As I was preparing my chicken breasts for dinner this evening, you know, standing at the sink, rinsing the breasts and patting them dry, I began to ponder where my habit of rinsing chicken came from.
Perhaps my mother did this when I watched her prepare chicken as a child. Or maybe it’s because raw chicken is gross and slimy and I can’t imagine eating that so I rinse it until it feels like … edible flesh. Excuse me a moment while I shake off the thoughts of becoming a vegetarian….
Well, I did a little digging around, and current thinking seems to shun my chicken rinsing. Apparently, I’m spreading salmonella all over my sink. This doesn’t really concern me, to tell you the truth, since I generally don’t eat out of my sink and I wash my hands after rinsing my chicken. I think the slime wins out … oh, there’s Kona again, celebrating her life-long vegetarianism.
So what do you do?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Feb 06, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
Oddly enough- I rinse whole chickens (or other whole poultry) before cooking, but usually not chicken parts. I am realizing I don’t really have a good reason for this beyond “that’s how mum does it.”
I suspect many things I do in the kitchen are for that reason alone.
In my mind, I don’t know what’s accumulating in/on that packaged chicken so rinsing it gives me the sense of refreshing it. Many recipes tell you to pat the chicken dry, so if you rinse it first, it’s not like you’re wasting paper towels you wouldn’t have used anyway.
Like most food related things, this sounds like one of those “rules” that may come and go out of fashion. I’ve never heard of anyone in my life getting sick as a result of rinsing chicken in their kitchen sink so, using logical food handling care, continue to rinse I will!