PlinyChris
Assistant Cook
Hi All,
I have just started getting serious about cooking, and I wanted to pick everyone's expert brains about handling raw chicken.
In my chicken-recipe research, I have become quite familiar with the risks of handling/defrosting raw chicken. The problem is that the Internet has got me so darn paranoid about handling raw chicken that I find myself constantly washing my hands with soap, trying to ensure that the raw chicken (or my juice covered hands) never come into contact with anything. I feel like I am overreacting, but I can't find information online to give me the right expert guidance.
So my question is--what is the reasonable way to handle raw chicken? Again, the Internet makes raw chicken sound like it's crawling with germs that are begging to make you sick, but there has to be a reasonable middle ground.
Today I:
- Wash my hands with soap after touching chicken and before touching anything else--the pan, the stirring spoon.
- When storing chicken, I wash my hands with soap, pick up raw chicken with one hand and use the clean hand to handle and close the ziplock bag--I also avoid touching the refrigerator door with a chicken contaminated hand. If juice leaks on the plastic bag, I will literally wash the bag with cold water and soap so it doesn't contaminate things in the fridge.
Is chicken really this dangerous? I can't imagine it is ... please advise.
I have just started getting serious about cooking, and I wanted to pick everyone's expert brains about handling raw chicken.
In my chicken-recipe research, I have become quite familiar with the risks of handling/defrosting raw chicken. The problem is that the Internet has got me so darn paranoid about handling raw chicken that I find myself constantly washing my hands with soap, trying to ensure that the raw chicken (or my juice covered hands) never come into contact with anything. I feel like I am overreacting, but I can't find information online to give me the right expert guidance.
So my question is--what is the reasonable way to handle raw chicken? Again, the Internet makes raw chicken sound like it's crawling with germs that are begging to make you sick, but there has to be a reasonable middle ground.
Today I:
- Wash my hands with soap after touching chicken and before touching anything else--the pan, the stirring spoon.
- When storing chicken, I wash my hands with soap, pick up raw chicken with one hand and use the clean hand to handle and close the ziplock bag--I also avoid touching the refrigerator door with a chicken contaminated hand. If juice leaks on the plastic bag, I will literally wash the bag with cold water and soap so it doesn't contaminate things in the fridge.
Is chicken really this dangerous? I can't imagine it is ... please advise.