like to wash off the road grime and dust.
- It can also help tenderize the meat (via vinegar or lemon/lime); I tend to find that, when "nondeveloped" countries talk about washing their meat, it means in a vinegar/citrus solution while "developed" countries quite literally mean just plain water.
Sometimes it’s the bacteria that kills you sometimes it’s the poop of the bacteria that kills you. The latter won’t matter if you cook it well or not. But yeah generally it’s useless to wash chicken.
Butcher pubes
People who consume a lot of floor chickens

As a middle aged person who is generally healthy, I’ve never washed chicken. On a side note, we eat chicken weekly. I’ve not experienced diarrhea, or been really sick, or died post chicken eating. I could safely say 1/2 of the days of the year, at least, involve basic butcher parted out chicken, and it is delicious.

Washing a backyard/farm chicken post killing/plucking to remove blood and debris, sure. But what is the logic behind this strange internet trend?

You, like me, probably just cook the chicken properly.
I think it's just how boomers were raised. I'm middle-aged and I don't wash chicken, but my boomer mom is horrified at the thought. She came for a visit and made sure I washed the chicken before I cooked with it. 🙄
- I had told my mom to go sit down and get out of my kitchen for less.
- I've not met a single "boomer" that does this.
- My parents are boomers and don't do this. Not a big sample, but it's what I've got.
- So weird, maybe it's just the ones I know. I'm probably stereotyping them!
The idea would be that due to suspected unsanitary conditions in which mass-produced meat products are collected and transported, additional substances and materials not fit for consumption become attached and go unnoticed.
Washing would remove the extra stuff supposedly.

I watched a cooking video a few years ago about cooking a whole chicken. In the video it was said "we're not going to wash the chicken". I thought just the idea of washing a chicken was strange, so I checked the comments. It was a trainwreck of people being freaked out and disgusted by how she didn't wash the chicken.

I had to search through several forums and articles afterwards to confirm that I wasn't insane, and that I hadn't lived my whole life with disgusting food habits. But the topic of washing a chicken before you cook it is a strangely divided subject.

My mom has always made me "wash chicken," which would just be running it under water. Just chicken, nothing else.

I used to do it out of habit, but laziness seems to have worked in my favor this time.

This is like finding out that there are Flat Earthers that actually believe and it’s not just a satirical joke.

I bring this up every so often but I remember flat earth being about questioning science and understanding how to think for yourself... That understanding the earth was round was such a simple thing to do just by really looking at the horizon... You could then question other science and try to see how it could be wrong... It was like a gateway into critical thinking or something...
But I never could find any reference to the old club that was started for it or find anything on the topic... I also haven't looked in a while and most of the information is just now about how these people are incorrect and also craziness

taste like plain shit after

does homey not season his shit?

Seasoning must enhance the taste, not be the taste. Also most of the taste in chiken come from legs and skin.
- most of the taste in chicken come from legs and skin
  "Good day Mr. meat butcher. Yes I would please today like five legs and skin thank you."

I was going to mention not washing your chicken, but the comments nail it. Don't wash your chicken, the bacteria just spreads around your kitchen.

I remember watching an interview with some chef once. They were asked what common things they would see when they're at someone's house that would keep them from eating, just out of fear. Washing raw chicken in the sink was the instant answer. It splashes everywhere and is very likely to contaminate half your kitchen.
- That's disgusting.
  That's why I bring my raw chicken to the bathtub. The curtains keep it contained, and it gives me something to do while I shower.

I used to have a roommate that would wash her veggies and meat in the soapy dishwasher freaking disgusting

So that's why cilantro tastes like that?

Just stick it in the dishwasher.

Wash it, it’s disgusting. Also clean off the gross white stuff and as much fat as you can. I leave the skin though.
If you bump up your hot water heater, it'll cook it there too.
Right next to the cast iron pan! 😌
By dishwasher they mean oven.

me neither (ive never prepared any chicken)
- me neither (ive never washed any thing)
The only time I wash chicken is after cooking it, and when I drop it on the floor and thing "eh, I can still eat this"

My eggs have chickenshit on them and thats' why they don't need refrigeration like you do in the US.

