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Can You Eat Raw Chicken?

By: Author William Thomas

William Thomas

Editor-in-Chief & Pitmaster

I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.
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Can You Eat Raw Chicken?

Let us say that food is an amazing thing that can be consumed in a variety of ways. This includes cooking it and eating it raw.

The great thing about cooking food is that you can cook it in so many ways. When eating it raw, it’s such a convenient and quick way to do so.

In some cases, you need to take care with raw food because not all food can be eaten raw. One such food that falls under these criteria is chicken.

In this article, we’ll discuss if you can eat raw chicken, what are the possible benefits or risks, and how you can safely do it.

Is It Possible To Eat Raw Chicken?

Chicken is a very popular meat that is eaten all over the world. It’s very delicious, but it cannot, under any circumstances, be eaten raw.

Meats like beef and seafood also have risks. However, unlike chicken, they can still be eaten raw.

The reason you can’t eat chicken raw is because of all the risks associated with it. Chicken carries a lot of diseases inside it. They are not exactly the most sanitary of animals and carry a lot of diseases inside them.

Because this is the case, there are no benefits that come with eating raw chicken. All you have are risks upon risks when consuming raw chicken, so it is just best to avoid it.

You also want to make sure that the chicken is completely cooked through because undercooked chicken can also make you sick.

In the next section, we will go into just what those risks are.

What Are the Risks of Eating Raw Chicken?

As we said, there are benefits to eating raw chicken and nothing but risks. Some of these risks include:

  • Consuming raw chicken can put you at risk of getting infected with the salmonella bacteria. This can lead to food poisoning, gastroenteritis, typhoid fever, or enteric fever.
  • You can also get the campylobacter bacteria, which causes bloody diarrhea.
  • Other common bacteria include staph infection, E.coli, klebsiella, and Enterococcus.
  • Serious complications such as typhoid fever, bacteremia, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and reactive arthritis can also arise from the result of getting these bacteria in your system.
  • Typhoid fever is caused by salmonella, and common symptoms are fever, stomach pain, headache, and a rose-colored rash, and headache.
  • With bacteremia, bacteria have entered the bloodstream, and any part of the body can be at risk.
  • Guillain-Barre syndrome causes temporary paralysis to start in the feet and then go upward. In some rare cases, it causes complete paralysis.
  • Finally, with reactive arthritis, there can be inflammation of joints, the urinary system, reproductive organs, and eyes.

So, as you can see, there are a lot of risks when eating chicken raw and not any benefits. This is why chicken must be cooked.

How Can You Safely Store Raw Chicken?

By doing the following, you can make sure that your raw chicken is safe to eat when you finally decide to cook it. This includes:

  • When you buy the chicken, make sure it is kept in its separate bag so it doesn’t contaminate any of your other food. The same goes for once you get it into your fridge, Keep it in its original packaging and then make sure it’s kept away from other foods.
  • If you aren’t going to eat in the kitchen within two days, then you need to keep it in the freezer.
  • Always check your chicken before cooking. To tell if your chicken is bad, it will have a rotten smell and be slimy. If it is either of those things, then you need to get rid of the chicken right away. Eating it will put you at risk. Even if you cook it, it will.

By following these suggestions, you can make sure that your chicken is completely safe for you to consume.

How Can You Cook Chicken?

Before cooking chicken, keep in mind that the chicken must have an internal temperature of 165 Fahrenheit or 74 degrees Celsius. This can easily be checked by a meat thermometer.

Now that this is out of the way, let’s get to the methods of how you can cook chicken. They include:

  • Cooking the chicken in the oven is probably one of the most classic ways to cook chicken. You use whatever ingredients and spices you like, preheat the oven to around 450 degrees, and then cook it for about 30 minutes. Always check it before eating it. Using a meat thermometer is a good way to do this.
  • Another way to cook chicken is by searing it in a pan on the stovetop. The amount of time to cook the chicken varies. All you have to do is just keep checking to see what the inside looks like. Again, a meat thermometer will help with this.
  • Finally, another way you can cook chicken is on the grill, which is also another classic way to cook chicken. Heat the grill, marinate the chicken, and then put it on the grill. Grill times vary, so just make keep an eye on it during the grilling process.

These are some of the top three methods of cooking chicken. There are other ways, but these are some of the more popular ones out there.

Final Thoughts

And there you have it, all you chicken lovers out there! Now you know you shouldn’t eat raw chicken or even undercooked chicken under any circumstances.

There are just too many risks associated with eating raw chicken and no benefits. It’s not worth eating raw or undercooked chicken and giving your body a chance to contract an illness.

Because of this, we listed three ways you can cook chicken. Always check it with a meat thermometer.

By doing this and the other methods mentioned, you help lower the risk of getting sick. This way, you can enjoy the chicken!

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