Wait, Bobby Flay Washes His Chicken?

Apologies if you were just minding your own business, going about your day, and otherwise enjoying a peaceful existence, but, if internet chatter is any indication, your record is about to get scratched. Celebrity chef Bobby Flay apparently washes his chicken. Not like a pet chicken that needs a bath, either, but presumably commercially purchased raw chicken that's about to be cooked any old way.

In a Food Network video circulating the internet, Flay is asked a series of rapid-fire questions about cleaning a cast iron skillet, adding oil to boiling pasta water, crème fraîche scrambled eggs, and the clucking poultry proposition that landed on the "don't wash" side of the coin some time ago — at least for many other people. "Do you wash your chicken before you cook it?" a voice asks from off screen. Hands in pockets, averting his eyes, and bowing his head, Flay says, "I wash my chicken before I cook it." And the commenters on Instagram, where Food Network posted the clip, shared, as they are wont to do, opinions. "Flabbergasted," wrote one. "No way," commented another. And, for others still, only words in all caps could fully communicate their dismay.

Of course, this quick interview was also a win for the long-maligned chicken washers in the mix. "I'm going to pull this video up the next time someone thinks it's crazy to wash chicken," one person commented.

Although tradition, meat procurement origin (like a local farm versus the supermarket), and even some recipes may merit dousing your poultry with water, washing chicken is a food safety mistake. Studies upon studies have found that "washing" raw, store-bought chicken, which really just involves rinsing it under the kitchen tap, actually does more harm than good. The USDA calls it a choice, but an inadvisable one, noting that the practice makes it much easier to spread bacteria from sink to cooking surface and so on. Even Food Network itself, the very entity that rocketed Bobby Flay to the top of his field as a famous chef, has emphatically demanded that people stop washing chicken.

Rather than rinsing away real or imagined impurities, all chicken washing does, from a scientific standpoint, is splash bacteria all over the place, no matter how careful the chicken washer thinks they're being. Salmonella. Have you heard of it?!

Instead, if simple sanitation is the deciding factor, treat your retail chicken like nuclear waste, but don't wash it. You wouldn't wash nuclear waste, would you? When it's time to cook, immediately discard any packaging and remove the chicken to a dedicated cutting board. Pat it dry with paper towels, then immediately discard them. Perform any prep with dedicated tools. Wash your hands after every chicken contact. Wash the surface and any of those tools as soon as possible, too, lest they're confused for uncontaminated ones. And always cook chicken to a bacteria-slaying 165 degrees Fahrenheit.