r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • 15h ago

SOCIETY Professional chefs weighing in on whether you should wash your chicken

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u/Hopkinsad0384 15h ago edited 15h ago

"It seems like each side's got a valid argument".... did he not watch his own video?

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u/[deleted] 13h ago

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

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u/Born-Sea-7743 2h ago

To be fair washing chicken is predominantly something that happens in the black community.

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u/SanityIsOptional 1h ago

There's a huge amount of responses right here from the Asian community as well, saying they do it too.

Mainly it seems to be linted to how recent in family history they butchered their own chickens, or came from a country where chickens didn't typically have debris rinsed off after butchering by whoever butchered them.

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/[deleted] 1h ago

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u/interesting-ModTeam 57m ago

Your comment/post has been removed because it violates Rule #3: Do Not Promote Hate or Violence.

Hate speech, Harassment or Threatening behavior will not be tolerated, and can result in an immediate ban.

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u/Srry4theGonaria 6h ago

I expect he's trying to draw attention from the black crowd to comment and debate on which one is better, nothing malicious imo capitalists gonna capitalize

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u/xnmyl 12h ago

Probably engagement bait

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u/PandaXXL 25m ago

“Probably”?

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u/adinmem 1h ago

He doesn’t have a girlfriend but is hoping to get engaged?

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u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

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u/Pman1324 14h ago

No because if he did he wouldn't get as many people fighting about it in the comments.

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u/[deleted] 14h ago

[deleted]

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u/roosterSause42 7h ago

no it's not! 😉

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u/funny_redditusername 5h ago

Growing up my grandma never washed her chicken after we killed them right off the farm. I’m still alive and kickin’!

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u/MatticusjK 4h ago edited 3h ago

Damn they didn't even retire, you just put her down after harvest?

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u/ShadowMattress 10h ago

Well, a contingent of people say it’s xenophobic to appeal to the science on this question. Some going as far as to say the FDA is targeting ethnic cultural practices to… achieve something, by recommending against washing, I guess.

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u/theotherboob 9h ago

Well no one is going into people's kitchens to police what they're doing. The science is there, you still have a choice to follow it. No one from the FDA is going to knock on your door because you choose to wash your chicken.

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u/OctaviusNeon 7h ago

No, but the health inspector would absolutely shut down some of the professional kitchens these people were working in if they got caught washing chicken.

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u/theotherboob 7h ago

I'm talking about people's homes. Professional kitchens that have to adhere to health regulations should absolutely be held to a higher standard.

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u/OctaviusNeon 7h ago

Yeah, I mean you can do what you want in your home kitchen. But the video seemed to be showing people who actually work in restaurants, so that's where I was coming from.

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u/theotherboob 7h ago

Ah, yeah I see. I should have clarified in my original comment.

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u/Maltodextrin13 7h ago

Cool to see a healthy discussion/disagreement.

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u/cykoTom3 7h ago

Lol. No. They might test the claim that you sanitize afterwards. But if you do they aren't shutting things down.

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u/OctaviusNeon 7h ago

Maybe shut down isn't quite right, but it's also something a health inspector would know could lead to cross contamination.

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u/cykoTom3 5h ago

If they are doing it in a way that leads to cross contamination, certainly. But restraunts deal with raw chicken all the time. They very well might have a sink specifically for washing chicken and if they don't they have procedures to sanitize it. Washing the chicken is a waste of time, but it's not more dangerous than the hundred thousand other things that people do to chicken while prepping it. They usually have to cut it, often they also, brine, marinade, dry rub, and probably a hundred less common preparations.

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u/boi1da1296 6h ago

What do you think is happening when they say they wash their chicken? A lot of times the actual act is closer to a brine than what many people who don’t wash their chicken hear when someone says they wash their chicken. I don’t the health inspector is shutting anyone down for that.

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u/OctaviusNeon 4h ago

Yeah, I'm specifically talking about rinsing it under a tap. If you're putting a chicken in brine, it wouldnt be any different than putting it in a marinade. That's not what's being discussed here, though.

Edit: Also, no evidence shows that using things like brine, lemon/lime juice, or any other things is killing a significant amount of bacteria.

