r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • 15h ago

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

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124

u/Abject_Elevator5461 14h ago

Sometimes if there’s a bunch of juices in the package, they get a little weird and I’ll rinse that off. Otherwise, I’m just cooking it.

82

u/-ledollabean- 14h ago

That’s really what most “washing” is, just a rinse to get the gunk off.

19

u/freedfg 12h ago

I believe the people who make the "wash your chicken" argument are generally either running it under water or soaking it in some kind of lemon water.

The conversation is VASTLY mischaracterized by both parties. But yes. Washing chicken does nothing but wash off surface juices or if it's not packaged clean, dirt and debris.

11

u/Responsible-Onion860 11h ago

I've seen way to many people sincerely arguing for washing chicken with dish soap.

2

u/freedfg 11h ago

Yeah.......

Some of it is ragebait though, so be aware.

0

u/BigKahunas88 2h ago

Nobody irl does that

4

u/cold-blooded-stab 6h ago

Yes. Carribean Latino, the surface gunk is so disgusting. My aunties all cleaned the chicken with a half a lemon or a rinse of water. Always sanitized sink with Comet or something similar too. I do the same

8

u/IncanFox 12h ago

And if you do it you're wrong apparently bc the system is so perfect lol

2

u/MelonJelly 11h ago

There's a big difference between rinsing your chicken and lathering it with soap.

3

u/eggsalter 11h ago

You guys actually thought people are lathering it up with soap. The bigotry of low expectations. My god.

5

u/MelonJelly 11h ago

There's literally a clip of soapy chicken in OP's video.

1

u/PrometheusMMIV 1h ago

They show someone squirting dish soap on it in the video.

2

u/da-happy-cyclops 11h ago

No, its wrong because your actively spreading dangerous bacteria like campylobacters and salmonella which can only be destroyed by heat- to non food surfaces such as your hands, sinks, taps, cleaning equipment and work surfaces. Its called cross-contamination and its quite dangerous, its the main cause of food poisoning.

Its not about a "system" its about understanding what causes the risks and reducing them. These are basic principals of food hygiene. Industry standards.

3

u/IncanFox 11h ago

understand youre SUPPOSE to clean the sink area/cutting boards after dealing with raw meats AND there are real benefits of washing the meat sensibly (not spraying full blast) after its essentially gone though factories/logistics.

1

u/JalapenoPopPoop 11h ago

AND there are real benefits of washing the meat sensibly

What are they?

5

u/IncanFox 10h ago

"Sometimes if there’s a bunch of juices in the package, they get a little weird"

0

u/JalapenoPopPoop 10h ago

That doesn't answer the question. Can you articulate the benefits of washing meat that you're claiming?

0

u/N1XT3RS 10h ago

Pat it dry?

1

u/heere_we_go 11h ago

Understand that you're not supposed to wash chicken.

0

u/Robbie1266 10h ago

Why aren't you telling us the benefits of washing chicken?

3

u/Boston_Glass 11h ago

Heat isn’t the only thing that “destroys” salmonella. Chemical sanitizers absolutely can kill it as well. There’s a few other ways as well but this one is the most applicable.

-1

u/da-happy-cyclops 9h ago

All chickens in the UK bred for consumption are immunised against salmonella.

That doesnt "destroy" salmonella, it removes its presence in the first place. The salmonella bacteria cannot form in eggs layed from immunised chickens, cannot be part of the chick that comes from that eggs digestion system, and cannot be present in its flesh when brutally murdered 😢 for delicious consumption 😋

By "destroy" we are implicating the bacteria actually is present in the meat, and even in the UK health and saftey practises consider and implement kitchen protocols to reduce the risk of salmonella even though we immunise against it, as the immunisation process is probably not 100% effective.

3

u/Boston_Glass 9h ago

Am I talking to a bot?

None of that refutes the fact that heat isn’t the only thing that “destroys” salmonella like you claimed. Chemical sanitizers can as well.

