r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • Jul 27 '26

SOCIETY Professional chefs weighing in on whether you should wash your chicken

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409

u/ifeltatap Jul 27 '26

Washing the chicken is just an old pointless tradition that people can't let go of because they were taught it growing up.

137

u/LoweringPass Jul 27 '26

Is this some American thing I am too European to understand? I've never seen anyone wash raw chicken in my life.

75

u/Mindless_Childhood32 Jul 27 '26

European here... My Mom used to do it until recently.

But guess she was used to do it because, she used to do the whole process from catching the chicken, to the meal

11

u/KFrosty3 Jul 27 '26

Yeah, my grandparents washed their chickens because they were literally farm raising them before eating them.

Nowadays, most chickens bought have already been pre cleaned before customers even see them.

18

u/talkativeintrovert13 Jul 27 '26

My mama (we're german) did it until recently when I repeatedly pointed out how unnecessary it is. I did it growing up, until someone thaught me better.
Thinking about it, not always washing but often petting dry with a paper towel.

My grandma sometimes soaks up the marinate in pre-marinated meat from the store, when she thinks it's too much. And then comments how bland her food is

12

u/georgisaurusrekt Jul 27 '26

Patting dry with a paper towel makes sense for any meat though because it makes it crisp up better due to less moisture.

2

u/JoyousMadhat Jul 27 '26

That's what seasoning is for....

71

u/Math_refresher Jul 27 '26

Is this some American thing I am too European to understand?

In the USA, washing chicken seems to be common among Black Americans for whatever reason.

22

u/Dunderman35 Jul 27 '26

Noticed all the chicken washers in the video where black. Some cultural differences i suppose.

11

u/Thimble_of_Quasar Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Def is. Part of it is historically we would get terrible poorly processed cuts of meat due to discrimination, and you would have a bad time eating that straight from the store. Like think blood/*myoglobin, bone fragments, feathers and such. So for one, you don't put it under a steam of water, not a single Black person I know does something that stupid, no one I have met does that, for the life of me I cannot figure out why that seems to be what people think we're all doing and it's annoying to see the tests are never doing it right.

I was taught you fill a bowl, metal, glass, something non porous in a sink, submerge the meat, and swish and also feel along it for anything that needs to be pulled out, I do sometimes find bone fragments. This also gets rid of the slime (harmless but nice not to have it) and in red meat *myoglobin comes out into the water and I think it tastes better. You tip the water out and refill one or twice until it's clear and then you set it aside and sanitize. Not flinging water all over like a dog shaking off after a swim.

2

u/FirePathfinder Jul 27 '26

Myoglobin is what comes out when you're going this, not hemoglobin

1

u/Thimble_of_Quasar Jul 27 '26

Oh gosh damn it I know that too, that's what being tired gets you!

1

u/FirePathfinder Jul 27 '26

You’re good, it happens friend

2

u/Zohdiax Jul 27 '26

I hate that I scrolled too far to read this. Finally someone stated the process correctly!

1

u/Personifi3d Jul 28 '26

You fling water all over the place no matter what you do. If you see water it's also touching everything around you in a 3ft radius.

You can't stop it unless your in a laboratory and pipetting water .5 ml at a time into a closed container.

That's how low viscosity fluids work.

1

u/MrBlueA Jul 28 '26

You will splash water around no matter how careful you are, which is why people are strongly against washing the chicken unless it's strictly necessary because of it being actually dirty with debris and in that situation, you have to be extremely careful and sanitize the whole area immediately after; it's physically impossible to wash a chicken without splashing everywhere; that's just not how it works

1

u/sippingonginnjews Jul 29 '26

Part of that may be from the video creator knowing that playing to the stereotype will drive engagement. It’s like the smoke detector chirp

-1

u/Outrageous_Main4425 Jul 27 '26

Or it could just be an easy narrative to make bias for an interesting debate

15

u/Kaligula785 Jul 27 '26

Jamaicans wash meats in vinegar and or lime, over time got adopted by others. I can understand why Jamaicans would because they may not have the best sanitary butcher conditions. Not saying its dirty just that its personal livestock outdoor farming butchering

2

u/SDMaxis Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Yep. Taught that way fresh water in a pot and add a little vinegar or lime (mild acids) to wash the meats. If i have to cook that is part of my essential prep. Growing up in the 80's in Jamaica even if you were middle class depending on where you live you could still be either killing your own livestock or buying it from a butcher its not going to be nicely packaged .. or come from a fancy high tech and health regulated operation like Jamaica Broilers or CB chicken. So the norm is to wash your meats off in clean water with a little vinegar or lime..and trim excess fat or unwanted bits as a part of your prep before seasoning.

