this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
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[–] [email protected] 84 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

I remember hearing the same thing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

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.
[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

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.