The Controversial Thing Bobby Flay Does With Raw Chicken

From his time at the French Culinary Institute to his 27-year run on the Food Network, Chef Bobby Flay has a lot of experience under his belt. While this makes him an ideal figure to turn to for cooking tips, there's one controversial habit you might not want to follow his lead on. In a TikTok video shared by the Food Network, Flay states that he washes raw chicken before cooking it. If you weren't already aware of this food safety crime, the CDC says that washing raw chicken can increase the risk of cross-contamination, and ultimately make you seriously sick, so next time you're roasting a chicken for dinner, you might want to think twice before listening to the king of the kitchen.

Raw chicken can carry germs such as campylobacter, salmonella, or clostridium perfringens, and the main reason why washing chicken before cooking is a bad idea is because of the inevitable spreading of said germs. When you rinse a raw chicken over the sink, all of its germs disseminated around the sink. Not only that, but when washed off with water, those pathogens can splash and reach other areas of your kitchen, from the dish rack next to your sink to your sink's handle. Since germs are too small to see, there's no way of knowing whether your deep clean of the sink and its surroundings really did the job, so you could be spreading germs without even knowing it. Because of this, it's best to avoid washing raw meat altogether.

Bobby Flay isn't the only well-regarded celebrity chef who washes their chicken: Even the queen of the kitchen, Julia Child, washed her chicken, too. On her show, The French Chef, Child said that she thinks it's "a safer thing to do," but official food safety research tells us that this just isn't the case.

There are a few steps you'll want to take when preparing chicken to ensure that your kitchen stays clean and germ-free. First and foremost, before even taking chicken out of the fridge, you'll want to be sure that it's placed in the correct location. In general, the very bottom shelf of your refrigerator is the best spot for raw meat, but if your fridge's bottom shelf is full, place it on a baking sheet to catch any dripping. Once you're ready to cook your chicken, make sure to wash your hands with hot, soapy water both before and after handling it. This goes for other objects, too, including cutting boards, countertops, plates, or utensils. In addition to keeping your hands and space clean, avoid keeping other foods nearby when you're cooking chicken to avoid further cross-contamination. 

If you insist on washing chicken, the CDC recommends running water gently over the chicken, immediately cleaning and sanitizing the sink, then washing your hands for 20 seconds. But if you'd rather just get on with your cooking and not have to overthink every step, it's probably best to cook your chicken as-is.