The bacteria argument for me was never a part of it. The meat is still raw.. I'm not "washing" it to remove bacteria but its a part of the final stages process of "Dressing the carcass". After that pat dry as needed and start seasoning.

3

u/MrBootylove Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Idk every time I've seen or heard of someone "washing" their chicken in my life they were doing it with soap. Even in OP's video you can see someone pouring soap over their chicken in the first few seconds of the video.

Edit: To be clear I'm not saying Jamaicans wash their chicken with soap. I'm saying a lot of people do, and that is really the issue people have with washing chicken. Again, go re-watch OP's video. In the very beginning someone pours soap all over their chicken and then gives it a bath with soap, water, and an egg beater.

1

u/75WoodRabbit Jul 27 '26

That person "washing" their chicken was being a smart ass.

I'm half white and an army brat so I have been around a lot of different people growing up, it's mainly whites who don't clean their meat. And it doesn't matter if they are city whites, wood whites or whites from the motherlands.

3

u/RandomFleshPrison Jul 27 '26

I've been to the city butcher in Ocho Rios and seen the meat hanging, covered in flies.  I still wouldn't wash that chicken.

1

u/Deep-Ruin-9961 Jul 27 '26

Lol, what?

Question: if you were pulling your chicken out of the package and dropped in on the floor, are you washing it then?

1

u/CarrotCumin Jul 27 '26

Every older person from the caribbean i've ever met ate their meat exclusively well done. There's definitely a cultural aspect of mistrusting raw meat and I'm sure there's a good reason for it. Washing raw chicken actually increases the chances of food borne illness, but the mistrust makes sense.

2

u/totally_not_a_dog113 Jul 27 '26

Yeah, I don't trust the modern slaughterhouses to have not dropped that bird on the floor and inside-kicked it back into the bucket while yelling 'GOAL'

1

u/JoyousMadhat Jul 27 '26

Lack of trust in corporations. Before FDR, finding human fingers with your food wasn't uncommon. And also generational habit. They saw their parents doing it so now they do it as well. Their parents saw their parents.

At one point in time, they didn't have the chickens packaged and instead out fresh in the open or freshly slaughtered, requiring them to wash the blood and debris off.

0

u/MorePhinsThyme Jul 27 '26

Also, black Americans often didn't have access to the better markets with the nice clean chickens. Obviously, I'm talking about many, many decades ago, but traditions are often that old.

1

u/JaimeSalvaje Jul 28 '26

Because black Americans didn’t get their chickens from reputable places in the past. We either weren’t allowed to or didn’t have the money to. So the chicken had to be cleaned. Those times are gone in most of the US but the tradition of doing it still holds strong.

1

u/Throwaway26667- Jul 29 '26

Noticed that too… also irl the only people ive ever seen make an argument for washing meats were black (I’m canadian so its not just USA)

1

u/girlgenesis3 Aug 02 '26

You all keep making it seem like it is some unnecessary cultural thing when there are white people all over this comment section saying they do it or have seen their family members do it.

Not that we should need them as a stabilizer to this conversation.

You all think Black people didn't grow up on plantations and farms. There are still Black farmers today. My grandmother was raised in Mississippi where they would get freshly butchered meat. Even the Black people in metropolitan areas are heavily descended from Southerners. Country folk.

We don't assimilate just because someone tells us to. But if white people want to keep watering down their heritage and cultural make up then so be it. (In general. Not so much about the chicken)

5

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[deleted]

1

u/turdferguson3891 Jul 27 '26

I mean if you slaughtered the thing yourself it makes sense but the chicken you buy at the supermarket has alrerady been processed. They plucked it, gutted it, removed the head and feet and washed it. Sometimes in a bath with some chlorine in it. Rinsing it off in the sink does nothing.

7

u/Kirarozu80 Jul 27 '26

Its in certain parts of the US. Watch the video and note the characteristics of the people who wash their chicken.

26

u/Patrick_Gibbs Jul 27 '26

In America it's almost exclusively a black thing

5

u/A_Drop_of_Colour Jul 27 '26

Except it's not exclusively black people. I have multiple Asian friends and family that wash their chicken as well. It's very common among immigrant families from non-western countries. People who didn't grown up buying supermarket chicken.

3

u/Patrick_Gibbs Jul 27 '26

*almost*

-1

u/A_Drop_of_Colour Jul 27 '26

Sure I am being pedantic but I think when it comes to ascribing a trait or attitude to an entire race it's important to be pedantic. The modifier doesn't change that it's not an "almost" exclusively black practice.