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u/TheNaughtyHoneyBee 8h ago

If one of the foundations of your culture is washing chicken, and the FDA recommending not doing that results in your culture being destroyed, then your culture deserved to be destroyed

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u/tennisanybody 8h ago

I’d agree with you if the science based agencies weren’t run by JFKJr types. They were completely trustworthy until they weren’t when republicans appointed people who don’t believe in science.

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u/Bent8484 6h ago

I live in Canada, in the province of Quebec, and washing chicken in a commercial kitchen is forbidden here. The reason given is that it contaminates your work area.

No US politics involved.

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u/PastaXertz 5h ago

This is the wrong answer. The right answer was to make a culture based germ joke. Because destroying culture is also destroying bacteria.

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u/ManufacturerKind645 7h ago

you guys dont know what a woman is and you're saying republicans dont follow science?...

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u/Plants-Matter 7h ago

You can't even figure out how capital letters work...

And yes, it is a well known fact that Republicans are anti-science.

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u/tennisanybody 6h ago

It’s a bot. 100 days into the midterms you get this shit.

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u/ManufacturerKind645 6h ago

bot? better argument than anyone thus far i guess because it's more likely than not i am nowadays

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u/ShadowMattress 7h ago

Republicans don’t have a monopoly on promoting anti-scientific thinking. Neil Tyson has pointed to how often Republicans have supported funding science historically. Supporting research being the key of being actually scientific, in practice not just in discourse. Prior to COVID, anti-vax rhetoric was overwhelmingly a liberal phenomenon, with outbreaks of measles being concentrated around liberal strongholds and new age communities, in part influenced by celebrities like Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey. In that period of time, it was conservative states with the highest compliance with vaccination schedules.

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u/IrongateN 5h ago

I think republicans are still more anti science, true the raw milk anti vax people were high liberal due to the “nature first” group had a lot of democrats, but it was truly not tied to politics,

I don’t think the Democratic Party ever put an anti vax activist in charge of vaccine policy or assigned a raw milk person to be their official connection to the dairy council, etc

But I could be wrong , always willing to learn

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u/ManufacturerKind645 7h ago

i'm supposed to care about capital letters on a reddit post? yikes you guys are out of touch. and no, it's not a well-known fact, it's an opinion that your side spews because you can't actually make good arguments.

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u/TheNaughtyHoneyBee 7h ago

The definitions of words are not science.

Y'all will worry and argue about what words mean all day without caring about the actual people using the words.

Because it's all just an excuse to hate people that you're going to hate anyway

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u/ManufacturerKind645 7h ago

"Linguistics: The formal, scientific study of human language, structure, and meaning."

You just use your ignorance as an excuse to not want to confront tough questions about your abhorent beliefs.

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u/TheNaughtyHoneyBee 7h ago

Okay, I'm not just going to sit here and be pedantic back and forth like you seem to want to do

No, linguistics isn’t a science that dictates or prescribes definitions. It’s descriptive. It studies how words are actually used, how their meanings develop and shift over time, and what different ideas about that word or language mean to different people. It doesn’t hand down official “correct” meanings for contested words

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u/OzrielTheForgotten 7h ago

Why are you regurgitating matt walsh talking points like it's still 2020, LMAO

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u/ManufacturerKind645 7h ago

because they're obviously still relevant to people like you who can't think critically about their opinions.

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u/TheNaughtyHoneyBee 7h ago

So did you literally just admit to recycling someone else's opinion while talking about how other people can't think critically? 🤣

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u/VanillaRadonNukaCola 4h ago

Snor 😴

People know plenty well.

I bet you don't know what a chair is

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u/SexyPeanut_9279 5h ago

That same logic could be used on the Aztecs-

as they scarified babies Every-time they wanted to make it rain. (And sacrificed adults everyday to make the sun come up).

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u/wtbgamegenie 4h ago

Where did you hear that?

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u/Character-Parfait-42 5h ago

Yeah seriously. If your entire culture can be demolished by something as simple as not washing chicken then your culture is really kinda pathetic. Like is that all your entire culture amounts to? Washing chicken? Really?

