Cooking Chicken Checklist

  • Find the coolest part of your oven. This is possibly the bottom centre of your oven, but not necessarily and could depend on where there are fans.
  • When cooking multiple pieces of chicken, recognise the biggest
  • Give yourself a safety margin
  • If you have an oven probe, don’t rely on this exclusively.
  • Keep records and keep hold of your records.
  • Remember that you are recording the temperature of the chicken, not the oven.
  • Remember to hold the thermometer in there for 30 seconds (or any other relevant time), and record that you have done this.
  • If you have a digital system, consider manual backups
  • Ensure everyone cooking chicken is fully trained and document that training
  • Audit your staff
  • Monitor your records regularly
  • Validate your cooking instructions, but maintain consistency
  • y other relevant time), and record that you have done this.
  • If you have a digital system, consider manual backups
  • Ensure everyone cooking chicken is fully trained and document that training
  • Audit your staff
  • Monitor your records regularly
  • Validate your cooking instructions, but maintain consistency

Find the Coolest Part of Your Oven

Like many things, this is likely to be easier said than done. It is usually assumed that the coolest part of the oven will be the bottom tray, but what if your oven has a fan system where the hottest air is circulated to the bottom of the oven first.

Initially, it is best to just probe all pieces of chicken and develop some records that demonstrate where the coolest part of the oven is.

                                                        Find the Big Chook

Which of the following pieces of chicken will cook fastest and slowest?

  1. The biggest piece of chicken in the hottest past of the oven
  2. The biggest piece of chicken in the coolest part of the oven
  3. The smallest piece of chicken in the hottest part of the oven
  4. The smallest piece of chicken in the coolest part of the oven

Answers…

Who cares how quickly the biggest piece cooks in the hottest part of the oven. Likewise to the small piece anywhere in the oven. The only situation above that counts is the biggest piece in the coolest part of the oven.

You need to ensure that every single piece of chicken is cooked, and if you are cooking to temperatures close to the limits, the only way to do that is to find the biggest bit of chicken and stick it in the coldest part of the oven, and use that as your measuring point. All other pieces of chicken are in warmer zones, and are smaller, so are guaranteed to be cooked above the temperature of this piece of chicken.

Give Yourself a Safety Margin

Just because the rules for chicken state you need to cook it to 75C for 30 seconds doesn’t mean you absolutely must aim for this. I understand that the rotisserie chickens sold in supermarkets are cooked to a much higher temperature than this and I’m sure most will agree that this results in a very succulent product. If you are aiming for 80C, then you are minimising your risk of dropping below 75C and potentially producing unsafe food.

Hold On and Check

The Template Food Control Plan says you need to cook chicken to 75°C for 30 seconds.

That’s two things – over 75C, and over 30s. 80C for 1 second is not adequate, but 80C for 30 seconds is.

There are other combinations that you can use such as over 65C for 15 mins.

                                                        Write Down the Correct Numbers

It doesn’t matter how many times I explain this, people still get it wrong.

Let’s say you cook a whole chicken at 180C for 90 mins. You check the temperature at the end of cooking for 30 seconds and it is 79C. In your records, write down 79C for 30 seconds, not 180C for 90 mins! A verifier wants to see that you achieved a temperature of 75C, not what your cooking temperature is.

                                                         Extra for Experts – Sous Vide

The Template Food Control Plan gives 3 temperature-time combinations for cooking chicken, but if you read on, there is a section on Sous Vide which gives additional temperature / time combinations.

This section applies to sous vide, but I have been told by MPI that the temperature-time combinations can also be applied to foods cooked in a slow cooker. I have no idea why they don’t say this explicitly.

If you want to slow cook chicken via thes sous vide settings, I suggest you ask your verifier and/or MPI explicitly about this. It should be ok (if it isn’t, please feel free to contact me).

Double Check Your Oven Settings

Let’s say you have a fancy foreign oven that comes with an oven probe that the salesman tells you will cook perfect chicken for you every time. You need to check those settings. In NZ it is 75C for 30secs. In other countries it might be different. Not understanding the settings is not an excuse.

Don’t Only Rely on Your Oven Probe

If you have an oven probe, don’t treat this as the only option and think it guarantees safety. As stated above, you need to consider the range of sizes of chicken, and where the probe is placed. You also need to consider the accuracy of the oven probe and whether it is correctly calibrated. If it becomes damaged it can loose accuracy. If this happens, then it could become very efficient and consistent at cooking unsafe food.

                                                        Have a Recall Plan and Test It

Imagine you get a call from a customer saying they have received raw chicken? What is your plan? You need to secure that food as quickly as possible and ensure

there is no more potentially unsafe food out there. MPI will want to account for every single piece of food that has gone out the door. If you can’t account for the whole lot, you have a tough time ahead.

                                     Is Pink Chicken Always a Food Safety Disaster?

Imagine you get a call from a customer saying they have received raw chicken? What is your plan? You need to secure that food as quickly as possible and ensure

there is no more potentially unsafe food out there. MPI will want to account for every single piece of food that has gone out the door. If you can’t account for the whole lot, you have a tough time ahead.

Audit Your Staff

After reading all of this, you will see that cooking chicken is easy on the surface, but a lot of things can go wrong. Train your staff with all these need to know, then regularly check that they know what they are doing and haven’t forgotten anything. Check their records, check their practices (some can lie when writing down records!).

Keep Hold of Your Records

Digital and handwritten records have pro’s and cons. Both can be lost and misplaced. This happens all the time and I have spent a lot of my career trying to find crucial records before an audit. You have a legal obligation to keep your records for several years after you have produced food. If your records are lost, they will be treated as if they never existed and that you cannot demonstrate your food is safe and suitable.