Don't Wash Chicken

[Sundae]

When you wash boards and utensils you're not rinsing them under running water, right?
You wash them in a sink/ bowl/ dishwasher with a detergent. Even splashes of that water will therefore not contain live bacteria.
People who "wash" chicken are rinsing it under a tap.

I agree that general food safety standards do help, this being one of them.

We never washed chicken in my house.
But then we don't refrigerate eggs either.

[JuancoRocks]

I have to disagree with their analysis of washing chicken. I cook a lot of chicken, I smoke chicken, grill chicken, boil chicken, bake chicken and fry chicken. I always wash chicken as soon as I take it out of the package (as it is soaking in a water and blood mixture along with a paper tampon) and after cutting up the chicken I wash it again to remove the loose bits. I think the key to what I do is after I am done preparing a chicken is that I wash the counters and everything associated with the preparation in soap and water and after that I wash them with an alcohol mixture of 50-50 alcohol and water.

I grew up on the farm without electricity and we slaughtered chickens on a daily basis. The only cooling we had was icebox and the celler which we didn't use much. I don't remember anyone ever getting sick from salmonella or any other chicken or bacteria related illnesses.

I remember a book that I read from World War I that had the statement "cleanliness is next to godliness and here in the war it's next to impossible". However even without electricity and cooling we managed to eat chickens fairly regularly.

I still agree with the statement that cleanliness is next to godliness and take all precautions when preparing chicken. This is my opinion and your mileage may vary based on conditions and handling.

JR