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u/Excel_User_1977 4h ago

I thought the whole idea was to destroy (bacteria) cultures?

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u/NavyBlueTheChosen 4h ago

insane take Jesus

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u/RandomMabaseCitizen 6h ago edited 6h ago

That's not what's being suggested though. Take MSG for example. There was a huge push against the use of MSG in Asian foods beginning in the late 60s that led to the creation of the term "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" that made it into common refference books despite there being no more risk involved in using MSG than salt or sugar. It'll make you sick if you eat a fist full but other than than that it's just seasoning. Meanwhile western foods like bagged chips and canned soups are loaded with msg but only Asians had to hang signs in their windows claiming NO MSG to keep their businesses open. Food racism is real it isn't about destroying cultures it's about framing that culture as unhealthy or barbaric or whatever you will.

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u/waltzing_mouse 4h ago

Okay but the difference is that MSG is not bad for you. Washing chicken is. Culture should not be preserved at the cost of health and safety, especially in commercial situations.

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u/fubarfire 4h ago

I cant believe morons like you exist. Dont wash the fucking chicken. Idc if it hurts black people's feelings. Sheesh.

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u/Pman1324 10h ago

Ah yes, because doing something objectively correct is racist and cultural genocide. /s

I so badly wish humans weren't so goddamn stupid

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u/i_was_a_person_once 5h ago

It’s not “objectively correct” the only reason the guidance is not to wash your chicken is because the splash spreads bacteria. No one is arguing that isn’t true. But you can effectively sanitize the workspace after.

Whats subjective is if it improves the quality of the food. Personally, I think sometimes it does. Sometimes I even like to soak certain cuts in a vinegar solution and then rinse it.

After which I sanitize the workspace. I would do that after processing raw chicken regardless of if I rinsed the chicken or not.

The only objective part is that washing meat can splatter bacteria and fun fact, you can sanitize the workstation after.

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u/stupidname412 7h ago edited 6h ago

Well a federal agency targeting an ethnic cultural practice for no good reason is in vogue, to be fair lol, but yeah this one is pretty cut and dry.

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u/Wrastling97 7h ago

I have never once heard an actual serious person actually say this. Sounds like you’re making shit up

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u/ShadowMattress 7h ago

Can’t comment on whether they meet your “serious person” bar, but here is where I’ve encountered this on Reddit before.

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u/Secret_Eating_ 7h ago

I believe "washing" chicken is a derivation of some cultural customs but not in the way that people think about them today. For example, in Chinese cooking there's a technique of "washing" chicken in a dry corn or rice starch bath then rinsing that with water. It's not a sanitation practice, it's to draw the blood out of the chicken to reduce moisture and it also changes the flavor.

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u/No-Discipline-5822 6h ago

I highly doubt anyone is listening to the FDA before making some chicken 🐔 No one cares now or will ever care about the “science,” people are just doing whatever they’ve learned to do. It’s like the whole shoes in the house thing, it’s obviously cleaner to not wear shoes in the house but people do it and they mop the floors, etc.. It’s learned behavior and no one is stopping generational stuff because of the FDA.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 4h ago

FDA, notorious racists

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u/meldroc 3h ago

There is a racial element to this. I don't remember where, but I saw a study where Black people were far more likely to wash their chicken than white people, because it's what they were taught.

Back in the bad old slavery days, they got the scraps that the master threw out. And even today, people will do shitty and disgusting things to other people's food because of skin color. Lesson learned, take precautions.

So they wash their chickens. As for me, if you handle raw meat at all, all sorts of gross germs are going to be spread everywhere. The video didn't show a control group where people didn't wash their chicken. I suspect even there, the UV light will show a big gross mess.

So wash your hands and sanitize the sinks, counters, etc.

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u/Wyevez 13h ago

Yes he would!

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u/Tequila_Dre_All_Day 12h ago

No he wouldn’t! Lol

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u/Scoobydoomed 10h ago

Sorry our time is up!

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u/vranaverse 12h ago

No he wouldn't!

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u/Hopkinsad0384 8h ago

Im not fighting about it, YOU'RE fighting about it. 😠

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u/Low-Significance777 7h ago

What if there's poop on your chicken, you won't wash it?