Also, I can eat them raw if I like. Finnish health authorities sign off on that.

Aussie supermarkets sometimes refrigerate eggs and sometimes not. No idea what’s going on with them.
I just spray paint mine. Last for months.
- My eggs do last for months without going bad and they're not refrigerated.
  How long do your eggs last?
  Also if you don't know whether eggs are bad or not, see if they float. If they float, there's sulphur gas in them and they're no good anymore.
  If they sink though, even if they sort of bob upwards from the bottom but still are at the bottom, they're good.

not eaying animal products has made my life so much easier in that regard. no need to worry about all the pitentially dangerous stuff on and in dead animals, raised in disgusting conditions :3

You say that like vegetables can't get covered in dirt or pesticides
- Plenty of vegetables get ecoli or similar as well. Washing your veggies is super important, with meat, just make sure it's cooked thoroughly.
Yeah, because you only eat cucumbers that have come from farms where forest nymphs cavort and gently brush away yucky bugs, rendering pesticides pointless The plants themselves are bathed in water from mountain springs far far away from Nestle and when it comes to be picked, it's done by moonlight and only by the purest of maidens who definitely aren't exploited.
You know the same problems can happen and do happen quite often with dead plants too, right?
E Coli? Listeria?
Cooking actually kills bacteria as opposed to eating raw foods.
Of all the things you shouldn't eat raw, flour is probably the worst offender
I love how you've just magically decided things based on no actual fact or logic lol

Brine don’t wash

Nobody tell him about restaurant kitchens washing their chicken in bleach to remove the smell of freezer burn...

So that's why I can't get my chicken to taste restaurant quality!
Hey it's not my fault preps didn't pull shit. Put those 200 thighs under the faucet STAT

completely agree. this is why i make sure to thoroughly wash my ice cream with soap and water before eating it.
- Make sure to wash your sugar, too. Cotton candy, especially!

So where I live, frozen chicken is cut on a wooden chopping board overlaid with pieces of the carton it came it. Without washing you'll end up with random bits of cardboard, wood, fish fins and possibly sand.

This is reasonable time to wash your chicken and also likely where this habit comes from. Before the age of factory farming and the advent of reliable home refrigeration a lot of meat was improperly stored before and after selling.
Washing your produce was likely a good defense mechanism to wash away actual dirt, grime and bugs that may have adhered to it. Nowadays it's largely unnecessary unless you're still living in a place where butchering and processing techniques may not be of the greatest quality.

Does washing actually cause the fat to come off though?

I've had bloody chicken before which you do actually want to wash/clean off because cooked blood will completely destroy your dish.

Otherwise you can cut off some cartilage and hard fat that won't render when cooked. No need to wash it.

Nope. The slimy stuff that comes off when you wash chicken is not fat and the pink liquid is myoglobin, not blood. The reason not to wash chicken is that it potentially sprays salmonella all around your sink. Basically, there is no good reason to wash chicken, but it shouldn't affect the actual meat.
- Not myoglobin, actual blood. Very rare, but sometimes the butcher didn't drain properly.
  You can tell because by that time, the blood has coagulated into a mush.
  Myoglobin is clearish red and pink like you said. That's stuff is fine.
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politics? earth shape? religion? nah, i like to argue about washing or not the chicken when preparing it

washing or not the chicken

Better wash them:

Eating chickens is the most common source of Salmonella poisoning. A 2014 issue of Consumer Reports published that 97 percent of chicken breasts found in retail stores were contaminated with bacteria that could make people sick, and 38 percent of the Salmonella found was resistant to multiple antibiotics. And, according to a national retail-meat survey by the Food and Drug Administration, about 90 percent of retail chicken showed evidence of contamination with fecal matter.