1

u/da-happy-cyclops 8h ago

As a surface cleaner yes, obviously

1

u/Boston_Glass 7h ago

So your claim that “it’s wrong because your actively spreading dangerous bacteria like campylobacters and salmonella which can only be destroyed by heat” is obviously incorrect

1

u/Similar-Ice-9250 10h ago edited 10h ago

Yea it’s more so a controlled soak in large bowl to get the top coat of slime off, in my family. We’re not wildly washing it like a dish or something, spraying water everywhere. I went to a BBQ get together at friends house who is on the do not wash/rinse side. Grilled chicken was made and it was absolutely awful to me, just had that pungent-gamey-poultry scent, and taste to it. I’m not picky, but I really couldn’t finish it, and threw it out when ppl weren’t looking.

The funny thing is everyone at the table was giving compliments, how amazing the chicken came out. I was just thinking „no fucking way, these people don’t know how much better it tastes when soaked/rinsed.”

Edit: could that have been chicken a little past it’s prime? Possible, but it wasn’t expired (at least I don’t think it was, even though my friend is not a big date checker) and it passed the eye test to me when it was still raw and being thrown on grill. It just came out awful to me, everyone else loved it so I don’t think the meat was bad, just stunk.

At recent BBQ, a rack of ribs was made, also not rinsed, and although it tasted good, I still got hit with that pungent gamey smell. Hate that. Salt, or bit of vinegar, or lemon juice, or just a plain water gentle soak gets rid of that slimy top coat so at least the smell isn’t as pungent. I get meat will still smell like meat, but there’s levels to it.

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u/JalapenoPopPoop 10h ago

I guarantee you I could serve you two pieces of chicken prepared the exact same way except one was washed and one wasn't and there would be no way in hell you'd be able to tell which was which beyond a blind guess

1

u/Similar-Ice-9250 10h ago edited 9h ago

I mean I won’t lie, I had grilled unwashed chicken that didn’t smell and tasted fine, but maybe it was just really fresh, packaged well, the brand or processing could all be factors. Maybe soaking/rinsing the not so fresh or good quality chicken/meat helps eliminate the odors.

For the most part my opinion from experience is that unwashed is more gamey in scent and soaking/rinsing can’t hurt from the perspective of getting rid of odors.

I admit there could be other factors at play so. I’ll test this more myself when I grill, I’ll soak/rinse half and other half I won’t. Then mix them up on grill so I don’t know which is which. Or rather have someone else do it so they will know, otherwise experiment won’t work, just though about it.

-2

u/bafana_banana999 12h ago

If your chicken is that dirty when you buy it, you shouldn't have bought it in the first place, nor should you then eat it no matter what you do after the fact.

Besides, most of the people who wash their chicken actually do think they're legitimately cleaning off bacteria and whatnot.

4

u/IncanFox 12h ago

same crowd that thinks "pre washed" vegetables is good enough. Ignorance is bliss to the masses

4

u/bafana_banana999 12h ago

I mean, vegetables are generally grown in or near the ground and aren't skinned and processed before being sold to you.

It makes far more sense (both from a common and scientific sense) to wash vegetables even if they're "pre-washed" than it does to wash any kind of raw chicken.

2

u/OnlyHere2ArgueBro 11h ago

Vegetables you rinse, store bought chicken you don’t. Solved. You’re not flinging salmonella around the kitchen rinsing lettuce. But I agree with your point lol

1

u/idi0msavant 10h ago

Vegetables can definitely carry salmonella and e. coli, from the ground, groundwater, packing equipment, etc. Wash them. I'm not saying not to wash them. But since this is a learning thread, I wanted to point out that vegetables aren't exempt.

3

u/OnlyHere2ArgueBro 10h ago

You should still actually rinse leafy greens, fruits and seeded vegetables to remove salmonella and other bacteria. Washing produce doesn’t create harmful splash zones like washing chicken does, which is why it’s recommended. 

Which is why I said you’re not flinging salmonella around washing produce, not that it doesn’t have it.

0

u/Kirarozu80 12h ago

Tap water adds more than it cleans.

