Raw chicken question

[Jessterr]

I purchased a whole 5 lb. bird the other day to put on the PKGO, but things didn’t go quite as planned. Upon cutting it open to halve it, immediately discovered a kind of disturbing mess inside, something I’ve never seen before. There was dark red / maroon colored stuff everywhere, looked essentially like those nasty internal organs had exploded or something and it was stuck onto everything. Tried scraping some of it off of the backbone but it resisted coming off, and some of the meat appeared stained with it and had a bit of a strange texture. The bird still had 5-6 days to go before the sell by date, and there were no off odors to indicate it had gone bad, but it just looked so unusual that I decided to just toss it. Felt bad for the bird, since he / she didn’t get to fulfill their destiny. Wondering if anyone else has experienced such a thing before, and interested in thoughts on it. Think I just panicked and threw out an edible bird, or did the best thing? Thanks.

[Skip]

I would have thrown it too.

[Panhead John]

+1 Yeah, when it comes to chicken, better safe than sorry.

[FireMan]

If chicken smells nasty, looks nasty, sounds nasty, send it to the nasty pile, yessir!

[Kascon11]

Yes, you did the best thing. I had a similar think happen, got a 2 pack from Costco, one was normal, the other was like yours. We enjoyed one chicken, the other as you said did not fulfill its destiny.

[Purc]

When in doubt, throw it out!

[DavidNorcross]

Yes, I am over cautious when it comes to chicken.

[Jerod Broussard]

Could have had a ton of internal hemorrhaging.

Could have been a DOA, Dead On Arrival. You typically don't see a mess internally with DOA's, however there can be dilated blood vessels on the intestines. And there is some protein degradation that gives an off odor at inspection if the bird was dead long enough. You can also look at the breasts. There may be a red area where blood pooled as the bird lay on its side.

[Panhead John]

I always try to look at the breasts.

[Jessterr]

Think you’ve hit the nail on the head, Jerod. At least one of the breasts was where the red discolored meat was, as well as the textural difference, which would likely be attributable to the protein degradation you’ve described. Thanks for the education. All learning experiences are good.

[Draznnl]

Let’s see, there’s option 1, you could have chanced it and wound up sick or lucky or there’s option 2, you could have tossed it and wound up sad for the chicken’s unfulfilled destiny. Um, c’mon. Is there really a choice. If it’s my pick, the bird is in the trash.

[Steve B]

Aside from tossing it, Chicken Tartare would have been a good option. One of my favorites.







Tossing was the right choice. No question.

[Michael_in_TX]

Aside from tossing it, Chicken Tartare would have been a good option. One of my favorites.

Many years ago, vacationing in Orlando, we came across a Japanese restaurant with a sign outside advertising their specials.

The sign read: "Beef teriyaki, bento boxes, chicken sushi"

They had clearly missed a comma between the last two words.

[Jessterr]

😀 Hilarious! Certainly hope so, otherwise they would likely have no repeat customers.

[fkrall]

Or so they said....

[Uncle Bob]

Punctuation matters:
Let's eat Grandma.
Let's eat, Grandma