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I guess I'm in the 'no' camp. I'm a big believer that cooking the meat to a safe temp is appropriate, but if you're more comfortable rinsing first, then by all means, knock yourselves out. Not going to hurt as long as you bleach the sink/counters that the water sprays on to prevent cross contamination.
I always wash all my meat and also clean down the sink and counters afterwards as well . My mother brought up a good point once , she said "what if the butcher forgot to wash his hands after he took a poop ? " Nope you wash all meats and yes if it is a whole chicken I sure wash that inside too . I don't trust any butchers if I don't see him or her wash their hands .
most chicken in large supermarkets or box/club stores,,,,butchers don't touch the chicken,,,,it comes to the store all pre-pack poultry at the plant..
ive been a butcher going on 35 yrs... at different stores now I supervise 50 stores and enforce sanitation standards
I can assure you ,,,,at independent stores that still package their own chicken ,,, all my stores use gloves and on a separate poultry bench to avoid cross contamination and the product is well below 40 f (bacterial growth is 40-140f)
also when I tell all butchers to of course change their gloves,,,but also wash their hands many many times a day ....and when coming in the department from breaks/lunches, that's the first thing they do is wash their hands
most of the time you will never be able to see a butcher wash their hands- because most sinks are obstructed by meatcases,,,equipment, walls, etc..
poultry and seafood is the outlaws in the meat family,,,and treated as such
sanitation standards are 10x better today than 30 yrs ago in grocery stores- one bad outbreak or someone getting sick,,,even if they undercooked it (meat) ,,,the business can be put out of business.
so they take sanitation very seriously,,
I have a family member that's a germaphobe,,and tell her just cook the chicken to 165f, you are all set
I wash the meat to remove any bone fragments. I HATE getting a bite with a bone chip in it. I try to do it outside so I don't have to soap my sink afterwarda.
Rinsing certain meats, saltwater fish in particular, increases osmotic pressure as the cells absorb more water. This leads to the cells to explode, which in turn causes the product to get mushy. This is exacerbated if the meat contains blood. Anybody who has spent a good amount of time fishing knows that the proper way to kill a saltwater fish is in a saltwater and ice slurry. Fish killed on ice only or in freshwater and are borderline garbage. A fish killed in the slurry is firm, colorful, has clear eyes and nice red gills.
Water that contains salt and has a salinity level higher than the cells on the surface of the meat being washed has the opposite effect. It will tighten the meat up.
I assume when you ask "do you wash raw chicken" you are asking if you are rinsing it before you cook it? If that is the case how is rinsing the chicken supposed to get rid of any "germs"? Makes no sense. Would you just rinse your hands after using a public restroom?
Dang George, that looks good!!! Not a huge Sriracha fan, though, so I think I'd try to find a chili sauce.
I don't wash my meats unless it's something like pork chops with bone sawdust on it, or cut up chicken (or boneless skinless breasts) that are sitting in the yucky slimy water that they come with sometimes.
If I do rinse it, I am sure to dry well before proceeding with whatever recipe I'm making.
I generally don't rinse chicken, except for what automatically occurs if I'm thawing a frozen bird.
The heat of cooking is a sufficient killer of incidental bacteria. So far, so good.
Agree, running your chicken under water in sink won't kill anything. The heat of the cooking will
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, rinsing doesn't really accomplish anything that cooking won't.