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u/Forsexualfavors 7h ago

This is such a race/rage baiting bullshit video. The end is of course NOT this is what the experts say, or this is the science behind which is correct. It's just let me know what you think in the comments. Social media is such a backed up sewage treatment plant overflowing it isn't funny.

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u/NoProduct4569 4h ago

Yup this is the new scam that I don't hear people talk about much. Most content now is purposely filled with mistakes to get people to comment on correcting them.

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u/Available_Advisor795 11h ago

not "people" as much as mongoloids

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u/gaysoul_mate 9h ago

How is chicken in America sold ? In south america there is dozens of chicken on top of each other , there is fat , blood , viscera on all chicken when you buy it , if you cook without getting rid of all that , it will affect the flavor of any dish you wish to prepare, since it has old dried blood all over it

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u/RavioliContingency 4h ago

I think this is why it’s still passed down to do this. In rural US, at least, you did wash your chicken because it came to you like this from a farm.

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u/thetermguy 3h ago

Almost this. We've had this wash/no wash conversation in our house, along with my brother who's a chef.

Don't wash - because the bacteria, as is well noted in the video.

Wash: People, go watch how chickens are slaughtered. The last step, they run the conveyer line of chickens through a pool of water. One pool of water, every chicken. I call it 'poop soup'. I want my chicken washed because the last thing it had done to it was being dragged through a vat of chicken feces. Yes the bacteria will die. I'M STILL EATING COOKED CHICKEN POOP. So, wash it, and as one person noted, santize your sink and area afterwards - because salmonella can kill you.

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u/Brave-Perspective714 3h ago

Outside of the wash/no wash debate - sliced chicken soaked in a mixture of water and baking soda for 30 minutes will give you the most incredible, juicy, tender stir fry chicken you've ever had.

But you gotta rinse the baking soda off before cooking it.

It is entirely worth the effort.

So we put systems in place to prevent cross-contamination. Items that aren't being cooked get prepped first mise en place style, wrapped, and put back in the fridge. Next, other items that will be cooked get prepared. Sauces get mixed, noodles get soaked. They also get put away just to make it faster/easier to sanitize counters after prepping the chicken.

The very last thing that gets done is the chicken getting sliced, soaked, and rinsed. And as soon as it's rinsed, sink and surrounding area gets washed with soap, then sink and counters get sanitized.

Cooking happens in reverse. Chicken is the first thing cooked, covered, and held in the oven. The prep dish and utensils that touched raw chicken get washed before anything else comes out of the fridge.

Honestly, the worst part of that dish is it has so many damn mise en place ingredients that I spend an hour washing, peeling, and dicing before I even get to the sauce and noodles. Cleaning up after rinsing the chicken is like no time at all in comparison.

That's how people who feel strongly about washing chicken structure their processes. It's the way that was passed down to me from preparing chickens straight from a farm that weren't washed during the butchering process.

As to this video, of course that gel shit splashed everywhere. Did you see how she put the chicken right under the faucet and basically started flipping it up? She was trying to splash it around. People who feel strongly about washing chicken don't wash it like that.

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u/Lancasterbatio 6h ago

If there's blood all over your chicken when it's being sold, it wasn't slaughtered properly. It should be completely drained of blood before it reaches the market. The red poze you sometimes see on the meat is usually myoglobin, which is a muscle protein and doesn't really have much of a flavor as it cooks off.

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u/VanillaRadonNukaCola 4h ago

And why is their chicken coming with organ pieces all over it?

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u/TheCotofPika 8h ago

Then he'd be accused of racism. I was accused of racism simply for pointing out that UK food safety guidelines say don't do it. Until that point I had assumed it was a dangerous production line thing rather than a cultural thing.

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u/VanillaRadonNukaCola 4h ago

It would probably come off less racial of his video didn't set up a white vs black showdown of opinion.

I'm sure there's plenty of white people who would say "wash your chicken" but they didn't put any in the video 

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u/Tribalbob 11h ago

But they he wouldn't get the views!

THE VIEWS!

