Tonight I decided to make a chicken dinner for my sisters and I for the first time, seeing as my mother wasn't home to do so. For some reason, I'm really paranoid and I think it may have been undercooked. I cooked it for about 35 minutes on medium heat. It was white inside but it was juicy. Usually when my mom makes it, it's like really firm. Which leads me to believe, it was undercooked. My sisters and I just ate it about 20 minutes ago, but i'm scared. Whats going to happen to us if it WAS undercooked, and we ate it?
Anonymous2010-12-11T20:11:38Z
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LOL, try to relax. Let me guess, your mom's chicken is probably chewy too right? Actually you cooked it to perfection. But if it HAD been raw, there would be a risk of Salmonella, and you two would get very very sick.
RE: What happens if you eat undercooked chicken? Tonight I decided to make a chicken dinner for my sisters and I for the first time, seeing as my mother wasn't home to do so. For some reason, I'm really paranoid and I think it may have been undercooked. I cooked it for about 35 minutes on medium heat. It was white inside but it was juicy....
Relax and take some deep breaths. Sounds like your chicken was done to perfection. As others have said, white inside and clear juices is perfect. Firm means overdone.
And, if you did eat it undercooked, not all chickens carry salmonella. Same as not all eggs have salmonella. If all eggs had salmonella then all those weight lifters that eat raw eggs in their morning drinks would be leaning over the toilet and filling the hospital wards - which they are not.
The first time I fixed fried chicken I thought all I had to do was brown it so I served it browned. My brother had the biggest piece and after he cut into it, he had red on his plate. I served beets with the meal and told him it was just the beet juice. But we saw there definitely was a difference in color. And yet my brother didn't get sick at all.
Generally when i cook chicken now, I brown it in a skillet with enough oil to cover the bottom of the chicken. Then I bake it in the oven, depending on the piece, for either 15 minutes if boneless breast, 30 minutes if thigh or drum stick and 40 minutes if whole chicken breast with bone in.
I'm sure you all will be just fine.
Regarding raw and undercooked meat. The whole thing is whether the meat has been contaminated with some bacteria. If not, no sickness and I'm proof to that. When I was a teenager we had to eat liver. I couldn't handle the texture of cooked liver - would gag me every time. So my father said if I couldn't eat it cooked, I would eat it raw. I spent from 10th grade to 12th grade eating my beef liver raw. All I did was wash it off and salt it. It was very good. You would think after eating liver for that many years raw, I would get sick but the meat we purchased was not contaminated. And today we have more controls through the government on keeping meat safe than we did then.
If you pierce the meat and the juice is clear, then it should be cooked. You should not eat pink chicken meat. If the meat was white, as you describe, then you have cooked it well. You can cut one piece right through to the bone if you really want to be sure. Chicken should be juicy (sorry mum) :: If it was undercooked you might get an upset stomach...
Chicken should be juices with no sign of pinkness in the flesh. It would have helped to have know what pieces of the chicken was and whether it was in a fry pan, under the grill or baked.
Which ever way it was cooked it sounds perfect and if your mother has it really firm she overcooks it.
I don't believe it is undercooked and if it is you may want to sit down in the bathroom over the next few hours.