How long to cook chicken.

How long do you cook chicken breast in the oven?

A 113 g (4 oz) boneless breast takes 20 to 30 minutes at 175 C (350 F). A 170 to 227 g (6 to 8 oz) bone-in breast takes 30 to 40 minutes at the same temperature, or roughly 20 to 30 at 205 C (400 F). Those are the only figures any authority publishes, and they are anchored to weight, so they cannot tell a pounded cutlet from a thick lobe. Pound the breast to an even 2 cm (3/4 in) and probe the thickest point.

Do I really need 74 C (165 F), or can I pull chicken at 69 C (157 F)?

You can pull lower, because 74 C (165 F) is not a biological cliff. It is the temperature where the required hold time falls to zero, which is why it is the one number safe to give a public that owns no timer. The FSIS table gives chicken the same 7-log Salmonella kill at 69 C (157 F) after about 28 to 34 seconds, depending on fat. A 5 minute rest supplies that many times over.

Why do thighs go to 79 C (175 F) when 74 C (165 F) is already safe?

Because safety and texture are different problems. At 74 C a thigh is safe and rubbery: the collagen has tightened and squeezed out juice but has barely begun turning to gelatin. Dark meat keeps improving up to about 91 C (195 F) as that gelatin forms and holds water back in the meat. The fix for a tough thigh is more heat, not less.

Should I cook chicken by thickness or by weight?

By thickness, which is exactly why published charts disappoint. Heat enters through the surface and travels inward, so what sets the time is how far it has to go, and time rises with thickness squared: double the thickness and you roughly quadruple it. 450 g (1 lb) of chicken can be one thick breast, three thin cutlets or a pile of wings. No authority publishes thickness-based times, so use the band as a plan and the thermometer as the answer.

Can I pull a whole chicken at 63 C (145 F)?

Only on a whole bird, and only with a full 15 minute rest. At 63 C chicken needs roughly 9 to 11 minutes of hold, and a whole bird has enough mass to stay above that the entire rest while climbing to about 68 C (155 F). Carve at 10 minutes and it is not pasteurised. Never move this trick to a single breast: a bare cut rises only 3 to 4 C and cannot hold itself there.

Your chicken is only as safe as its coldest spot, and jabbing at the middle is a gamble on hitting it. Push the tip all the way through the thickest part, then draw it slowly back out and watch for the lowest number. That sweeps the whole gradient and cannot miss the centre. Keep the tip 6 mm (1/4 in) clear of bone, which conducts heat and reads high. On a whole bird go in horizontally from near the neck cavity, so you do not punch through and measure oven air.

A supermarket breast tapers from about 3 cm at the lobe to under 1 cm at the tip. Because time rises with thickness squared, the thick end needs roughly nine times as long as the thin end, which is why the tip is always chalky by the time the middle is done. Lay it between two sheets of plastic wrap and flatten to an even 2 cm (3/4 in). Every published time assumes an even piece, and that assumption is the quiet reason most of them fail people.

The kill accumulates the whole time the meat sits above about 58 C (136 F), not only at the peak, so the climb and the rest both count. A whole bird's breast has been measured rising 5 C (10 F) after leaving the oven, holding past every hold time it needs. A bare boneless breast rises only 3 to 4 C, because carryover scales with mass. That is the rule: the lower you pull, the more mass you need for the hold to actually happen.