Why You Shouldn’t Wash Chicken Before Cooking It, According to Experts

You’re getting ready to make your go-to chicken breast recipe. All the veggies are washed and ready to go. Now it’s time to prep the poultry—but wait, are you supposed to wash chicken?

“Your first inclination is to rinse it off and remove all the goop that’s on there,” Keith Schneider, PhD, a professor and food safety microbiologist at the University of Florida, tells SELF. But the ickiness of raw chicken is cosmetic as long as you plan on cooking it thoroughly. “You’re just making it look prettier by washing,” Dr. Schneider says.

In fact, washing your chicken can actually make you or your dinner guests sick with a nasty case of foodborne illness. But don’t feel alone if you wash your bird first—nearly 70% of 1,504 people surveyed said they washed or rinsed their poultry before cooking it, according to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Food Protection¹.

Interested in learning why this common practice isn’t a great idea? SELF talked to food safety experts about why you shouldn’t wash your chicken.

Chicken is ready to cook right from the package. You want to focus on cooking poultry properly because heat will kill bacteria lingering on your meat. “There’s a reason we don’t eat chicken and turkey sushi,” Dr. Schneider says. Chicken and other types of poultry should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). While you may think you can tell when food is cooked properly by analyzing its color or texture, the only way to know for sure is to use a food thermometer.

For an accurate reading, Christine Venema, EdD, a food safety educator at Michigan State University Extension, suggests sticking the thermometer into the thickest part of the breast or the thigh or leg of a whole bird. Don’t touch the bone, which is a different temperature than the rest of the chicken.

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Raw chicken (and other poultry or meat) can be contaminated with bacteria that may cause foodborne illnesses such as campylobacter and salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “When you hit that [raw] chicken with water, there’s a tendency for the water to bounce off the chicken and spray everywhere,” Dr. Schneider says. And that raw chicken water can splash bacteria onto anything nearby, such as countertops, cooking surfaces, and other food² (shudder). Hello cross contamination.

“If you have any food product nearby, it can become contaminated with the bacteria that flies away from that sink,” Dr. Venema tells SELF. The USDA estimates that water can launch bacteria-filled droplets up to three feet around your sink.

If you have been washing your chicken for years without any consequences, consider yourself lucky. But continuing to do so opens you up to food poisoning or the stomach flu, which can cause diarrhea, fever, stomach cramps, and vomiting, among other unpleasant symptoms, according to the CDC. Individuals who have a higher risk of developing serious cases of food poisoning, like people who are immunocompromised or pregnant, should really avoid washing raw chicken. 

The only time it might make sense to wash chicken before cooking is if you’re, say, on a farm, and washing the chicken far from where you prepare food, Londa Nwadike, PhD, an assistant professor and extension food safety specialist at Kansas State University, tells SELF. She grew up on a farm and remembers slaughtering chickens for food in her backyard when she was younger. That might then require washing feathers or blood away from the meat. “But the meat from the chicken you buy at [the] grocery store should be clean,” Dr. Nwadike says.

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In addition to washing chicken, there are a few other food safety mistakes that can contribute to foodborne illness. Here’s what to keep in mind as you prepare your meals:

• Clean your workspace. Before you prepare any food, scrub up like you are prepping for surgery. “Use warm water and lather up really well,” Dr. Venema says. Scrub your hands and up to your forearms for about 20 seconds with soap³. Then rinse with warm water and dry with a paper towel. Also, wash your sink, countertops, and utensils with hot, soapy water before and after preparing food.
• Don’t use the same cutting board for everything. If you can’t use separate cutting boards for each kind of food you’re preparing, then it’s worth at least having two: one for raw meat and one for the rest of your food. It’s also a good idea to wash your boards with soap and water after preparing each item. The USDA recommends giving a final rinse using just water and then drying your board using paper towels or by air drying.
• Don’t use old cutting boards. Plastic and wood cutting boards wear out over time, developing grooves where bacteria can hide and thrive. Once you notice that your cutting boards are looking a little worse for wear, it’s best to throw them out, the USDA says. When purchasing cutting boards, it’s safe to use one made of wood or non-porous materials like plastic, marble, glass, and glass/ceramic blends, per the USDA. However, Dr. Nwadike notes that wood boards tend to have more grooves from knife use. If you’re going to use wood, the USDA says that bamboo cutting boards are harder, less porous (read “fewer nooks and crannies for bacteria”), and absorb less moisture than other wood options⁴.
• Keep your refrigerator cold enough. The optimum fridge temperature is below 40 degrees, Dr. Venema says. This ensures an environment where it’s much harder for bacteria to proliferate. In general, the CDC says the “danger zone” for food to develop dangerous bacteria is between 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit—a wide range that includes pretty much anything you’d consider to be room temperature. Putting a thermometer close to the fridge door—the warmest part of the fridge—will give you a more accurate reading, Dr. Venema says.
• Separate foods. It’s important to keep raw poultry and other meats away from ready-to-eat and cooked foods, according to the CDC. Store your chicken and other meat on the bottom shelf of your fridge so juices don’t dribble onto other foods. And be sure to use separate plates and utensils for raw and cooked poultry.
• Reheat leftovers to the right temperature. Realistically, you might dig into some refrigerated chicken because there are days when you just don’t have time for a microwave. That won’t likely be a problem unless the food has reached the danger zone. If you want to be extra safe, the USDA recommends always reheating leftovers to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill stubborn bacteria that may be lingering.
• Put your chicken away quickly. Store leftover chicken in the fridge or freezer within two hours of cooking so your food doesn’t enter the danger zone, the USDA advises. (Or, pop it in the fridge one hour after cooking if the environmental temperature is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit).
• Don’t defrost your chicken on the counter. Instead try a safer method of defrosting your bird, like by putting it in a bowl of cold water. (Learn more in our guide to defrosting chicken.)

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Sure, going through so many steps just to cook a meal might feel over the top. But when it comes to avoiding the gastrointestinal hellscape that is foodborne illness, it’s totally worth it.

Sources:

1. Journal of Food Protection, Consumer-Reported Handling of Raw Poultry Products at Home: Results From a National Survey
2. Journal of Food Protection, Observational Study of the Impact of a Food Safety Intervention on Consumer Poultry Washing
3. StatPearls, Hand Hygiene
4. Microorganisms, Insights Into the Microbiological Safety of Wooden Cutting Boards Used for Meat Processing in Hong Kong’s Wet Markets: A Focus on Food-Contact Surfaces, Cross-Contamination and the Efficacy of Traditional Hygiene Practices

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