Thread: How can I tell if chicken is cooked?

I love cooking and and I love chicken... but I have such a fear about cooking or eating it. Even if I go to a restaurant and order it I check to see that the meat is white... if it looks a little bit pink (even just a tinge) then I won't eat it. When I cook chicken I always overcook it just to be safe and it tastes sooooo rough and dry!

So I want to know... how white does the meat have to be... can it have a tinge of pink at all? What about if it is still boned? Is the meat normally still pink near the bone?

What if I am cooking the meat in a tomato sauce... how can I check it is done then? Because I cant see the juices of the chicken or if the chicken meat is just pink from the sauce?

color of meat, temperature inside the meat, and if you poke it and its bleeding, keep cookin!

Cook until the juices run clear and cover so its done inside, but not dry. Use foil- it dosn't have to be tightly wrapped, just covered to make its own oven. I bake chicken almost every night for my wife. Or used to. The meat near the bone will be pink, not white. Temp ought to be 165.

I always go by the juices, or use a meat thermometer. I check to see if the juices run clear, and yes the meat tends to look darker near the bone on the dark meat pieces which is most of the chicken, legs, thighs, wings, the breast is the "white meat". when the juices run clear the chicken is safe to eat.