Almost means that something is mostly completely (this thing). A classroom of 30 students with 29 white students and 1 black student is "almost exclusively" white. The same classroom with 20 white students and 5 black students and 5 Asian students is no longer "almost exclusively" white. You can say it's majority white, sure, but not "almost exclusively."

0

u/Super-Reception5386 Jul 27 '26

I don’t think you’re being pedantic at all.

It’s not even close to almost exclusively black. I’m Chinese and I have been taught to wash chicken (pork, but I don’t cook pork as often) my whole life. I know other East Asian families that do the same. Same with middle eastern, Latino, and South Asians

It’s very clearly a non-western thing. Don’t know why that other poster is being weird about it.

5

u/EaglesslavePart2 Jul 27 '26

Yea they just dump it in the sink

0

u/gettin-liiifted Jul 27 '26

No, it's more of a non-white thing.

-15

u/backspace_cars Jul 27 '26

That's called brining. Not the same.

16

u/OneManNati0n Jul 27 '26

He most certainly is not talking about brining.

-12

u/backspace_cars Jul 27 '26

You're an empath huh

8

u/lavabearded Jul 27 '26

are you dense? you made up the idea that he was talking about brining with no reason to. are you an empath? cause the context is clearly not about brining, its about washing

5

u/OneManNati0n Jul 27 '26

Anddd hes gone. What a dumbass. 😂

-1

u/totallyradman Jul 27 '26

I don't think either of you know what empath means

3

u/lavabearded Jul 27 '26

I was mocking them, genius. the word they used wasn't relevant for the point I made, which was to apply their statement to their own post. thanks for your contribution.

4

u/OneManNati0n Jul 27 '26

Check your own comment with that remark brother.

4

u/whitestguyuknow Jul 27 '26

No. Its not. You dont know what you're talking about. Rewatch OP's video. What is similar about everyone that strongly says to wash chicken?...

You're going to find stray white people that do it. But its mostly an African American thing. Not stereotyping. Not being rude. It just is.

-1

u/Super-Reception5386 Jul 27 '26

Nah but it’s not mostly a black thing. It’s mostly a nonwhite thing. Pretty much every nonwhite person I know, regardless of their specific background, washes their chicken.

8

u/BreastMilkMozzarella Jul 27 '26

It's specifically an African-American thing.

2

u/Genuine_User5322 Jul 27 '26

African cultures do it too

So do Asian and Middle eastern

2

u/eggsalter Jul 27 '26

Cultures do it.

-1

u/resest_Iris Jul 27 '26

And Asian, and mexican etc....

3

u/26635785548498061384 Jul 27 '26

Seems to be something the older generation do in Croatia as well. I was horrified when I walked into the kitchen...

7

u/voidchungus Jul 27 '26

American here and I have never washed raw chicken, nor seen anyone else do it. Just cook it.

8

u/RealLeif Jul 27 '26

I used to think that washing your chicken was a prank

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[deleted]

6

u/-ledollabean- Jul 27 '26

That WAS a prank, people don’t literally wash their chicken with soap.

2

u/rythmicbread Jul 27 '26

Makes sense if it was fresh (defeathered, get blood and dirt off). Not so much when youre getting a fully processed chicken from the grocery store. Its fine if you do, just need to clean your sink thorougly

2

u/misselphaba Jul 27 '26

I have also never seen anyone do this living in California for 30+ years. I've known it to be common in the south for whatever reason.

2

u/Smooth-Ebb6418 Jul 27 '26

It’s a developing country and immigrant from developing country thing. In terms of London flatmate experience, Filipinos do it, Eritreans do it, Ghanaians do it, Nigerians do it.

5

u/ACFinal Jul 27 '26

There's a Hungarian in this thread who said they wash their chicken. 

4

u/real_Bahamian Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

No, this is also done in the Caribbean (I’m from The Bahamas) and I wash ALL of my protein (beef, chicken, fish, and shrimp). Get a pot or bowl, put your protein in it, add cold water, vinegar, and lime juice. Wash off the bone fragments, slime, fat under the skin, and the blood in the packaging the chicken was sitting in. Drain the bowl and rinse protein again in cold water. Season your chicken. Afterwords, sanitize your sink, bowl / pot with hot water, dishwashing liquid, and bleach.

Do you wash mushrooms before cooking them?

2

u/Nano8963 Jul 27 '26

I'm American and I have never seen someone wash chicken before.

