Chicken is the most popular researched recipe on the web. This made me think: is everyone properly cleaning their boards after working with raw chicken? I thought I was. Upon, doing some research however I discovered that I was cleaning my board without properly sanitizing it.
My old way- Rub board down with lemon and rinse off with boiling water and then clean with soap and water. Now hot water and soap cleans the board but does not fully sanitize according to the USDA.
My new way- I can continue with how I cleaned it but now with one more step. 1 tablespoon of Chlorine to 1 gallon of water, wash down the board with mixture and rinse.
Another note when defrosting chicken, defrost in the refrigerator not at room temperature. If you decide not to use it the chicken can be returned to freezer. It will just loose some of its flavor. Chicken can stay in refrigerator for 2 days. But do not return to freezer if left out at room temperature.
Something else I learned was that there is a toll free number 1-800-535-4555 provided by the USDA were you get an actual person on the phone and they can answer all your questions; it was amazing! Click to Enter Pantry
I can’t help but wonder though how overly freaked out people are with the whole chicken thing. I’m sure the Chlorine works but dealing with Chlorine is dangerous especially for clumsy people like me…how many times have I ruined a shirt b/c I got a drop of it on me. Not that I eat chicken anyways.
don’t post this comment -
This particular entry may be a good one for getting links… It’s interesting… slightly controversial and there is some new information (1800 number for the USDA) – with some proper targeting you may be able to get certain groups to link to this article…. What do you think???
Cheers,
Milan