Chicken – Confirming Fried Chicken is completely cooked

chickenchicken-breastchicken-wingsdeep-fryingtemperature

I'm currently involved in a food startup and we're refining our process for product quality. We fry Bone-In breasts, Dark quarters, Wings and Boneless breasts. The challenge I'm currently facing is ensuring chicken is fully cooked (165F) but not overcooked (170F for white, 180F for dark). My main issue is getting an accurate temperature reading:

  1. Do I need to go with the lowest temperature reading? Sometimes I'll get ~140F in one temping, but another place on the same piece I'll get ~170F
  2. What do I need to be careful of in order to ensure an accurate temperature? I know it's hotter closer to the surface than internally, but I've also heard I need to avoid hitting bones as they get hotter than meat; are there any other outliers like this?
  3. How much might fried chicken increase in temperature after sitting. For instance, If I pull a piece from the fryer @155F can I expect it'll reach 165F after sitting 5-10 minutes?

Best Answer

While not specifically an answer to your measurement question, you might consider cooking your chicken low-temp (sous vide) to ensure optimal doneness, then just quickly deep fry for crust formation. That would guarantee safety and specific temp. for specific parts of the bird. See here, for example: http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-fried-chicken