When prepping with raw meat

[Anonymous]

I am a bit of a newbie-cook so my names of things may be wrong.

I've got a whole baked chicken recipe that I really like; it's in the oven now. But I really don't know how to prep it or if there are products/methods sanitize all the prep gear afterwards.

1) I take the chicken out of the wrapping, and do I wash it under the sink first, or just start putting the (paste of mixed up spices and olive oil) on it directly?

2) Do I need gloves or just wash my hands with sanitizer afterwards?

3) Ok after the chicken is in and I need to clean up, I've got this mat (the plastic mat) that I was using to sit the chicken on while rubbing the paste on it. I rinse it off, but don't I need to sanitize it? It's cheap and can't go in the dishwasher, so maybe somebody out there has a recommendation of what mat to use that goes in the dishwasher, or how to clean the mat to kill the germs. Right now I use dish soap and a sponge, then put the sponge in the microwave.

4) Then when all done, I need to wipe down the sink with…Clorox wipes or what to kill the germs?

I know this should be self-explanatory but I just think hmm. There's probably a procedure here that makes a little more sense than what I'm doing.

Thank you in advance!

[Anonymous]

I always rinse chicken and then pat it dry with paper towel.

I wash my hands with hot water and (non antibacterial) soap. I never use gloves.

I never set food down in the sink, so I just wash out the sink as I normally do and call it a day. I wash any implements used on raw meat with hot water and Dawn or Palmolive.

I put my sponge in the microwave once a week for 30 seconds.

[Anonymous]

Here's what I do

1) do not wash it. The splashes from the chicken presents more risk than not washing.

2) just wash you hands thoroughly with hot soapy water.

3) I use a large plastic cutting board that I rinse and scrape with the knife I used in prep. Then it goes right in the dishwasher with everything else.

4) I use paper towels to do the initial wiping, then use Clorox wipes.

[Anonymous]

1) I wash the chicken under running water, and pat it dry with paper towels before starting the recipe.

2) I don't use gloves, just wash hands before and after. It's up to you whether you want to use gloves or not.

3) I use a plastic cutting board, so that goes into the dishwasher. It should be good enough if you thoroughly wash the plastic mat before putting anything else on it.

4) I just wipe down all surfaces with paper towels. The counters and sink get cleaned with Chlorox after dinner everyday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's what I do

1) do not wash it. The splashes from the chicken presents more risk than not washing.

2) just wash you hands thoroughly with hot soapy water.

3) I use a large plastic cutting board that I rinse and scrape with the knife I used in prep. Then it goes right in the dishwasher with everything else.

4) I use paper towels to do the initial wiping, then use Clorox wipes.

+ 1 to all of this and yes, studies have shown washing the meat is more harmful as the raw meat juices can splash around on other surfaces in and around your sink

[Anonymous]

Why would you wash raw chicken? That sounds gross and would splatter raw chicken juice everywhere.

You do need to wash the plastic mat with soap. You should buy a big plastic cutting board that can go in the dishwasher.

Wash your hands and anything you used in raw chicken prep with hot water and soap. If raw chicken got on the counter or sink, wipe with a clorox wipe. That is why I have a big plastic cutting board, so chicken goop doesn't get all over the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

1) Never wash meat. It's unnecessary and spreads more bacteria from the water splashing on the meat. Unwrap it, and place directly in your baking dish, and season as appropriate.

2) I never wear gloves, but they do make disposable gloves for food prep if your squirmy about touching raw meat. I make sure to wash my hands with soap and hot water after touching any raw meat.

3) I have a separate plastic cutting board for raw meat only, that goes in the dishwasher after each use to be sanitized. If it not's dishwasher safe I would be sure to wash well with hot water and dish soap. Unless you need to cut up the meat, you can place the meat right in the baking dish, to avoid dirtying something else. Any other utensils I've used for the meat go in the dishwasher as well, except knives which are washed by hand in hot water with dish soap. Also, I put the sponge in the dishwasher every few days or after washing something with raw meat. Toss the sponge when it gets really grimy or starting to fall apart.

4) When I'm all done with the meat, I clean the counters and the sink with some kind of disinfecting/sanitizing product, that could by Lysol/Clorox wipes, Fantastik/409 spray, something like that. This ensures no cross contamination as I move on to prepping veggies/whatever else I'm making.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would you wash raw chicken? That sounds gross and would splatter raw chicken juice everywhere.

You do need to wash the plastic mat with soap. You should buy a big plastic cutting board that can go in the dishwasher.

Wash your hands and anything you used in raw chicken prep with hot water and soap. If raw chicken got on the counter or sink, wipe with a clorox wipe. That is why I have a big plastic cutting board, so chicken goop doesn't get all over the kitchen.

I rinse my raw chicken breasts because otherwise they have chicken juice slime on them. I prefer to rinse them (nothing is splattering outside of the sink) in low pressure water, then pat dry with a paper towel. That way the marinade adheres to the chicken and doesn't slide off as much as it would with the chicken juice slime still there.

Even if there WAS chicken juice slime splatter from rinsing my chicken, I'm Clorox Wipe-ing my counters anyway, so splatter is not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

You should not use plastic cutting borders or matts. The small nicks and cuts that develop in plastic will hole the bacteria. Just use vinegar to wash down. The must important thing is to keep thing seperate ..do not cut meat and use that knife to cut things that will be served raw.

