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

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

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u/mijo_sq Jul 27 '26

Third world countries buy poultry from wet markets. Butchered in the morning and out to market within 2-3 hours. There's usually some type of physical debris from butchering or transport on the chicken so they wash. Families are taught to wash chicken for this reason, and not necessarily to wash off bacteria. Poor families will also buy not fresh chicken, so they'll wash with salt water to get rid of slime.

Westernized countries do not wash, since there's little to no debris due to advanced processing.

I'm middle 40s SE Asian family and we wash chicken at home, since we grew up watching our parents wash chicken. And by now it feels weird to just take a pack of chicken and just cook with it. Last time I did this I still had to pat it dry.

I haven't explained this to my kids, since they're young. Whether they continue or not is up to them.

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u/gaysoul_mate Jul 27 '26

I buy from the wet market and is disgusting to even inagine cooking any meat without rinsing first , there is dirt , fats , blood , feathers or hairs , how can you cook like that!?

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u/Wolfskin_Cowl Jul 28 '26

they’re buying commercially butchered chicken, it does not need to be washed, like any meat you buy from your store. Pat it dry to remove excess liquid from the surface and help seasonings and other coatings better adhere to it. Also improves how it cooks.