i must show this to my husband! he is always nagging me to wash the chicken before cooking and i argued it wouldnt do anything! i. knew. it.

Washing chicken is a thing? I had no idea...

Dorrie Greenspan, in "Around my French Table" talks about this and cautions you to NOT rinse chicken. I had not known this before. Its great to have TheKitchn addressing food safety issues.

Whats a chicken?

We just did a blog post on this -- do not rinse your poultry! http://blog.aphl.org/2011/11/do-not-rinse-your-turkey-and-other-thanksgiving-food-rules-for-every-day/

Don't forget that many (if not most) of the bacteria concerns surrounding chicken don't exist if you get birds that were dressed by hand rather than machines.

The majority of the harmful bacteria gets introduced to the meat via the eviscerating machines that don't keep the entrails intact, which then contaminates them and any subsequent shared baths they go through as they are processed, such as the cold water bath used to cool the carcasses. I wish I could find a link to where I read the studies on this, but my prayers to Google are going unanswered. As I recall the rates on contamination due to mishandling in commercial operations was over 70%, whereas small hand-processing operations had contamination rates lower than 5%. The commercial operations are aware of this problem and "fix" it by later rinsing the birds in disinfectant (kinda like listerine) in an attempt to reverse the damage.

If you are concerned about bacteria in chicken, there is also strong evidence suggesting that organically raised birds have a much lower infection rate than conventional: http://www.naturalnews.com/031796_organic_poultry_salmonella.html

The referenced study doesn't mention how the birds were processed, but it stands to reason that less bacteria in results in less bacteria out, regardless of handling techniques.

All raw meat should be handled as if it is contaminated. Better safe than sorry. Rinsing doesn't eliminate bacteria; proper cooking does. http://blog.aphl.org/2011/11/do-not-rinse-your-turkey-and-other-thanksgiving-food-rules-for-every-day/

When I was eight, my mom taught me how to make roast chicken, and she washed it. I decided it was the most disgusting process in the whole world, so when she told me I'd have to do it myself next time I cooked a whole chicken, I promptly refused and said I'd never cook a whole chicken again. And I haven't. And now I find out that I spent money on rotisserie chicken (so that I didn't have to wash the chicken) for YEARS for nothing? This is life changing.

Buy organic, small scale, and/or air chilled for the best quality chicken. And don't rinse.

Air chilled allows quick cooling of the bird without adding water weight (and waste!) to your bird or cross-contaimination.

My mother showed me as a young child how to wash a chicken and I've done it since till a few months ago when I failed a health and safety quiz because I did so. I was pretty relieved. It's not nice at all. I always have to get my hands in there and rip fat etc. rinse and then afterwards I have to basically sterilize everything with boiling water and vinegar. What a headache!

Now all I need to do is basically bung it in and thank goodness for that.

I've never rinsed a piece of protein in my life. If it's getting heated through, why waste the time?

It seems like I am the only one who regularly washes their chicken! Even if I bought it the day I cook it, organic or not-there is a smell and washing seems to help remove the odor. Since I cook and my husband cleans up, he'll scrub the sink and cutting boards for good measure. It may be only me, but I'll keep washing...

I wash mine. I don't see how it could be that dangerous. I already open the packages in the sink, which spills chicken juice in there, so I don't see how a quick rinse could make it any worse. And no, I've never given myself food poisoning. Maybe it's because I wash my sink regularly, anyway.

I have never washed a chicken. Too yucky. Always remove the skin though.

Ever since I saw Julia Child and Emeril Lagasse talking about washing chicken on his show (years and years ago), I've been a chicken washer. They were demonstrating their technique and, if memory serves, Emeril said something like, "We always wash the chicken because of... When it's processed...the uh..." Julia completed his sentence by saying,"Because of the fecal soup." Emeril agreed: "Yes. The fecal soup."

They were talking about typical commercial chicken processing methods. That was enough for me. I've washed ever since. I'm careful about it and I clean the area thoroughly. It may not be strictly necessary, but I've never been able to shake the memory of those two words spoken by those two chefs.

Didn't know washing chicken was meant to eliminate germs. Wouldn't you need soap or boiling water to accomplish that? I rinse my chicken not to eliminate germs (because cooking the meat does that), but to help pull the extra fat and blood vessels off.

If washing chicken is "the most disgusting process in the whole world" then you probably shouldn't be eating chicken. Just a thought. People who eat meat (and I am one!) should be able to handle what it actually IS.

I have never washed a chicken and had no idea some people thought it should be done! I am super squeamish about handling raw meat, though - so I open the bag and slide the entire chicken into the pan, giblets and all. (I guess we only ever have whole chickens and I only ever roast them.)

Small-scale chicken does have a lot less bacteria to be worred about (I remember Joel Salatin talking about his open-air processing on a movie I watched) and I only buy locally grown/processed chickens...but I still clean up pretty thoroughly! And I have always hated touching the raw stuff.

