Exfoliate your chicken before cooking it! • Steamy Kitchen Recipes Giveaways (2024)

FAQs

Should you wash chicken with vinegar? ›

After plucking and priming the meat, washing off any other external contaminants became a logical next step. “Chicken is usually washed in vinegar or citrus juice,” says Delish's food director and second-generation Jamaican-American Rob Seixas. “The acid is believed to purify the meat.”

Put simply, if you wash raw chicken, you are cross-contaminating your kitchen. Yes, fresh fruit and vegetables should be washed with cold water before preparation, but raw poultry should not. Don't worry: Properly cooking chicken will destroy any pathogens. In fact, it is the only way to destroy those pathogens.

Place your chicken in a large bowl and add the salt, oil and pepper. Give the chicken a good coating. Once done, add the fillets to the deep steaming tray. Add your water to the mixing bowl and insert the deep steaming set.

Chicken-washing myths, busted

Others believe washing with a slightly acidic solution (such as vinegar or lemon juice) will kill bacteria. On the contrary, research has shown washing raw poultry in lemon juice or vinegar does not remove bacteria and can increase the cross-contamination risk.

Older studies show that washing the surface of meat with an acidic solution like vinegar or lemon juice reduces the number of bacteria on raw meat, compared with washing with plain water (7).

Washing raw poultry in a diluted lemon juice or vinegar solution is an inefficient method for removing pathogens and results in pathogens both in the wash water and on the chicken, increasing the risk for cross contamination and potential foodborne illness.

Put your finger underneath the skin and just pull. It should easily come off, if you have a little bit of resistance. Use a paper towel to get a better grip and finish off with scraping away the little bit of fat that is on the breast.

Unfortunately, most of the saturated fat in chicken is found just beneath the skin. Cooking chicken without the skin — especially white chicken — can make it very dry.

Season the chicken skin with salt and grill skin side down over moderately low heat until the fat has rendered and the skin is nice and crisp. Keep the heat low — if it gets too high, the fat will sear and not cook slowly and melt away. Flip the chicken and grill for a few minutes skin side up until cooked through.

So how does a food safety expert handle their raw chicken? They certainly don't wash it and, whenever possible, they limit the meat's contact with other kitchen surfaces by using cutting boards designated for raw meat.

What is the safest way to clean chicken? ›

Stick a food thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken (avoid hitting bone) to get an accurate reading. 3. Forgo washing chicken. Avoid rinsing chicken, soaking chicken, using vinegar to clean chicken, or using soapy water to clean chicken.

After briefly rinsing off the chicken, add a generous amount of salt, a splash of vinegar, and several limes cut in half. Use the lime and its juices to scrub the surface of each individual piece of chicken. This helps to remove the slime and film off the chicken.

Place a steamer basket into a saucepan and fill with water to just below the bottom of the steamer. Rinse chicken and place into the basket. Bring water to a boil; cover and steam chicken until juices run clear, about 30 minutes.

You can add water and let it sit in the solution for up to 30 minutes or you can rinse it off right away. You can rinse off each individual piece under running water or collectively in the bowl until the water is fairly clear. Depending on the type of recipe the chicken will be used for, we sometimes "shode" it.

Food safety authorities and regulators around the world recommend you don't wash raw poultry before cooking. That's because washing chicken can splash dangerous bacteria around the kitchen. It's best just to thoroughly cook the chicken without washing it, so it is safe to eat.

Most participants in Southeast Asian countries washed raw poultry before cooking. Lack of cleanliness of raw poultry bought from traditional markets caused consumers to wash raw poultry. Participants learnt the practice at home and the act is heavily entrenched in local cultures.