Tonight, my friend and I ordered a fried chicken special at a restaurant with a local food theme. It was a great dish.
Both of us got very pink chicken. I am pretty sure that my plate had three drumsticks. Upon noticing the color, my colleague returned the dish to be more thoroughly cooked. I did not return mine, since last week I read the USDA fact sheet on poultry preparation. It says that temperature and not color should be used to test for safety, and that cooked poultry can be pink – especially when young. As I kept eating, I came across meat that was quite dark red – this was probably the pinkest chicken I have ever eaten. Other than the color, the texture and color of the meat did not seem raw.
I have a few questions:
- Might the exceptional color be due in part to the breed (e.g. are there heritage breeds that have exceptionally red meat)?
- Should I have been concerned (since I did not have a thermometer) (and should I have sent my chicken back?)
- Is undercooked (pink) chicken more likely to be unsafe than undercooked (pink) beef? (Answers to previous questions seem to provide give conflicting answers: "no" as discussed in Why isn't it safe to eat raw chicken?; "yes" as discussed in Is it safe to prepare Chicken Tartare?)
Best Answer
Puffin meat is bright red. Duck meat can be rather red as well.
I have seen some cooking process that can make chicken red or pink, Jidori chickens for example cooked at low temperatures for long periods of time.