This major rule about cooking chicken turns out to be wrong

Break this rule for juicier chicken.

I grew up under the impression that quicksand was a real and imminent danger, right up there with piranhas and the Bermuda Triangle. I was also told I needed to memorize the multiplication table because I’d never have a calculator in my pocket.

I was raised on a bed of lies—a life built on deceit. But the worst offender of the bunch: I was told that pink chicken will kill you, or at least make you very sick. Most of us were taught that pink chicken is a tell-tale sign of uncooked chicken, likely harboring bacteria like salmonella and campylobacter, just waiting to ruin your night. In reality, there are a few reasons chicken can stay pink, and most of them have nothing to do with safety.

When Pink Chicken Is Safe

Dark meat gets its color from myoglobin, a protein that stores and carries oxygen to well-exercised muscles like drumsticks and thighs. Myoglobin can stay pink even after the meat hits 165°F internally, which is the benchmark for safe-to-eat chicken and the temperature at which foodborne bacteria like salmonella, E. coli, and listeria are killed off. So that pink you’re seeing near the bone isn’t a warning sign. It’s just a well-exercised muscle doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.

In addition, bone marrow can play a role in the color of cooked chicken meat. Bone marrow is the soft, spongy tissue inside the center of chickens’ larger bones, like the drumsticks and thighs. It produces blood cells, supports the immune system, and has a dark, purplish color of its own. Young chickens have porous bones, which lets that pigmented marrow seep into the meat closest to the bone. Marrow-tinted meat can stay pink even after it clears 165°F, and there’s nothing to worry about.

Finally, there’s the influence of BBQ. A pink smoke ring is widely considered a badge of honor. I can’t count how many times I’ve watched someone slice into a beautiful smoked chicken or brisket and heard another gasp, “look at that smoke ring!” It’s largely regarded as the goal when smoking most proteins, from wings to ribs and everything in between. In actuality, that rosy hue comes from a chemical reaction between the meat’s myoglobin and nitric oxide billowing off burning charcoal and wood chips. The nitric oxide penetrates the surface and leaves a visible pink band on the outermost layer of meat. Since dark meat chicken and the meat nearest to the bone has the most myoglobin, that’s where the pink ring shows up the most.

How To Know When Chicken Is Cooked

Chicken doneness is a temperature, not a color. The most reliable way to know your chicken is safe to eat is to use an instant-read thermometer and check that the thickest part of the meat has reached 165°F. Color can lie to you. A thermometer can’t.

Read the original article on Simply Recipes