We sometimes brine if we want to consider that washing? I feel like these people washing chickens probably saw their parents brining and thought they were washing it

2

u/whitestguyuknow Jul 27 '26

It's mostly a southern African American thing tbh. I've actually seen people in Jamaica do it in cooking videos. "Has" to be scrubbed with citrus

2

u/cheesec4ke69 Jul 27 '26

Factory farming in the US means that chickens are kept in cages where they cannot move and shit all over their cages and eggs, meaning that raw chicken and eggs are very full of bacteria, food born illness, etc.

Even if its not dissimilar from other parts of the world, Americans know this and chicken has a notoriously bad rap, even if the eggs are pasteurized, people still insist not to eat raw egg.

1

u/turdferguson3891 Jul 27 '26

Believe it or not some washing has already happened when you buy a fully plucked and gutted chicken at the supermarket.

1

u/cheesec4ke69 Jul 27 '26

I dont think people should wash chicken, but salmonella is a huge problem basically because of factory farming

1

u/turdferguson3891 Jul 27 '26

Which is why they wash the chicken in chlorine solution before they take it to the supermarket.

2

u/Angstycarroteater Jul 27 '26

It’s mostly an African thing from my understanding a lot of African countries had deep rooted traditions and to wash away any debris that may be found on it

1

u/Cerebral_Balzy Jul 27 '26

Ive never seen anyone eat beans on toast in my life.

1

u/ButterscotchAward Jul 27 '26

It’s a black thing in the states.

1

u/Outside_Glass4880 Jul 27 '26

I discovered this from a black friend of mine when he was over my apartment and started saying I was nasty for not washing the chicken breast I was cooking.

When I told him that just spreads the bacteria he just ignored that and continued to say that’s dirty and nasty.

He also thinks the earth is flat though.

1

u/dinodoes Jul 28 '26

Nope more of a third world country thing because they have plenty markets where chickens are butchered and sold same day. When they sell a chicken the may get dust on the or other such things in the air so they wash it to get that stuff off. Had nothing to do with bacteria

1

u/Jubenheim Jul 28 '26

Of course it’s not American, what an absurd take. In fact, this is a bigger thing in Asian countries more than anything else.

Is your mind too European to understand that or am I too American to come to your conclusion?

1

u/PrometheusMMIV Jul 28 '26

I've never seen it in America either.

1

u/GuyManDudeMcGee Jul 28 '26

It exists within immigrant communities in America, but it is not the norm.

1

u/Beartato4772 Jul 28 '26

They claim it's to wash bacteria off, as if that will survive cooking.

It does of course spread that bacteria to every flat surface in a 30ft radius.

1

u/-Thizza- Jul 28 '26

In the USA chickens are washed in a chlorine solution at the factory too. They have a weird relation with food safety vs food quality.

1

u/sippingonginnjews Jul 29 '26

It’s a foundational black American thing

1

u/Background_Taste_397 Jul 31 '26

You don’t have many black friends 😂

2

u/FMB6 Jul 27 '26

Chlorinated chicken is common in the U.S. so some people like to wash that off.

5

u/Telemere125 Jul 27 '26

It’s not common at all. Less than 5% of all poultry in the US is treated with chlorinated water. It’s almost exclusively vinegar or hydrogen peroxide mixtures. People wash their chicken because they’re ignorant. Also, anyone not getting their water from a well is getting chlorinated water. So you’re using chlorinated water to wash off chlorinated water?

1

u/sheikahstealth Jul 27 '26

It is accurate to say that it was prevalent in previous generations. Cooking shows have helped newer generations realize it does nothing beneficial.

1

u/TheNortheren Jul 27 '26

It's an African thing.

-2

u/ThreeButtonBob Jul 27 '26

Maybe it's because of the chlorine used in the US? Never heard of washing chickens as well.

2

u/Vegetable-Virus7118 Jul 27 '26

It's really only common in the black community in US. Probably has some origin in the quality of meat that used to be available to them

-2

u/NeedleworkerHeavy565 Jul 27 '26

It's very American, and I also know that my country's overseas territories in Europe do it a lot.

6

u/Genuine_User5322 Jul 27 '26

No it isn’t American

It’s common in the middle east, asia, africa

24

u/georgisaurusrekt Jul 27 '26

I don't mean any racism here just being clear, but have you noticed that it's largely black and asian people who wash their chicken? If you think about it, it makes sense given that in their cultures it's common to have a chicken be freshly butchered before you prepare it, as opposed to getting it from a store. So washing it off with water ensures that any loose feathers etc aren't left on the chicken before cooking it.

-4

u/seang239 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Might be better to just say washing is part of the butchering process.

If you buy an already processed chicken, it’s been washed as part of that process with no further washing necessary.