[Anonymous]

Contrary to popular belief, plastic cutting boards are not automatically safer than wood. Studies have shown that wood can actually be more sanitary in the long run. People assume that because wood is a porous surface and plastic isn't, plastic boards are more resistant to bacteria. This assumption doesn't take into account the scars a plastic cutting board will get from daily use.

According to Rodale News, expert Dean O. Cliver, PhD from University of California, Davis, conducted research on the subject and found that wood cutting boards contained less salmonella bacteria than plastic. On wood cutting boards, the bacteria sank "down beneath the surface of the cutting board, where they didn’t multiply and eventually died off." On plastic boards, however, bacteria got caught in knife grooves that were near impossible to clean out, whether the board was washed by hand or dishwasher. So while sparkling new plastic cutting boards might be easy to disinfect, any weathered plastic board will hold onto bacteria.

There's still much debate on the matter, and the FDA's official opinion is that both wood and plastic are safe so long as they're cleaned well and replaced often. When boards "become excessively worn or develop hard-to-clean grooves," -- we're looking at you, plastic -- you need to get new ones.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/11/wood-or-plastic-cutting-board_n_6133318.html
So buy a new cutting board.

[Anonymous]

Here's what I do

1) do not wash it. The splashes from the chicken presents more risk than not washing.

2) just wash you hands thoroughly with hot soapy water.

3) I use a large plastic cutting board that I rinse and scrape with the knife I used in prep. Then it goes right in the dishwasher with everything else.

4) I use paper towels to do the initial wiping, then use Clorox wipes.

This is exactly what I do, except I use 7th Generation disinfecting wipes. If there's not room for the cutting board in the dishwasher or I'm not running it right away, then I wipe the board down with bleach (and use the same bleachy paper towel or sponge for the sink. If it's a sponge, it goes in the dishwasher.).

[Anonymous]

You should not use plastic cutting borders or matts. The small nicks and cuts that develop in plastic will hole the bacteria. Just use vinegar to wash down. The must important thing is to keep thing seperate ..do not cut meat and use that knife to cut things that will be served raw.

The same is true of cutting boards, of course. I use plastic for meat and wood/bamboo for veggies/raw because it's easy to remember; I'll never mix them up. (And I have a large maple board with a trough for big carving tasks like roasts or turkeys, or big prep tasks like chopping onions and garlic.)

I use the plastic for meat because I don't want to subject my wood and bamboo boards to the dishwasher or to bleach scrubbing like I do for the meat boards. I often serve cheese and fruit appetizers on the wood/bamboo boards, so I want to keep them looking good, and I don't want to have to keep track of the last time they saw meat. (I do bleach the big carving board, and then re-oil it after it's dry, but that one is a workhorse that's never used for serving. It only sees cooked meat, not raw, and only sees veggies that are being chopped for cooking, not anything being served raw.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Contrary to popular belief, plastic cutting boards are not automatically safer than wood. Studies have shown that wood can actually be more sanitary in the long run. People assume that because wood is a porous surface and plastic isn't, plastic boards are more resistant to bacteria. This assumption doesn't take into account the scars a plastic cutting board will get from daily use.

According to Rodale News, expert Dean O. Cliver, PhD from University of California, Davis, conducted research on the subject and found that wood cutting boards contained less salmonella bacteria than plastic. On wood cutting boards, the bacteria sank "down beneath the surface of the cutting board, where they didn’t multiply and eventually died off." On plastic boards, however, bacteria got caught in knife grooves that were near impossible to clean out, whether the board was washed by hand or dishwasher. So while sparkling new plastic cutting boards might be easy to disinfect, any weathered plastic board will hold onto bacteria.

There's still much debate on the matter, and the FDA's official opinion is that both wood and plastic are safe so long as they're cleaned well and replaced often. When boards "become excessively worn or develop hard-to-clean grooves," -- we're looking at you, plastic -- you need to get new ones.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/11/wood-or-plastic-cutting-board_n_6133318.html
So buy a new cutting board.

Doesn't a cycle in the dishwasher sterilize inside those grooves of plastic cutting boards?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's what I do

1) do not wash it. The splashes from the chicken presents more risk than not washing.

2) just wash you hands thoroughly with hot soapy water.

3) I use a large plastic cutting board that I rinse and scrape with the knife I used in prep. Then it goes right in the dishwasher with everything else.

4) I use paper towels to do the initial wiping, then use Clorox wipes.

This. Washing the chicken is old-school. It doesn't do anything for the final outcome and splashes germy water everywhere.
I just do my prepping and then wash my hands before touching anything else (minimal contact with the faucet handle.) You might find you need to wash your hands several times as you switch between the touching the chicken and, say, opening a drawer for a knife you forgot you needed.
Anything that can go in the dishwasher should. Everything else should be washed in hot water and dish soap. I also use hot water and dish soap on the counters with a dish rag that then goes in the laundry. Make sure you wash the faucet handle, too. I do not bother with the sterilize setting on the dishwasher or with using disinfectant on the counters. Once they are washed and dried, they are fine.