Source

Better not wash them:
Washing Chicken Spreads Germs
My source is the CD Fucking C.
Hostile response tone aside, seriously: cooking chicken kills the bacteria. Trying to wash it just splatters disease around your kitchen.
- Hear me out, fill bowl with water. Place chicken in bowl. Swirl a bit. Wash chicken. Dump water. No splashy splashy.
If only there was a better way to kill bacteria in food than just washing it.
- Fucking lol!
- Idk guys. I'm not scrubbing my chicken with bleach to kill bacteria. I just want to rinse off the shit from the factory. "Oh but they wash it!" I don't believe they care enough to do it well. Whatever regulation is set forth by the CDC is kind of irrelevant if there is little enforcement.
Are you eating it raw????
TIL American's don't cook their chicken
No. You don’t wash chicken. Take a paper towel and pat it down, and that’s it. Washing the chicken one way to contaminate your sink, cooking area, and other foods with salmonella. It’s super important to properly cook your chicken to kill any bacteria.
- I'm cleaning my sink daily.
If you cook the chicken properly, salmonella isn't a concern.

Chinese youtube chef recommends washing chicken to reduce the albumin levels and help tenderize, never tested it personally and I definitely don't wash meat

I never wash my meats, that would cast the external microbes around the kitchen. Instead, I blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes. It’s kinda like sous vide, but faster. It’s also fine if you forget it in the water for a bit, the meat will only get cleaner! Toss some broccoli into the water for full meal prep with minimal cleanup

Out of all the disturbing comments in this thread, this one gets to me the most, especially saying it's like a sous vide.
I love cooking my chicken in a sous vide, but you do it low and slow, 145 degrees for about 2 and a half hours.
Excellent article on it here: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-chicken-breast
If you have one of these machines, I highly recommend trying it this way. Give it a quick sear in some cast iron after.
- I tried sous vide baths but the ziplocks kept expanding and leaking, so I improvised. My son, trying to be helpful, kept spilling the warm hanger steak water on our dog, who didn’t mind at all but did manage to build a habit of tripping him on his way to the sink like a chihuahua-shaped guided trip cord. Even after she broke 3 of her legs in a botched attempt, looking like a potato on weighted stilts, the habit persisted. Then we moved on to blanching and my wife had to grind the handles off of our cast iron pot to prevent the kid from trying to move it. It was headache after compromise after headache, but my wife and I tolerated it for the perfect steaks. Just try to tell me they don’t look appetizing

Not washing your chicken with vinegar gives it a dirty taste. Don't @ me.

Does OP work in a mostly back workplace by chance?

As across the pond dweller, I am reading this and going "u wot m8?"

What soap do you use to wash your chicken?
Washing the chicken doesn't fix the problem you're concerned with though. If it did you could wash the chicken and then just eat it raw.
The bacteria is inside the chicken, potentially, where you can't possibly remove it by washing. That's why you have to cook it.
Cooking kills the bacteria, and if you have to cook it then the only thing washing will do is spread any surface bacteria around to other surfaces and gives you wet chicken.
Salmonella can be spread by eating undercooked or raw chicken. Anon hasn't had it because he cooks it properly.
Washing chicken seems to be a very American thing to do? Here in the Netherlands I've never seen or heard someone do it. We just cook our chicken properly.
- I'm American and have never washed chicken nor heard of anyone doing that. What a crazy thing to do.
- I know not a single American that does this.
  I've only heard of it from elsewhere.
Washing chicken really doesn't help. It actually increases your chances of poisoning.
https://drexel.edu/news/archive/2022/August/Dont-Wash-Your-Chicken-Its-Risky-Its-Unnecessary-and-Theres-a-Better-Way
And here I am, just properly cooking my chicken like some kind of savage...

The only time I would ever wash a chicken is if I'm going to brine it in something. Otherwise it cooks just fine.