What Alex Guarnaschelli Suggests You Do Right Before Cooking Chicken

When you want to whip up the perfect chicken, you have to consider a ton of preparations. According to Allrecipes, you need to make sure your poultry has completely thawed, make sure to use a separate cutting board to prepare the chicken if you also intend to cook anything else, and you may even want to consider marinating or brining your chicken for 30 minutes before it goes into the oven. You may also notice that some folks like to wash off their chicken before handling it.

Some have even debated the merits of letting your chicken hit room temperature before going in the oven. In a recent TikTok post, Alex Guarnaschelli stands very firmly with the crowd that throws the defrosted bird straight in the oven after it thaws, rather than waiting for it to warm up. Fans of Guarnaschelli from the opposite camp quickly shared their opinions on the post and chimed in with, "Alex we both know if you are properly cooking your chicken letting it hang out to get to room temperature won't hurt anything," and "If we fully cook the chicken, to kill the bacteria, what harm does leaving it out do?" While fans might not agree with this practice, many supported another key point Guarnaschelli made in the video.

Home cooks took less offense to the other key point that Guarnaschelli made in her post, per TikTok. She explained that instead of washing her chicken, she simply wipes the excess moisture off. Followers loved this point, replying with, "Thank you for saying you don't wash your chicken! People go to war over that and now I don't feel crazy," and, "Don't spread salmonella all over by washing it!" According to Food Network, the practice of washing chicken stemmed from historical recipes that called for cooks to clean chicken meat with water and some believe washing can clean off bacteria.

In actuality, a study from Drexel found that washing chicken only served to spread bacteria across a larger area of a kitchen and didn't reduce the amount of any harmful bacteria (via Food Network). Next time you need to prep some chicken for dinner, take Guarnaschelli's advice to heart and get ready to throw the chicken straight in the oven. This quick and easy step might stop some bacteria and can at least shorten your cooking process.