🔥 Grilled Chicken - The SHOCKING Truth

165° Might Be Overcooked?!

What if I told you that you’ve been overcooking your grilled chicken breasts?

Yes, you! Yes, overcooking!

I’m going to teach you the simple trick for perfect, juicy grilled chicken breast. Plus, read on and I’ll reveal my FAVORITE chicken seasoning. Let’s go!

We’ve all heard that chicken should be cooked to at LEAST 165°. Why? Where does this come from? Is it just an old wife’s tale? I looked it up! This guidance comes from the US Dept of Agriculture (USDA for short). 165° is the temperature at which a nasty bacteria called salmonella dies. Salmonella can cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and other symptoms. YUCK! So, cooking your chicken to 165° kills the salmonella and makes it safe to eat!

But there’s more to the story. You don’t actually have to cook lean chicken to 165°!

WHAT?!

The USDA’s cooking guidance is a function of temperature AND time!  

Bacteria die when you hold your chicken at a specific TEMPERATURE for a specific TIME. The 165-degree guidance is for a TIME OF ZERO. The bacteria is killed INSTANTLY.

Take that salmonella! Instant death!

But you can cook your lean chicken to a lower temperature if you hold it there for a longer time. Don’t believe me? Check out page 37 of the USDA’s chicken cooking guidelines. They provide a handy table that tells you how long a temperature must be maintained to achieve the same amount of bacteria death.

So, here’s my tip to ensure you’ll NEVER overcook chicken breast again. Don’t cook it to 165°. Cook it to 158° and count off 30 seconds. That’s right, 158° for 30 seconds. Temperature AND time (The actual guidance is for lower time, but I rounded up… for simplicity).

Your chicken will be just as safe to eat! The best part? They’ll be juiciest chicken breasts you’ve ever made. I can’t tell you how many times I grilled chicken breasts that came out dry because I was trying to hit that magical 165° and blew way past it. Not any more!

SO juciy.

Ok, so I need to make a couple of caveats. 

Number one. I kept referencing chicken BREAST. That’s because breast meat is lean, and the lower-temperature guidance is for meat with lower fat content. 

The package I bought had 1 gram of fat in a 4oz serving, or about 4% fat. 

If you’re cooking thighs, wings or drummies, 165° is the better temperature due to the increased fat content.

Number two. This cooking method requires DIRECT heat, like a grill or a pan. If you’re using a smoker, 165° is the better temperature due to the low humidity involved in the cook.

The Big Seasoning Reveal

Well thanks for making it this far! Hopefully you learned something new!

Time to reveal my FAVORITE chicken seasoning. It has some spice. It has great flavor. I highly recommend it.

[drumroll please!]

Fire & Smoke’s Pork Perfect. I know, I know. Isn’t that ironic? Pork seasoning for chicken. But, hey, it works!

Grill on fam!

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