The Absolute Best Temperature To Cook Chicken To, According To Tyler Florence

Cooking the perfect piece of chicken is easy enough, but it does require some technique — and if you don't do it often, you'll need to check the chicken's temperature to understand when to take it off the heat. Overcooked chicken can become dry and tough, making it harder to chew and less appetizing. But of course, undercooked chicken comes with a risk of foodborne illness; chicken can carry salmonella, which makes you seriously sick if you become infected. The USDA recommends that poultry always be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, but celebrity chef Tyler Florence recommends removing it from the heat when it's 10 degrees cooler. Spoiler alert: This doesn't necessarily apply to all cuts of chicken.

Florence's technique is possible due to a process known as carryover cooking, which happens when meat's internal temperature continues to rise after it's been removed from the heat. It's a mistake not to let your meat rest before slicing it, and for the juiciest chicken, Florence recommends letting the chicken rest once it hits 155 degrees Fahrenheit to allow carryover cooking to finish the job.

Tyler Florence's recommended internal temperature is based on first breaking down a whole chicken into about 10 even-sized pieces. This is important to know because carryover cooking differs depending on the size and density of the meat. So, pulling these evenly cut pieces from the heat at 155 degrees Fahrenheit will let them all rest perfectly to that 165-degree Fahrenheit temperature in just a few minutes.

By removing it from the heat early, the chicken will not get too dry or tough and will still be safe to eat. But if you're not familiar with this technique, monitor the chicken closely with a meat thermometer to make certain it reaches that golden number of 165 degrees Fahrenheit — any lower, and you run the risk of foodborne illness. Something to note: This rule of thumb doesn't apply to every cut of chicken or type of meat.

Carryover cooking happens as a result of the laws of thermodynamics. Whether you cook chicken on the grill (and avoid the one mistake everyone makes) or use another heat source, as the meat rests, the energy transferred into that meat wants to be constant all the way through. So, the extra hot surface of the meat will continue moving inward to make that cooler interior reach the same temperature as its hotter exterior. This is how chicken that is 155 degrees Fahrenheit, when removed from the heat, will ultimately climb to the desired 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

With all that said, the size and shape of meat, plus its density, all impact how well it holds heat. Less-dense cuts with a greater surface area won't hold heat as well because that surface-area heat also wants to heat the atmosphere, so the meat loses heat quickly. For safety reasons, you should not apply the 155-degree Fahrenheit rule as a blanket to all cuts of meat. Continue to use a good-quality meat thermometer if you plan to use the carryover cooking method with other cuts.