What is the Safe Temperature to Cook Chicken to?
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Cook Until the Juices Run Clear—Fact or Fiction?
One persistent cooking adage is that if you pierce a chicken and the juices are clear, the meat is done. But is this oft-cited “rule” actually true?
A chicken breast is done when it reaches 160 degrees, while thighs are done at 175 degrees. But when we cooked whole chickens, in one case the juices ran clear when the breast registered 145 degrees and the thigh 155 degrees—long before the chicken was done. And when we pierced another chicken that we’d overcooked (the breast registered 170 degrees and the thigh 180 degrees), it still oozed pink juices.
Here’s the scoop: The juices in a chicken are mostly water; they get their color from a molecule called myoglobin. When myoglobin is heated, it loses its color. So there’s some good reasoning behind the adage. The problem is that the exact temperature at which this color change occurs varies depending on a number of factors (primarily the conditions under which the chicken was raised and processed). The best way to check for doneness? Use a thermometer.
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Check out our Kitchen Smarts series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnbzopdwFrnZxin-RUn3vI21Ghu6KvCXnd
Cook Until the Juices Run Clear—Fact or Fiction?
One persistent cooking adage is that if you pierce a chicken and the juices are clear, the meat is done. But is this oft-cited “rule” actually true?
A chicken breast is done when it reaches 160 degrees, while thighs are done at 175 degrees. But when we cooked whole chickens, in one case the juices ran clear when the breast registered 145 degrees and the thigh 155 degrees—long before the chicken was done. And when we pierced another chicken that we’d overcooked (the breast registered 170 degrees and the thigh 180 degrees), it still oozed pink juices.
Here’s the scoop: The juices in a chicken are mostly water; they get their color from a molecule called myoglobin. When myoglobin is heated, it loses its color. So there’s some good reasoning behind the adage. The problem is that the exact temperature at which this color change occurs varies depending on a number of factors (primarily the conditions under which the chicken was raised and processed). The best way to check for doneness? Use a thermometer.
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America's Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
http://americastestkitchen.com
http://facebook.com/americastestkitchen
http://twitter.com/testkitchen
http://instagram.com/testkitchen
http://pinterest.com/testkitchen
