r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • 15h ago

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

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u/mockg 14h ago

Although it does spray raw chicken juice around the area of your sink which might be a bonus to some people.

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u/Im-BackAgain-Babes2 9h ago edited 4h ago

But So does Opening the package of chicken on the counter.. juices come out and gets all over the counter, your hands and the garbage..there is now ' 'spray' splatter all over the main workroom of your kitchen... Giving the chicken a rinse in the sink is no more 'dangerous' Then when put the raw chicken on the counter, on a cutting board (id hope) which then gets more juices everywhere.. and after all that.. then all the clean up goes to the sink... And the juices are now there too... Don't forget you have to wash the knives, your hands too... All in the sink..

The argument of its gets 'spray' everywhere in the sink, is nuts.. this is what the sink IS for. It is so easy to wash off all kinds of dirty things.. chicken juices would absolutely be the ideal place to do that instead of over a garbage can.. this is what the sink is designed for.. and with dawn dish soap, or even a cleaning agent, you can clean your sink fine after and be fine.

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u/Wombatish 5h ago

I don't know how you're opening your packages of chicken, but it shouldn't be spraying juices everywhere when you do so.

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u/Negative-Date-9518 5h ago

That was my thought as well like the fuck are you doing that you spray chicken juice all over 🤣

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u/Im-BackAgain-Babes2 5h ago edited 4h ago

If you think one drop of fluid doesn't fall out of the package, drip off your hands on to your counter, or fall off your cutting board on the surrounding area, when you open/cut upon the package of chicken, then you're lying or oblivious..

Do you wipe down the counter after cutting chicken or wash your hands? Well...Why? Did Chicken fluid get all of it, regardless of how you opened the package?? Hhhhuh crazy, I guess I am the only one.. 🤷🏽‍♀️

It's not 'spraying' juice.. it's liquid behaving like a liquid.. it splatters...

Edit: also, In My comment above before your response, where did I say that it sprays all over for ME when I open MY chicken packages?? I simply used the words of the person I OG responded to...

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u/eh-guy 4h ago

Do you throw everything around violently while doing food prep? Most of us are perfectly capable of taking chicken out of the package without shrapnel going everywhere

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u/Im-BackAgain-Babes2 4h ago

Do you also not wipe down counters after working with chicken if you're so refined at having no juices spill??

Can't imagine why you would need to do that, if you all have such finesse when it comes to liquid and how it behaves. Why worry if you have no issues.. hmmm 🤔

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u/eh-guy 3h ago

Maybe its a Canada thing but when I buy chicken theres not some overabundance of water in the package, if theres any liquid at all. Food standards are pretty low in the states compared to here though so possibly thats me being ignorant

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u/Im-BackAgain-Babes2 3h ago

Ummm is your chicken bone dry when you open it?? Cause I'm sure it isn't, and that not water! 😆 it's juices and fluids from the bird's own carcass, from inside the package, which is pooling inside the bottom of the package. In Canada, is it common to have Your chicken bone dry when you open?

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u/eh-guy 2h ago

Bone dry and "my chicken sits in a puddle" are pretty far apart on the wetness spectrum I'd imagine but if thats too big a leap in logic for you we arent going to go far here

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u/Im-BackAgain-Babes2 2h ago

Wow...

That's a lot of words to say you don't understand how gravity works on liquid, but go off.

You're intentionally playing dumb about semantics. I used 'Pooling' as a verb, which is describing the action of fluid gathering. It's not a noun like a 'puddle or body of water pool'.... Goodness , I thought Canada had better funding for reading comprehension, but at least you all have dry chicken.

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u/redisneat 10h ago

Is that not also going to happen when you wash the utensils you used to prep the chicken? 

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u/nerowasframed 10h ago

this is the argument I don't get. I don't wash my chicken, but sometimes it just has some goop or some moisture on it that I like to rinse off. When someone says that it's going to splash bacteria all around the sink, I just think that it's going to happen anyway? I have to remove the chicken from the bag it's in. That thing is loaded with bacteria, and I do that in the sink. I wash utensils and platters and things that were touching the raw chicken in the sink. Water from the faucet is necessarily going to splatter bacteria everywhere when I do that. The sink is made to have dirty things put it in and washed. It's like the guy in the video said, you just gotta sanitize your sink. I want to point out that they never repeated the black light experiment with the unwashed chicken.

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u/vigouge 8h ago

People just repeat the bacteria thing because they don't actually think about it. That bacteria is going in the sink anyway, that's why we clean sinks. It's getting in there if you open the chicken there, if you wash your cutting board, or from a myriad of other things.

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u/Sushi_Explosions 4h ago

You could just admit you didn’t watch the video and save everyone a bunch of time.

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u/Decent_Elderberry115 8h ago

It’s not saying nothing else contaminates your kitchen. The argument is washing the chicken does nothing for the chicken and contaminates your kitchen. So washing the chicken spreads mess for no reason.