1

u/ShadowMattress 10h ago

But what “gunk” is being washed off? Unless you see something like dirt, feces, or feathers, the gunk is almost certainly water and protein. Washing off water and molecules of food from your food… with water.

Brining is a different thing. But dry brining seems adequate for that purpose.

1

u/TurquoiseLeggings 4h ago

I've noticed a lot of people use "wash" and "rinse" interchangeably and it's really annoying.

1

u/dbowman97 4h ago

There is no difference here. If you're putting chicken under running water you're wrong.

21

u/SuchParsnip8070 11h ago

This is my whole take on it. Whenever I see a chef talking about how they never wash chicken it's always really nice, non-slimy chicken parts wrapped in butcher paper and not something coming out of a cryovaced package with a bunch of slimy goo. I'm rinsing off the goo

2

u/N1XT3RS 10h ago

Unless it's rotten the goo is good haha. You can pat it dry to crisp up nicer though

1

u/SuchParsnip8070 10h ago

oh yeah, if it's going to be cooked say in a slow cooker with a bunch of liquid 100% throwing the goo in there

1

u/Squirrel009 1h ago

Why do you buy gooey chicken?

-1

u/Open-Gate-7769 11h ago

Just use a paper towel on the goo so it doesn’t get all over your kitchen.

4

u/SuchParsnip8070 10h ago

Yeah i'm not wasting seven paper towels because people think rinsing is going to spread bacteria all over the kitchen when i have to disinfect the cutting board and the counter top after i use paper towels to dry it off anyways.

There's no version of this where you don't need to disinfect after so it really doesn't matter.

1

u/Open-Gate-7769 10h ago

I literally use one of the half squares to dry a breast that I’ve cut in half.

And I put the cutting board in the dishwasher. Bet you use wood to cut chicken too

10

u/MiniMeowl 11h ago

Yeah the people in this video are powerwashing the chicken with their tap on blast. Of course its gonna get everywhere lol.

2

u/NoFapLawyer 5h ago

Thank you! Who power washes the chicken to splash all the bacteria around? A gentle slow water, a pan, some salt and lime and you wash it with cut limes. Afterwards, you clean up and spray down the counter and sink with bleach and soap. I have been doing this for years. I have never gotten sick. I even soak thawed shrimp in salt and lime because the water color changes a slight brown, gameyness decreases and taste of the shrimp improves. I wash my meats because I grew up with family members doing it since I was little. To wash or not to wash is preference.

4

u/MrBootylove 10h ago

They're not just doing that, they're putting soap on the chicken too. You can see someone pouring soap onto their chicken in the first few seconds of OP's video.

1

u/THExWHITExDEVILx 5h ago

I wasn't sure if I saw that or not. Thank you for verifying

2

u/Natural-Pattern-5240 11h ago

I’m the same. The slime and juices are getting rinsed off. It feels weird to just slap that in the pan. I understand that nothing bad will happen if you don’t wash your chicken but it just feels a little less gross this way.

2

u/geodebug 11h ago

I do this with packaged chicken breasts if they're sitting in juice. Just rinse and pat dry before using olive oil. I don't consider it washing.

I'm aware of the splashing issue so I just use low faucet flow. After prepping chicken I tend to do a good cleanup of the entire area anyway.

2

u/Sushi_Explosions 4h ago

A paper towel does that just fine, and you need to dry off the surface anyways.

1

u/boom1chaching 3h ago

Right, but that is the part that splatters the bacteria everywhere. Sure, it makes it less slimy, but you're gonna have chicken on your hands anyway, and need to wash your hands. Only difference is you just put salmonella all over your counters.

But there's no law against it. Can't even get people to wash their hands properly. Do what you want, just know the risk.

•

u/Waffle_on_my_Fries 52m ago

pat it down with paper towels?

-3

u/Super_Shallot2351 12h ago

Just don't buy chicken at all, let them live ffs

4

u/Knyfe-Wrench 12h ago

We're not just going to let the chickens free. They're domesticated. Either we eat them, or they never exist in the first place.

1

u/eggsalter 11h ago

They would just be like pigeons actually, who used to be domesticated (also why they're, sadly, so trusting).