Letting Raw Chicken Come Up To Room Temp?

[Mike W]

Howdy Friends.

There about 1 billion recipes that call for letting your raw chicken stand for 30 minutes, even many up to an hour at room temp. This for roasted chicken, grilled chicken and fried chicken. I have let chicken hit room temp before frying (about 40 min) and it cooks more even and much faster. So far, not sick yet. I do however fry the kids chicken tenders straight from the fridge to the flower to the fryer just to be safe. I have been doing this with steak for years but chicken scares me. I really want to continue this method cause my fried chicken comes out so much better. I don't have to over cook the outer layers to get the inside to 165. It doesn't over brown and best of all it doesn't cool down my hot oil. Very famous chefs have this recommendation in their chicken recipes. What ya'll think?

Mike

[Dallas Dan]

Only beef should be allowed to come up to room temp B4 cooking.

[Mklade]

I always let chicken come up to room temp before cooking. The thing with chicken is to be sure it is fully cooked. One of the scariest things I ever did was judge chicken at a BBQ cookoff and had a couple under cooked birds come to the table, thankfully the table monitor pulled them!

[HBMTN]

What would be the advantage of letting chicken come to room temp?

[CarolinaQ]

Originally Posted by HBMTN

What would be the advantage of letting chicken come to room temp?

It's stated plainly in the posters sentence...and I always allow my chicken to sit out at least 30 minutes before cooking.

[Gore]

Originally Posted by HBMTN

What would be the advantage of letting chicken come to room temp?

Bringing any food up to temp before cooking allows it to cook more evenly. The center is normally the coldest part and least cooked. By bringing it up to temp slowly (by leaving it out), the center has a chance to go up in temp. Another example of this technique is a reverse sear. The result is a more even cook.

[Smoke'n Ice]

The most important things are

1. 4 hours or less in unsafe zone
2. Cook to proper internal temperature

This goes for all potentially hazardous foods

[landarc]

In the U.S., the guidelines are to never let it come to room temperature. But, growing up with both the Italian and Chinese poultry stores, they kept the chickens hanging at a cool room temperature, not chilled and there never seemed to be a problem. I rarely let it sit out for more than 30 minutes, but, that seems plenty to get your average chilled chicken to proper temperature.

[Mike W]

Originally Posted by Smoke'n Ice

The most important things are

1. 4 hours or less in unsafe zone
2. Cook to proper internal temperature

This goes for all potentially hazardous foods

I've read 4 hours or less in other places too. I'll only go 45 min most and that's averaging 70-75 degrees room temp.

[The_Kapn]

I never thought much about it as a separate part of the process.

If we are talking chicken, I take it out of the fridge and put on the prep area.
Go fire up the cooker and come back in.
Do my rinsing, seasoning, take it out, and cook it.

Chickie, even a whole one, is small and probably at or near room temp after my prep work.

I would think that whatever works is fine.

TIM

[Don Marco]

In my opinions its good to let the meat sit at room temperature ( away from direct sunlight and definately not in a hot room) for a while to get the chill out of it and even out the internal temps a bit.
Letting it sit so long that the internal temperature is the same as room temperature is way too much for me though.

DM