I always wash my chicken, every single time. I don't know where it has been, I don't know if the butcher but it on the floor, or if the guys at the counter dropped it or mixed it with other parts that are dirty...I don't think cooking gets rid of dirt or similar.

washing the chicken, to me always seemed like I was in effect, doing the opposite of what I wanted to achieve.. going down a rabbit hole of essentially contaminating all those surfaces etc and that just always seemed so silly! (think, wearing disposable gloves that you take off and leave one hand exposed, then having to re wash that hand...less handling the better. Cooking properly and investing in a good thermometer will do the trick! Oh and using the happy birthday method for washing your hands!

Not to mention that chicken absorbs a lot of water. What is reached at Le Cordon Bleu is to "flambé" the chicken with a blowtorch, then you just burn all feathers and impurities. Never wash a chicken have we been told...

I don't wash chicken, but I still don't see how doing so would cause bacteria to spread further - I'm already emptying any fluid in the bag into the sink; touching the bird with my hands (remove from the bag, transfer to roasting pan, removing giblets and excess fat, shoving butter under the skin...); and moving the bird from one place to another. Unless you're really blasting the thing with the sprayer.

I'm also not convinced that a quick rinse is going to cause the bird to absorb that much water. Brining or soaking, sure, but just rinsing?

@jmorri26 My sentiments exactly!

I quit rinsing cut up chicken years ago. For no good reason, I've continued to rinse whole chicken before seasoning and then roasting.

And as far as the argument against rinsing because of splatter, 1) you don't need the faucet on full blast and 2) if you clean up after yourself, it shouldn't be an issue.

I don't think rinsing a chicken is particularly bad but it does seem particularly unnecessary. The first time I saw it was my mother in law and I think i just kind of stood there looking really puzzled.

When she was a child (like my parents too) they used to raise and slaughter their own chickens and I'm sure washing it out after removing the innards is part of that process so maybe it comes from there?

When I was a little girl supermarkets sold whole chickens. It was so much fun to help my mother clean and examine the chicken. When I was a little girl my Saturday treat was a piece of raw sirlon. I wash my chicken and will continue to do so. I would never eat raw sirlon today. C"est ... well you know what I mean. Keep washing the chickens.

This is incredibly silly. Are the non-washers throwing away their cutting boards, knives, marinade dishes, etc for fear of rinsing them before putting in the dishwasher or washing by hand??

We're bringing home plenty of chicken and meat juice just by going to the grocery store, btw. I worked at one for ten years.....most people do not put their drippy meat packages in plastic bags. They drip all over the shopping carts and the checklanes. I won't mention how unsanitary children are...

Think about that when you put your unbagged bananas, melons, broccoli, in your cart. Or when you put your orange juice carton in the fridge when you get home.

I always wash whole chickens, and I always do it within the confines of my kitchen sink.

After rinsing the inside and outside of a whole chicken, (regardless of whether its organic or conventionally produced) there is always some sort of slime (chicken juice, condensation, whatever) covering my chicken. I think its pretty much common sense that your end result might taste better if you wash this off.

I pat dry, and more often than not, as my mother taught me, I rub the entire chicken with kosher salt, then rinse off the salt, and pat dry for whatever seasoning I'll put on. This is a really old fashioned way to kill surface bacteria. Since I don't really want my chicken to be lysol-clean, and I will be cooking it momentarily in a hot oven, I think the salt method is a great way to mildly season your bird and remove at least some of the surface bacteria.

Not washing because of kitchen contamination is nonsense. Keep your rinsing to the kitchen sink, rinse out the sink after you're done, and don't drip chicken juice on anything when you're transferring your bird to your roasting dish... Sounds pretty easy to me!

Like Arouault, I give the chicken a good rub with salt then rinse it off and dry it. Growing up, my mum would make a lime and salt mixture and use it the same way. Seems sensible to me. Cooking it might kill the bacteria, but washing it makes me feel better.

I never rinse. Cooking kills germs, rinsing does not.

I agree with hyeson. I do not wash the chicken to get rid of germs, that is asinine. I wash the chicken to get rid of the smell and slim. To me it is easier to handle a washed chicken vs one straight out of the packaging.

Also IndyCote has a great point, you don't wash with the facet on full blast and splashing everywhere! HAHA, just a trickle will do.

WASH your chickens......wash your fruit & veggies.....then CLEAN your sink & cutting boards. Don't forget all the people that handle it before it's packaged as well as potential bacteria and like peple above said, slime etc....I would never trust the USDA...FDA..or any other claim. It's just common sense really...............

I don't get it. The USDA is worried about the splatter from washing the chicken -- but as ohjodi said, what about the cutting boards, knives, utensils, bowls, etc. used to manipulate the chicken?