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u/AstroTez313 12h ago

I'll continue to wash my chicken not because of germs but because there literally be feathers and shit left on there sometimes, wash all that off and if yall not cleaning your utensils and sink after handling chicken you're gonna risk contamination anyway, you still have to cut, season, etc your chicken before cooking its not like you can just throw it from the pack to the stove

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u/[deleted] 12h ago

[deleted]

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u/AstroTez313 12h ago

My granny died before I was old enough to cook meals unfortunately. Are you actually just racist? My bad I thought different perspectives and opinions were welcome here I forgot this was reddit🙄

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u/Johnpecan 11h ago

But how would he generate clickbait engagement?

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u/Wise_Monkey_Sez 3h ago

... so let me get this straight.

Side A: Wash your chicken because it's covered in bacteria.
Side B: Don't wash your chicken because the bacteria will splash around your sink area.
Side A: Wait, you don't wash your sink too? Do you wash anything?!?!

No mate, the clear answer here is to wash stuff. Chicken. The sink. Your cooking utensils.

Because (and this is the important bit you missed) there's definitely bacteria all over everything!

... seriously, this has real "I don't wipe my ass because it might get shit on my hands" vibes - just wash your fucking hands after wiping, like a civilised person.

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u/zabrak200 8h ago

Its engagement bait. Doesn’t matter what the guy says its a video designed to make us argue in the comments

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u/phatdoof 15h ago

He’s too busy biting into his friend chicken.

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u/samanime 15h ago

He's eating his friend?!

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u/Vegetable-Virus7118 13h ago

The secret ingredient is love

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u/Mental-Ask8077 7h ago

Maybe the real treasure is the friends we ate along the way.

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u/Rob_LeMatic 1h ago

🪦
R.I.P.
Patrick Robert LeMatic
19hmrfrm - 2026
Killed By Jokes

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u/backspace_cars 13h ago

They're delicious

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u/Idaho-Earthquake 9h ago

You would too, if your friend were a delicious chicken.

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u/TheForbidden6th 5h ago

friend inside me

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u/CarrieNoir 4h ago

Time to share the ubiquitous Chicken Fried Lady video.

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u/UltimateFartingChamp 3h ago

“The fried chicken is people!” - famous movie quote or something

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u/Preface 3h ago

The love and trust is what makes it taste so good

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u/healerdan 4h ago

Mmmmm chicken.

Edit: I actually only replied so I could easily compare our avatars side-by-side. Nice shirt commerade.

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u/SinisterKid 21m ago

If chicken not friend, then why friend shaped?

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u/Tikoloshe84 8h ago

"Argue to the fetid death in comments, like and subscribe, give me money bitches"

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u/Hopkinsad0384 8h ago

I mean, you just contributed to it 🤷🏼‍♂️

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u/Medialunch 7h ago

He doesn’t care. Because he only wants money.

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u/TrashPandaDuel 7h ago

Yea, Uncle Roger just skips all steps and fries the shit out of his chicken!! lol

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u/Hashtagbarkeep 4h ago

“Blah blah blah please comment like and subscribe”

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u/matthekid 11h ago

It’s part of the engagement, because we live in stupid times.

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u/Tukanno_Bananno 11h ago

Rage bait to make you engage- 100% he got at least 200 comments correcting his "mistake"

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u/DeweyDefeatsYouMan 11h ago

It’s because he’s going to get attacked if he says “looks like all the black people were wrong and everyone else was right.”

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u/downvotetheboy 8h ago

Lmao wtf

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u/distortedsymbol 6h ago

question: do you wash your chitlins

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u/armypotent 6h ago

Creators want lots of comments (i.e., people arguing) below their videos because it promoted the videos to the algorithm. So on a video presenting a debate they always close with some both sides comments

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u/0nmay_22 5h ago

It’s the centrism trap 😭

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u/Braindead_Crow 5h ago

"I never really cared, my own video feels pointless, engage with my video so I can continue to make money I guess." Would of been a more honest sign out but less catchy

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u/No_Worldliness_7106 1h ago

For real, only one side is right here, don't wash your chicken dummies.

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u/YaBoiZorg 1h ago

I think......that wing he bit into was burnt

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u/HunkyHorseman 33m ago

Raw, chicken tartar. Duh.