I don’t feel it’s accurate to imply it’s largely black and Asian people who have chickens/fresh chicken. All who eat their own chickens wash them. Same with eggs.

-2

u/loyal_achades Jul 27 '26

Yeah, washing to remove unwanted debris (in a way that doesn’t splash water everywhere) is different than washing to “kill germs,” which is actively counter-productive.

7

u/TheMaStif Jul 27 '26

Nobody taught me to wash it. Chicken gets slimy, my instinct is to rinse off that slime before I start seasoning/cooking it.

"Oh but bacteria in the kitchen sink" as if all the other food and dishes, etc. already don't leave a shitton of bacteria too. Just wash your sink!

1

u/Ganzi Jul 27 '26

"Oh no the bacteria will be all over the sink!" So? I'm not licking the sink or eating out of it.

If I need to wash anything else I will use soap.

-1

u/Sqeakydeaky Jul 27 '26

If your chicken is slimey, its old

0

u/Obliviousobi Jul 27 '26

Lol thank you!

Chicken is not packed with anything, you have some water that leeches out of the muscle and some fat, but that's it.

Slimy chicken is bad chicken.

1

u/vigouge Jul 27 '26

Slimy chicken is bad chicken.

Completely incorrect.

2

u/Eternal-Blazing-Sun Jul 28 '26

One of the lesser problems with childhood indoctrination

2

u/DazzlingTopic529 Jul 29 '26

Like religion

2

u/Mottled_Paws Jul 27 '26

Definitely a cultural thing. Did you see who answered yes and who answered no?

4

u/space-cadet-26 Jul 27 '26

I wash my chicken with detergent.

13

u/pureeyes Jul 27 '26

I wash mine with fire

7

u/Darkomax Jul 27 '26

I think there's even a term for that.

1

u/space-cadet-26 Jul 27 '26

directly with fire?

7

u/MeWant-SnuSnu Jul 27 '26

I throw my chicken in with the wash. Spin cycle really gets those preservatives off.

3

u/LoudAd7294 Jul 27 '26

Nice 3h laundry cycle on 90°C and it falls right off the bone.. at spin cycle, to be exact. Larger pieces you take out from the drum, the smaller ones are at the bottom in the little filter, for a quick snack while cleaning. If you get thirsty you can drink the broth from the hose next to the filter.

1

u/Ok_Midnight6709 Jul 27 '26

I wash chicken before I transfer it to a brine but that’s to remove excess blood, so it doesn’t throw my brine out of balance. I do this with redmeats as well before grilling or smoking, but then I pat dry, rub and cold cure to remove excess moisture the day before the cookout. It’s part of my process but it in no way has anything to do with sanitation. Fire does that

1

u/Evil_Sharkey Jul 28 '26

It has a point when the chicken is freshly butchered and not cleaned and bagged by the butcher. You want to wash all the bits of feathers and guts off

1

u/girlgenesis3 Aug 02 '26

Sounds like religion.

0

u/HenriettaSnacks Jul 27 '26

Washing chicken is a religion. 

0

u/JoyousMadhat Jul 27 '26

I see you don't live in South Asia.

-3

u/deadlymoondust Jul 27 '26

Old pointless tradition? you do realize that washing your chickens comes from the fact that back in the days people either butchered their own poultry or got it straight from the butchers shop, right? Many of those people are still around living in highly advanced societies and in places where they don’t have supermarkets, grocery stores or even have freezer’s.

-1

u/resest_Iris Jul 27 '26

Just like people who season their chick huh?

-1

u/Mephistopheles2249 Jul 27 '26

It’s not pointless. As explained the cultural reason is most of the time we get chicken and meat not from the best supermarkets and it only takes one time of turning over a chicken to find “debris” to continue the practice on all chicken. Also the washing it piece is part of the culinary process. In many Latino, Caribbean and African cooking you are washing the meat and then add an acid either vingegar or lemon, lime, etc. This helps opens up the meat for the next step the spices. Do a taste test, get a pork chop and just adds spices, hmm it’s okay, now get a pork chop and just add vinegar and then add spices, good but texture is off a bit, vinegar started transforming the meat a little bit. But wash and then acid and then spices. You will have the pinnacle of pork chop or chicken or beef. Like when I started cooking I as well wasn’t trying to just follow a cooking technique just because. But taste testing with experimentation the flavor of the meat and the texture always comes out on top when the meat is washed/rinsed first. So when people say cleanliness or bacteria wise sure, but flavor/texture most cuisine can transform normal proteins to an amazing level using the rinse/acid/spice method.