Chicken is a protein that worries many home cooks. Undercooked chicken has the potential to make you sick. Unfortunately, this leads many people to overcook their chicken to be on the safe side, resulting in a dry product. What temperature does chicken need to be cooked to?
Chicken Cooking Temperatures
You must cook chicken to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike beef, there is no wiggle room. You can’t cook chicken medium rare. Pink chicken is a no go!
Why do you have to cook chicken to 165 degrees? Raw chicken has the potential to house dangerous bacteria, namely Salmonella. This deadly bacterium can cause diarrhea, fever, nausea, vomiting, cramping, and headache.
Salmonella can even lead to death, but its mortality rate is less than 1%. Around 1.35 million people get sick from this germ each year, with around 420 succumbing to the infection. Children under the age of 5, the elderly, and those who are immunocompromised are the most vulnerable.
Temperature is very important when it comes to food. The temperature range between 40 and 140 degrees Farhenheit is the temperature danger zone. At these temperatures, bacteria quickly multiply and threaten the integrity of perishable foods. Leaving food in the temperature danger zone for more than 2 hours is risky.
How To Cook Chicken To The Correct Temperature
So we’ve established that undercooked chicken is bad. How do you make sure you cook your chicken to temp every time without drying it out? Fortunately, there is a device to help us with this problem: a kitchen thermometer!
The simplest way to make sure you cook your chicken correctly is to temp it with a thermometer. This is particularly handy for bone-in chicken, which takes longer to cook and is not checked as easily as something like chicken tenders.
In order to properly measure the temperature of chicken, make sure you probe the thickest part of the meat. You also want to target an area near the middle of the chicken. This technique rings true for other types of meat as well. The thickest parts take the longest to cook.
There are a number of great products on the market. You can find an instant-read kitchen thermometer for as little as $10 on Amazon. There are even probe thermometers that stay in the meat for the entire cooking process, allowing you to know the moment the chicken is up to temperature.
Once you have a good thermometer, you need to make sure it works properly. Check out my article on how to calibrate your thermometer to make sure its reading the right temperature.
