How safe is it to eat pink chicken?

For far too long, pink chicken has been forbidden by many. So much so, that many of us tend to overcook chicken, on purpose, so that the pink color disappears. Read on to know, how safe is it to eat pinkish colored chicken?

Usually, the pink color of raw chicken quickly turns to creamy white upon cooking. Sometimes, we do come across certain chicken pieces that remain pinkish even after cooking them to the safe cooking temperatures. Read on to know why the pink color of some chicken doesn’t fade away easily.

Chicken may stay pink even after cooking mainly because of two main reasons.

The hollow bones of the young chicken, usually 6 to 8 weeks old, sold in the grocery shops are thinner and porous. Upon cooking the purple color of the myoglobin rich marrow leaks into the other meat tissues and thus stains the chicken bones pink. This color stays on the meat and bones even after cooking to adequate temperatures. Many times, certain cooking techniques such as smoking the chicken at low cooking temperatures initiate the pink reaction on the meat because of the presence of myoglobin.

This means you should not depend upon the color of chicken to test its degree of doneness. A good quality thermometer is the best equipment to check if the chicken is cooked until the safe to eat temperatures from inside. So, a temperature between 160 to 1650F is the ideal temperature to cook chicken.

If you still do not trust the pinkish color on chicken then you may:

Debone the meat before cooking it. In the absence of myoglobin rich marrow, the chicken meat will not be stained pink anymore. You must marinate the chicken with plenty of citrus or vinegar as chicken with low acidity or higher pH has more myoglobin present in it, which gives the chicken a pink color.