Using a meat thermometer?
February 15, 2018 12:26 PM Subscribe
So I have a real good thermometer, still I can't seem to find, even in the supposed middle of my chicken, anything below the recommended 165 temp that might suggest the red interior I end up with... I'm tired of poking holes and making swiss cheese out of my chicken!
It's one of those Lavatools thermopens, has been tested it in ice water, in boiling water. Still, every time I try and check my meat temp I get these high readings (these past few weeks cooking chicken leg quarters I'm seeing 180 on the outside and 170-ish toward the middle) that suggest the meat is more than done. Is there a technique I'm missing other than the usual 'find the deepest part' thing?
It's one of those Lavatools thermopens, has been tested it in ice water, in boiling water. Still, every time I try and check my meat temp I get these high readings (these past few weeks cooking chicken leg quarters I'm seeing 180 on the outside and 170-ish toward the middle) that suggest the meat is more than done. Is there a technique I'm missing other than the usual 'find the deepest part' thing?
Color is not a reliable indicator of temperature and the USDA does not recommend using it as an indicator of doneness.
Properly cooked chicken will often have a reddish/pinkish tint. I suspect your expectation of an entirely white chicken interior is simply due to being used to radically overcooked chicken.
posted by saeculorum at 12:32 PM on February 15, 2018 [17 favorites]
Properly cooked chicken will often have a reddish/pinkish tint. I suspect your expectation of an entirely white chicken interior is simply due to being used to radically overcooked chicken.
posted by saeculorum at 12:32 PM on February 15, 2018 [17 favorites]
Seconding that it is perfectly normal to have full cooked pinkish or even red (near the bones) chicken.
posted by carrioncomfort at 1:01 PM on February 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by carrioncomfort at 1:01 PM on February 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
Is it possible you are hitting bone? to temp the breast you want to stab in vertically along the breast bone (down" if the chicken stoodup) from the collar towards the legs. A sensitive thermometer (which you have) could pretty easily be reading the bone temp.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 1:12 PM on February 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 1:12 PM on February 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Don't measure temp in the breast as that will cook relatively quickly - you want to hit the meaty part of the thigh.
Especially if you are brining your meat, a cooked chicken can still be a bit pink.
posted by JPD at 1:39 PM on February 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Especially if you are brining your meat, a cooked chicken can still be a bit pink.
posted by JPD at 1:39 PM on February 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
JPD has it, you can't measure temperature in the breast of the chicken, and even if you are measuring in the meaty thigh, chicken is notoriously difficult to measure. I go more by when the legs loosen from the body. Or sticking a meat pin into the thigh and see if the juices come out clear, rather than pink.
While I like ducks and geese a bit pink, I think chicken should be cooked through, always. That means the breast will be a little dry when the dark meat is ready when I roast it whole. I feel that it helps to put a whole (organic) lemon in the cavity and to put a lot of butter on top of the chicken. Also, recently I've begun to roast it in a pre-heated cast-iron skillet, pr this recipe. That way the thighs get some more heat from the bottom.
posted by mumimor at 2:17 PM on February 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
While I like ducks and geese a bit pink, I think chicken should be cooked through, always. That means the breast will be a little dry when the dark meat is ready when I roast it whole. I feel that it helps to put a whole (organic) lemon in the cavity and to put a lot of butter on top of the chicken. Also, recently I've begun to roast it in a pre-heated cast-iron skillet, pr this recipe. That way the thighs get some more heat from the bottom.
posted by mumimor at 2:17 PM on February 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
You can absolutely measure the temperature of the chicken's breast to accurately gauge its (the breasts) done-ness. The problem comes not from either the breast or thigh being the "ideal" location to take temperatures, but that you need to see different readings across the two locations. Id pull a roast chicken out of the oven when the breast was 155 assuming carryover would take it to 165. A chicken with thighs measuring 155F would be inedibly undercooked - texture-wise you will be happier with thighs cooked to/past 175, a temperature at which your breasts will be dry and gross.
This is not a measurement issue - its a physics issue. Breasts and thighs are different shapes/sized AND need to come to different temperatures, this is why roasting whole birds is really not ideal, although if you ARE going that way, some techniques like spatch cocking will make it easier to get both done simultaneously.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:22 PM on February 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
This is not a measurement issue - its a physics issue. Breasts and thighs are different shapes/sized AND need to come to different temperatures, this is why roasting whole birds is really not ideal, although if you ARE going that way, some techniques like spatch cocking will make it easier to get both done simultaneously.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:22 PM on February 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Seconding that it is perfectly normal to have full cooked pinkish or even red (near the bones) chicken.
Yes, nthing, and if you "rest" the chicken after taking it out of the oven the red/pinkness will diminish or go away.
I, too, go by whether it comes off the bone and if the juice is clear.
posted by jgirl at 5:55 PM on February 15, 2018
Yes, nthing, and if you "rest" the chicken after taking it out of the oven the red/pinkness will diminish or go away.
I, too, go by whether it comes off the bone and if the juice is clear.
posted by jgirl at 5:55 PM on February 15, 2018
Chicken legs should be a tad pinkish when done, they’re “dark meat”.
posted by padraigin at 7:20 PM on February 15, 2018
posted by padraigin at 7:20 PM on February 15, 2018
I feel that it helps to put a whole (organic) lemon in the cavity and to put a lot of butter on top of the chicken.
Yes! Or chop some tarragon & bruise a few whole cloves of garlic, put those inside with the lemon - which I like to squeeze out over the buttered chicken before it goes in the oven. Be generous with salt & pepper. Sit the whole thing on top of a couple of celery stalks while you roast it, along with a halved onion in the pan. Add half a glass of white wine into the pan 10mins before the end of the cooking time, and you pretty much have your gravy right there already. Delicious. I'm hungry.
A kilo and a half is an hour and a half, at 180 C. A few minutes more if it's heavier, up to 1:45 or 1:50 for two kilos. Yes, the thighs may be dark pink at the centre when they're done, the legs will be brownish - noticeably pinker & darker if it's a free range bird that may actually have used its legs for walking around on. Let it rest for 15mins or so before you carve it.
Works every time. No thermometer needed.
posted by rd45 at 2:56 AM on February 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Yes! Or chop some tarragon & bruise a few whole cloves of garlic, put those inside with the lemon - which I like to squeeze out over the buttered chicken before it goes in the oven. Be generous with salt & pepper. Sit the whole thing on top of a couple of celery stalks while you roast it, along with a halved onion in the pan. Add half a glass of white wine into the pan 10mins before the end of the cooking time, and you pretty much have your gravy right there already. Delicious. I'm hungry.
A kilo and a half is an hour and a half, at 180 C. A few minutes more if it's heavier, up to 1:45 or 1:50 for two kilos. Yes, the thighs may be dark pink at the centre when they're done, the legs will be brownish - noticeably pinker & darker if it's a free range bird that may actually have used its legs for walking around on. Let it rest for 15mins or so before you carve it.
Works every time. No thermometer needed.
posted by rd45 at 2:56 AM on February 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
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A cooked chicken can have signs of red nearer the bones in the middle.
posted by Brockles at 12:31 PM on February 15, 2018 [5 favorites]