Help! The roast chicken is still pink! Is that dangerous?
You’ve roasted such a delicious chicken, it comes out of the oven or off the barbecue golden and fragrant, you cut into it and then: pink on the inside. Is that dangerous?
It’s been drummed into everyone: never eat raw chicken. You can get salmonella from it, and that’s no joke. Diarrhea, fever, muscle aches and headaches, warns the RIVM. That’s why you poke an oven-roasted chicken to check whether it’s cooked: if clear juices come out of the thigh, you’re good. Do you have a meat thermometer? Insert it into the thickest part, usually a thigh, of the chicken and check the temperature. With a core temperature of 70 to 72 degrees, you’re definitely safe. That promises a juicy chicken!
Into the trash?
But what if you’ve poked and checked the temperature, and the chicken is still slightly pink on the inside? That can happen, and no, you don’t have to tip your entire roasting dish into the trash. Chickens that have had a lot of exercise, such as free-range chickens or tasty organic chickens, have better-blooded meat. This means the fillets never become completely white when they’re fully cooked. So don’t panic.
Delicious chicken
You may also see more discoloration in fattier pieces of chicken—pink or brown. If the core temperature is high enough, you absolutely run no risk of salmonella contamination. It actually means you’ve got an extra-delicious chicken: not a cooped-up bird, but one that has been able to stretch its wings and take a nice walk around.
Patience…
Is the chicken still half raw? Then there’s nothing else for it but to put it back in the oven. Cover the chicken with aluminum foil if you’re worried that the outside will dry out before the inside is cooked, pour yourself another glass of wine and enjoy a tasty olive, because dinner will take a little longer to arrive.
Also read:
- Do: butterfly a chicken
- Here’s how to defrost chicken
- Why you should start keeping chickens in your backyard
Source: The Kitchn