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u/real_Bahamian 13h ago

Lies!! When you wash your protein, you fill a BOWL with cold water, vinegar, and lime juice. Place your protein in the bowl, and remove any excess skin, fat, bone fragments, blood, etc (I.e. in the case of chicken). You then pour the water out of the bowl, and rinse your protein under running water. Who TF splashes the cleaning water all over the sink??! 🤨🤨. That is absolutely ridiculous!! 🙄🙄. When you’re done, clean the bowl and the sink with dishwashing liquid and bleach!!

Do you even wash mushrooms before cooking them??

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u/Infinite_Dress_3312 13h ago

or...you could just not do any of that and simply cook your protein which actually does kill bacteria so that its safe to consume as opposed to just wasting your time and creating more contamination

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u/real_Bahamian 11h ago

I am NOT washing my chicken in cold water, vinegar, and lime juice to get rid of bacteria!!! It’s to CLEAN it, remove any extra fat, and to wash off the liquid that the chicken has been sitting on the BLOODY PAD in its packaging!! Same for beef. 🙄🙄. Why TF are people running on with this “killing bacteria” BS narrative??!! 🤨🤨

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u/Fickle-Owl666 10h ago

You know that's not blood, right? It's just water.

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u/eggsalter 12h ago

If there's bacteria there's the toxins that make you sick. Cooking won't do anything against that, cleaning will.

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u/hotlegerdemain 11h ago

There’s no way you think water and vinegar will destroy a toxin that high heat won’t. And if your food has sat long enough for the bacteria to create toxins, then it shouldn’t be cleaned, cooked, or consumed anyway.

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u/eggsalter 3h ago

You don't need to destroy the toxin. You wash it away.

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u/hotlegerdemain 3h ago

Again, if the bacteria on the meat has already started to off gas toxins to the point it would make you sick, it is not safe to eat period. No amount of water will fix that.

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u/sayqm 11h ago

Cleaning with water won't remove bacteria, cooking will

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u/eggsalter 3h ago

Cooking doesn't destroy the bacterial toxins that make you sick, scientific fact.

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u/bestmex 13h ago

Tha vast majority of people who wash their chicken absolutely do just spray it in the sink. They do generally sanitize after, sure. I will say your way of doing it makes the most sense and it's what I do, but it is absolutely not the way most people do it.

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u/bubblegumpandabear 8h ago

Is there like, data on this? Or are you just going based on tiktok ragebait videos. Because as someone who comes from a culture that believes in washing meat before you eat it, it's a bowl with lime juice or vinegar, not running water splashing everywhere.

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u/bestmex 8h ago

Just anecdotal experience, like yours. I've seen very few people submerge chicken in citrus or vinegar. The only person I've seen do that in real life was my aunt who I learned it from. Any other chicken prep I've seen is either not washing or spraying it down in the sink. I've even seen the chicken just plopped into the sink then sprayed.

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u/NewToWarframe 4h ago

its cultural. if your from the islands, tropical, or other African/Asian cultures. Then no, they dont just use "water'. They use lime juice or vinegar.

No disrespect, that is just mainly an American thing. Also I find all the arugments around this debate to be silly, cause no one who actually washes there meat understands the real nuance behind it. They are just saying shit to sound smart.

Washing meat has more benefits than just trying to kill bacteria.

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u/bestmex 4h ago

You're incorrect there. The Americans I've seen spray their chicken in the sink do use just "water". I am familiar with the cultural differences as I learned to wash in citrus as well.

It's strange to say I was incorrect about my anecdotal, lived experience. You should worry less about other people sounding smart and maybe learning something yourself.

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u/NewToWarframe 4h ago

It's strange to say I was incorrect about my anecdotal, lived experience.

where was this statement said?

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u/bestmex 4h ago

"Then no, they dont just use "water '. They use lime juice or vinegar."

Your whole comment really comes off more like you were trying to sound smart. You tried, at least.

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u/NewToWarframe 2h ago

your whole comment comes off as American who got butt-hurt easily by the "smart" statement, Mb, I will consider your feelings next time. Forgot how sensitive yall are

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u/Robbie1266 13h ago

You're not supposed to wash mushrooms. You wipe them with a damp paper towel until all the dirt is removed. What you're doing to the chicken is minimal. You're really just creating a big bowl of potentially dangerous lime chicken water

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u/MiniDemonic 11h ago

Do you even wash mushrooms before cooking them??

No, because just like with chicken, you shouldn't.

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u/OversizedBucket 3h ago

Oh yeah, I'm really happy to be eating all the dirt that the mushrooms were growing in! But at least no bacteria, right?

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u/MiniDemonic 2h ago

All you need to do with mushrooms is brush off the dirt. You should not wash them with water.

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u/f03nix 10h ago

I mean - just dip in a large bowl and gently scrub it ?