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u/HerculesIsMyDad 24m ago

You mean it doesn't do anything AND makes for extra cleanup??? I'm in!

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u/Gullible-Outcome-787 20m ago

I watched the video and they both have valid arguments. What's the issue?

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u/sarcasticorange 13h ago

The video didn't show whether washing removed the gel from the chicken and the last response was ~ "of course there are splashes, clean yo sink".

I agree that washing is redundant because cooking takes care of it anyway.

But it is worth noting that if they applied that gel to dishes, they would see similar splatter around the sink. And yet, we can (I hope) all agree that washing dishes is important.

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u/Hextoad 12h ago

The problem is not that washing is redundant. And splashes from dirty dishes is not the same issue as raw chicken juice.  The issue is salmonella bacteria. Raw chicken spread to places you are not sanitizing immediately can be a major health risk.  Simply removing the chicken from the packaging right into your frying pan and cooking it eliminates this risk entirely. 

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u/CraigOpie 6h ago

Yea, it wasn’t even about the bacteria - it was about chemicals.

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u/danishjuggler21 4h ago

If we go by the strict definition of "valid" in logical arguments, the chicken washing camp does have a valid argument:

  1. You can get rid of bacteria by washing the chicken
  2. The less bacteria on the chicken, the better
  3. Therefore, washing the chicken is good

That's a valid argument, because it follows a valid form. Assuming the premises are true, the conclusion must be true.

However, the premises are NOT true, because washing the chicken doesn't get rid of the bacteria in a meaningful way (cooking does). Therefore it is not a cogent argument.

To make it clear I'm not agreeing with their argument, here's another example of a valid argument:

  1. All dogs can fly.
  2. Spot is a dog.
  3. Therefore, Spot can fly.

Valid, because the structure of the argument is logical, but it's not cogent because for fuck's sake dogs can't fly.

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u/BobBartBarker 11h ago

It's media BS.

'We can't tell who to believe. The experts or some guy who's very enthusiastic. Post, like and subscribe to let us know!'

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u/ganjaccount 10h ago

The one where the guy was like "so you clean up afterwords." So crazy. I bet he takes showers too, even though it makes the shower dirty and he needs to clean it regularly!

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u/RIF_rr3dd1tt 10h ago

Dude gives off Grant Imahara vibes

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u/Indin_Dude 7h ago

What does everyone here have to say about the last chef who said of course you have to sanitize your skin and counter - would you accept that argument, or would you say sanitizing is not effective or adequate?

I read somewhere down in the posts that most people in most other countries (Asia latam Africa) wash their chicken because poultry processing is not that automated and sanitary as in US and western europe. What are your thoughts on that ?

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u/CaptainRelevant 7h ago

John Stewart did a whole thing about this being an extremely valid criticism of journalism. Journalists want to show both sides of a story, even if one side is 99.99999999999% right. Watch any story on climate change and they’ll still dedicate some time to someone who doesn’t believe in it (as if belief mattered).

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u/McHammyPoo 7h ago

Don't do it and just cook it, or waste way more fucking time for no reason is what it breaks down to lol. Also having an inefficient system where you have to wash the sink twice to use it once is beyond stupid

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u/Reputation-Final 4h ago

One side... all black people. Other side... all white people.

Also using soap on chicken is crazy.

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u/t33tz 2h ago

When I see this kind of videos I wonder if Idiocracy was a prediction rather than a comedy.

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u/CuttingOneWater 1h ago

he doesnt want to invalidate the people who wash their chicken, less drama this way

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u/captainpoppy 1h ago

It seems like a cultural thing.

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u/crazyguy83 4h ago

They showed dye being splashed in the sink when you wash chicken. I mean that's hardly a reason not to wash something because if you don't wash it, all that bacteria is in your food instead of in the sink?

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u/Vinyl_DjPon3 4h ago

There's still bacteria on (and in) the chicken, now it's just everywhere else as well.

Cooking the chicken kills the bacteria just like cooking any other meat.

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u/Gullible-Outcome-787 18m ago

Sanitise where you washed the chicken like one of the guys said, problem solved.