Safe temperatures

[Geldoff]

In meatheads book he seems to generally recommend cooking chicken to an internal temperature of 160 degrees for safety reasons. However according to the USDA sterilization charts for poultry, that amongst other places, was published in Keni Lopez "The food lab" one can see that it is perfectly safe cooking chicken to 150 degrees as long as it is left there for 2.7 minutes which will achieve the same degree of sterilization as holding it as 160 degrees for 13.7 seconds.
I find the chicken breasts are much juicier when cooked to 150 degrees, which has been my preference.

What is everyone elses preferred temperature for chicken breasts?

[Jerod Broussard]

I typically hit 160-165-F.

Sous vide I'll go lower since I trust a "wet heat" much more than a dry heat.

[RonB]

I pull breasts at 158°.

[rickgregory]

A few thoughts:

First, food safety is time and temp as you noted. If you cook a breast to, say, 150F it's perfectly safe IF AND ONLY IF the entire breast is at 150F for enough time. Sous vide is good at getting things to a uniform temp and won't overcook it, so it's a great method for doing that. However, smoking, grilling oven, etc can have hotter and cooler spots. Yes, where you temp it might be at 150 but another part might be lower.

Is the risk high? Likely not, but that comes to the second issue... liability. If someone says in an 'official' way (in a book, etc) "oh you're fine cooking to 145F..." and a person gets very sick following that advice, there might be an issue of legal liability. Even if not, the source might feel badly for recommending something like that.

Now... I SVed a chicken breast to 150F, pulled it, heated a pan and seared it on both sides. It was juicy, tender the really nice. I was fine. But note, SV not some other method.

[Attjack]

He's right about liability and Meathead is very cautious.

[Redwng]

I had no idea about the "time/temperature" correlation until I visited my chef brother at his restaurant on a Sunday afternoon. They pulled two trays of chicken breasts out of the convection oven when each breast hit 157 checked with two different probes. I asked him are those getting cooked more later? He replied nope and explained the "time/temperature" correlation.

He was so very careful about food safety. He would not allow anything but full tang knives so nothing could get under the handle/blade area. Every other Saturday they would do a burger night. They would take chuck roasts and dip them into almost boiling water for 2 minutes then grind all the chuckies for burger that night never seeing the gray meat in the finished product. He said that way if someone wanted a rare burger at 115 internal he could make it. I learned a lot from him and I do miss him as he passed away 8 years ago. He even had a full write up in the Detroit News...pretty cool. Sorry I did digress some but the "time temp" correlation is real.

[DavidNorcross]

I rarely cook breasts. I prefer legs and thighs. However, when I do I pull at 160.

[fzxdoc]

The texture of the chicken breast is different when taken to 150° vs.160°. My family has tried 150° chicken breasts, and found that we prefer the texture of the breast pulled closer to 160° and carrying over a few degrees higher. To each her/his own.

Plus, when serving to guests, many are squeamish at eating a pinkish chicken meat, even for birds taken to 160°+ in the breast. I learned that quick enough.

Kathryn

[Dan Deter]

My family is the same.

[Clark]

fzxdoc My wife is the same way re pinkish poultry. She practically gives the bird a physical exam before the first bite.