Jacques Pépin Roasted Julia Child For This Chicken Washing Technique

Cooking chicken is a task that requires an abundance of precaution to ensure it is done safely. However, whether or not to clean the raw poultry itself has been a highly debated topic among chefs of all skill levels for years. In fact, this point of contention was brought up by Jacques Pépin during an episode of "Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home" from 1999 — one of the best cooking shows that we wish we got more of — where he questioned cohost Julia Child's technique of cleaning raw chicken before cooking it at a high temperature. "I don't wash my chicken," Pépin explained, "If it's going to go in a 425-degree oven for an hour or so, at that point, if the bacteria is still living it deserves to live."

While Pépin's perspective on whether or not you are supposed to wash raw chicken is generally considered to be the correct one — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) itself recommends not doing so — Julia Child's reasoning for cleaning her chicken was far from unreasonable. Her long tenure as a chef throughout the 20th century led Child to notice that, while cooking chicken in states with strongly upheld standards and regulations for their poultry can be done without first cleaning it, it feels much safer to rinse the chicken off before cooking it when the chicken is sourced from areas with lower sanitation standards.

Now, Child's perspective on cleaning chicken comes from an understandable place in theory — especially in the 1970s when she explained her reasoning for it — but the action is generally looked down upon in the modern day due to its persisting risk of contaminating other foods and dishes in your kitchen. While food safety standards have improved across the board since Julia Child's heyday, the inherent risk of spreading the bacteria that live on raw chicken to other parts of your kitchen still remains. Thus, cleaning chicken before cooking it is a high-risk, low-reward methodology that should be avoided by any means. 

Instead of cleaning your chicken before cooking it, there are other steps you should be taking to ensure that the chicken and your surrounding area remain clean and safe. For starters, making sure to take the crucial steps to thaw your frozen chicken safely and correctly before cooking it is incredibly important. It should ideally be done within a refrigerator rather than on your counter or in the microwave. Beyond that, using special bowls, cutting boards, and utensils for your raw chicken so as not to cross-contaminate it with any other foods is the most important thing to keep in mind while preparing to cook the poultry. Finally, cleaning anywhere that the raw chicken touched (including your hands) using hot water and soap, and ensuring that it cooks to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit are the best ways to remain safe when handling raw chicken.