Whether you wash or don't wash (I'm a washer), you need to clean off EVERYTHING that the meat touched anyway! So why not wash it and just make sure you're careful not to "splatter"?

Of course washing doesn't kill the germs, but it gives you better control of what you're cooking (you can remove the slim, film, tendons, excess fat) ... unless you throw your chicken in the pan straight from the package, slime & all. Personally, I find that to be even more gross than handling the raw meat.

Wow I can't believe there is such a divide over this. I have always washed. I can't imagine throwing a whole chicken in a pan as is. Don't you wonder how that chicken was handled prior to packaging? Maybe it did fall on the floor as was previously mentioned or worse. And I do feel that washing does remove that sort of film, fat, etc... off the bird. Just makes me feel better. I have never had a problem spreading bacteria because I pay close attention to disinfecting sink afterwards.

I am from Barbados... all meat poultry, fish etc we put lime and salt on before cooking. Couple minutes and rinse then season and cook. Salmonella is nonexistent here.

Many people believe eating chicken is healthy, as long as one cooks their food enough and washes their hands enough. These are dangerous lies for multiple reasons.

Have you ever had a urinary tract infection? Are you told, when you asked why you're getting them, that some people are just "prone to them"? Have you ever thought it could be something you're eating?

My name is Karen Call, and I haven't eaten meat in 6 years (was a Lacto-Ovo vegetarian then), and Vegan for 6 months. I go for raw, living plants whenever possible along with my husband, and beautiful daughter, and we have never felt healthier! I work for Urologists at Urology Associates of North Texas, and would like to share some knowledge with you about urinary tract infections, disease, and cancer prevention.

E. Coli can make its way to your urinary tract through your gut. Chickens slaughtered by consumer demand are regularly dipped in a "fecal bath" (water containing a mix of their own poop) to make the chicken heavier, so the industry can sell more.

As many as 85 percent of urinary tract infections are caused by E. coli, according to the report in the March issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Amy Manges, PhD, associate professor in the department of epidemiology, biostatistics and occupational health at McGill University in Montreal, published a study in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's journal that was enormously telling:

In 71 percent of the cases, the E. coli bacteria DNA collected from women with UTIs matched that of the E. coli found in the supermarket chicken, while just 29 percent matched those found in beef and pork. Similarly, the E. coli bacteria collected from factory-farm slaughterhouse chickens matched UTI bacteria 79 percent of the time, compared to just 3 percent of those from cattle and 17 percent of those from pigs.

Thank you, DNA testing.

The so-called "solution" of cooking your animal flesh to a crisp means you are still eating dead feces. What's worse, one is then eating the carcinogens created by cooking food (http://superbeingsystem.blogspot.com/2006/04/science-proves-cooked-food.html), super bacteria, parasites, the saturated fat types that don't flush from your body (unlike medium chain fatty acids such as avocado and coconut) and the animal flesh is electron-deficient. Most oils one is cooking the food in has been extracted through extremely high heat and processing. It again undergoes high heat when cooked. These oils are often confused with the natural cholesterol made by the body, so the oils end up in place of the cholesterol in the cell membranes. They then suffocate the body's cells.

Without the oxygen, the only way the cell can replicate is anaerobically. They impede the process of cellular exchange, or letting nutrition in and letting wastes out.

Electron-deficient foods: animal flesh. Electron-rich: living plants.

Electron-rich foods supply the electrons needed, that when exposed to the protons of the sun, interact together in order to charge our cells. Charged, oxygenated cells are what keep you from developing cancer.

http://www.royalrife.com/haltiwanger1.pdf

In case people think the solution to this is washing the chicken flesh first, think again. Studies have shown the feces are ingrained into the flesh to the point where washing it again and again will not rid the chicken of the feces or E. coli. Dr. H. Lillard found that bacteria could still be recovered from the 40th rinse of a single chicken carcass!

http://www.foodsafety.wisc.edu/assets/pdf_Files/Wash%20your%20Hands.pdf

If that weren't enough, please understand that conventional chickens have been fed arsenic:

http://www.naturalnews.com/032659_arsenic_chicken.html

This was last commented on 3 months ago. It's October 2012. Since my marriage 3 years ago in 2009. I have cooked chicken about 10 times. Im a rinser, always have been and so is my mom and other cooks in our family do the same. I cannot imagine not rinsing off the slime and smell, it just makes sense to do that. As people have mentioned its not just the bacteria of the chicken or meat, but how it has been handled and that is of a huge concern to me. So much so that I think I am slightly phobic about cooking chicken at home. I still cook minced beef or lamb. But am so put off by the info out there. This bloody chicken fecal soup is a disgusting practice and the reason most of us rinse is because we know that the slaughter methods aren't exactly 100% sanitary. The post above has put me right off chicken. Why does what we ingest have to be so disgusting? wish I could source real organic chicken slaughtered in humane and sanitary conditions. Wishful thinking at my budget.