In Ina we trust...I think?
Ina Garten recently took to Instagram to share her secret for the most "flavorful, moist chicken breasts" and it included a controversial technique: undercooking the meat.
"No one wants to serve dry chicken," Garten wrote in the post, before launching into her process to avoid the cooking fail.
"Cook the chicken with the skin on, undercook it slightly, and let it rest (and keep cooking) under a sheet of aluminum foil. You won’t believe what a difference this makes!"
Naturally, fans were a little conflicted over Garten's strategy.
"Undercook and chicken don’t go in the same sentence for me," one commenter wrote, and another added, "I think that is a bit too risky."
"About to have all the girls with salmonella because you know they don’t listen," a third person wrote.
While it might sound precarious, our beloved Barefoot Contessa could never steer us wrong. And she's definitely not advising anyone to eat undercooked chicken. In fact, she's recommending using a technique called "carryover cooking," which means cooking the food until it's *almost* at the correct temperature, pulling it from the oven, and letting it finish up the job under tinfoil. Delish's Taylor Ann Spencer explains it all in this TikTok:
She went on to advise us to use a meat thermometer to check the chicken's internal temperature and remove it from the oven around 155 and 160 degrees. "It will keep cooking to 165 degrees as it rests under the foil, at which point it will still be hot and fully cooked," Garten explains.
However, USDA Food Safety Specialist Beverly Lopez warns that "chicken shouldn't be removed from its heat source until it reaches 165 degrees" and says it should be "measured with a food thermometer." But as long as you use that thermometer to ensure your carryover cooking did the job (i.e. your chicken is at 165 degrees before consumption) you should be more than fine.
"Cover it with aluminum foil and just let it rest for about 10 minutes," Garten concludes in the video. "The chicken keeps cooking and all the juices get back in the chicken. You wouldn’t believe the difference it makes."
