Tons of people like to eat chicken, but to cook it? That can be a different story. A quick scroll through social media finds a whole bunch of folks who are wary at best (and flat-out fearful at worst) to prepare the poultry themselves, since they’re afraid they might serve it undercooked and get sick.
A little caution isn’t a bad thing, since the pathogens that can be found in a raw or undercooked bird are no joke—48 million people contract foodborne illness every year, and in many cases, bacteria like salmonella and campylobacter found in chicken are to blame, Wade Syers, MS, extension specialist for food safety at Michigan State University, tells SELF. And that can lead to wildly unpleasant symptoms like diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps.
Problem is, lots of folks aren’t exactly sure what counts as cooked when talking poultry. Many rely solely on the visual indicator you’re probably quite familiar with: If the chicken’s pink, it’s not safe to eat. Turns out, that’s not always the best way to gauge doneness. Some chicken that might look kinda pink might actually be completely cooked, while others might appear in the clear may not be at all, Darin Detwiler, PhD, an associate teaching professor of food policy at Northeastern University and author of Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions, tells SELF. Sounds confusing, right? Here’s what you really need to know to cook your chicken safely.
The pink test doesn’t always work with chicken, especially if you’re cooking dark meat.
A whole host of factors can play a role in your chicken’s hue, says Dr. Detwiler. Poultry in general comes in a lot of different shades and textures, even when fully cooked. “The color of chicken doesn’t always change uniformly due to various factors like the cooking temperature, the part of the chicken being cooked, and its natural variation,” says Dr. Detwiler.
Both the age of the bird and what it was fed can have an impact on how it appears on your cutting board even after it’s cooked, he explains. For instance, younger chickens have thinner skin and more permeable bones, which means the flesh within is more likely to be tinted pink by cooking gasses. Older chickens may have pink spotting because of areas where the fat in their bodies broke away from the skin.
What’s in their feed can also affect internal coloring in chickens across the age spectrum, he adds. In Europe, where it’s more common to include yellow and red carotenoids (fat-soluble pigments) in chicken feed, the resulting meat and egg yolks have a darker, orange hue.
The way a chicken is cooked or stored can also change its color. Freezing bone-in chicken parts can cause marrow to swell and leak out as it defrosts, resulting in a darker shade than you’d get from fresh chicken. And smoking a bird tints its flesh different hues as the gasses seep through the skin, especially if what you’re burning already had a vibrant shade to start—like wood chips from a cherry tree, for example.