My uncle told me to never wash chicken before cooking it...

He said it just splatters bacteria everywhere and doesn't actually clean it. I ignored him for years until I read that same thing from the CDC last month and felt pretty dumb about all that extra cleanup.

3 comments

3 Comments

julia_lee2mo agoMost Upvoted

Took me 37 sinks full of splattered chicken juice to finally believe my uncle wasn't just lazy.

willow_morgan1mo ago

My aunt used to rinse ground beef in a colander before browning it. I watched her do it for years until I asked about it and she said it was to "wash off the extra fat." Then I looked it up and found out you're basically just spreading raw meat juice across your entire sink and counter, same as the chicken thing. Felt like we'd been lied to by generations of well-meaning home cooks.

mark3612mo ago

So why did you keep ignoring him for years? Was it just habit or did you think he was being dramatic? I had the same wake-up call last year. Felt like an idiot scrubbing my sink after every chicken. What finally got me was watching a chef explain the aerosol effect online. The water particles really do fly everywhere. Crazy how we just do stuff our parents did without thinking.