Stop Rinsing Your Chicken! Pro Secrets for Prepping Food the Right Way

I’ll never forget my first few months working in a real restaurant kitchen. My station was right next to this old-school chef, the kind of guy who had seen it all. One afternoon, he silently watched me carry a tray of perfect chicken breasts over to the sink and start rinsing them under the tap. He didn’t raise his voice. He just calmly walked over, shut off the water, and asked, “What are you trying to do, son? Give the whole kitchen food poisoning?”

That one sentence has stuck with me for my entire career. It was my first real lesson in a fundamental truth of cooking: what feels right isn’t always what is right. Some of the kitchen habits we learn at home are just not effective, and a few, like washing chicken, are actually pretty risky.

We’re all taught to wash things to make them clean. But in the kitchen, it’s a whole different ball game where we have to balance safety, flavor, and texture. It’s not about a simple list of things to wash or not wash. It’s about understanding why you’re doing what you’re doing. This is the kind of know-how that separates the pros from the home cooks, and honestly, it’s what will make you safer and more confident in your own kitchen.

Why Raw Meat and Fish Should NEVER See Your Sink

Let’s tackle the biggest one first: raw poultry, meat, and fish. I get it, the instinct to rinse a slimy piece of chicken is powerful. But it’s probably the single most common food safety mistake people make at home.

When water hits the surface of that chicken, it doesn’t just gently rinse it off. The force of the tap creates an invisible, germ-filled mist that flies everywhere. Experts call this “aerosolization.” Basically, tiny droplets of water carrying nasty stuff like Salmonella or Campylobacter get launched into the air. Food safety studies show this invisible spray can travel up to three feet in every direction. That means it lands on your sink, your countertops, the dish rack, and that fresh salad you have sitting nearby. Yikes.

So, what do the pros do? It’s a simple, dry technique.

1. Set Up Your Zone: Before you even open the package, clear the area around your cutting board.
2. Unpack Smartly: Open the meat package in the sink to catch any juices, but leave the water off. Toss the packaging straight into the trash.
3. Pat, Don’t Rinse: This is the key. Place the protein on a dedicated cutting board and use paper towels to pat the surface completely dry. This removes that surface slime much better than rinsing and, more importantly, it doesn’t spray germs all over your kitchen.
4. A Delicious Bonus: Patting meat dry is also a secret to better cooking! A dry surface is what allows you to get a beautiful, brown crust when you sear it. Wet meat just steams in the pan, which is why you sometimes get that sad, grey look instead of a deep, savory sear.
5. Clean Up Immediately: The moment you’re done, those paper towels go in the trash. The cutting board and knife go straight to the dishwasher or are set aside for immediate hand-washing and sanitizing. And of course, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds.

This same rule applies to fish fillets and ground meat, too. There’s no need to rinse them. Just pat dry and get to cooking.

The Big Exception: What About Brining?

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. “But what about all the recipes that tell me to brine my chicken in salt water?” That’s a great question, and there’s a simple answer.

Brining is a controlled soak in a contained bowl. The meat is fully submerged, and there’s no high-pressure water stream blasting bacteria into the air. When you’re done brining, you carefully remove the chicken from the bowl, pat it dry, and discard the brining liquid down the drain. It’s about containment, not aerosolization. So go ahead and brine your birds—it’s a fantastic technique for juicy, flavorful meat!

Keep Water Away from These Foods to Protect Flavor

Sometimes, water isn’t a safety hazard, but it’s an absolute enemy of texture and flavor. My job is to make food taste amazing, and that often means protecting ingredients from getting waterlogged.

The Soggy Mushroom Problem

Mushrooms are basically little sponges. Their porous structure is designed to soak up moisture. When you wash or, even worse, soak them, they fill up with water and become rubbery and heavy. When you try to cook them, all that water has to steam away before they can even think about browning. The result? Grey, limp, and bland mushrooms.

How to clean them properly:

• For regular mushrooms (like cremini or button): These are grown in a sterile environment and are usually very clean. A quick wipe with a damp paper towel or a soft mushroom brush is all you need. You can find a decent mushroom brush online or at kitchen supply stores for about $5-$10.
• For wild mushrooms (like morels or chanterelles): These can be gritty. The pro trick is to quickly swish them in a big bowl of cold water for just a few seconds—don’t let them soak! Then, lift them out of the water with your hands or a slotted spoon, leaving the dirt behind at the bottom of the bowl. Immediately lay them on a kitchen towel to dry completely.

The Great Pasta Rinsing Debate

Let me be crystal clear: unless you are making a cold pasta salad, rinsing cooked pasta is a culinary sin. That cloudy water you pour out is full of starch, which is basically liquid gold. That starch is what helps your delicious sauce cling to every single noodle.

When you rinse it, the starch goes down the drain, and the pasta becomes slick. Your sauce will just slide off, leaving a watery puddle in the bottom of your bowl. For hot dishes, use tongs or a spider strainer to move the pasta directly from the pot into your sauce. You can even add a splash of that starchy pasta water to the sauce to help it all come together beautifully.

The Golden Rule: ALWAYS Wash Your Produce

Now for the most important part. Any advice telling you not to wash fresh fruits and vegetables is flat-out wrong and dangerous. You absolutely must wash all fresh produce before you eat it. I don’t care if it’s organic, from a farmer’s market, or in a bag that says “pre-washed.”

Think about the journey that head of lettuce took to get to you. It was grown in a field, handled by harvesters, packed, shipped, and then sat in a grocery store where dozens of people might have touched it. That’s a lot of opportunities for contamination.

And by the way, those “triple-washed” salad bags? I treat them as if they’re not washed at all. I have found everything from grit to tiny bugs in those bags over the years. Taking two minutes to wash them again is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

• For Leafy Greens & Herbs: Fill a big bowl with cold water, separate the leaves, and swish them around. The grit will sink. Let them sit for a minute, then lift the greens out of the water. If the water’s dirty, do it again. A salad spinner (usually $25-$30 at places like Target or online) is a non-negotiable tool for getting them perfectly dry so your dressing sticks.
• No spinner? No problem. Here’s a classic line cook trick: Lay the washed greens on a clean kitchen towel, gently roll it up like a jelly roll, and press lightly. It works surprisingly well!
• For Sturdy Produce (Apples, Potatoes, Carrots): A good scrub under cool, running water is perfect. Use a vegetable brush ($5-$8) to get any stubborn dirt off things like potatoes. And yes, you should wash things even if you plan to peel them, like carrots or cucumbers. This stops the knife from dragging bacteria from the skin onto the flesh.
• For Delicate Produce (Berries, Tomatoes): Wash these under a gentle stream of cool water right before you plan to use them. Washing them too early can cause them to spoil faster.

My Quick-Start Guide to a Safer Kitchen

Proper prep is just one piece of the puzzle. A truly safe kitchen runs on a smart system. You don’t need a ton of fancy gear to make it happen.

Did you know? In pro kitchens, we use color-coded cutting boards to avoid mix-ups: Red for raw meat, Green for veggies, Blue for fish, and so on. You don’t need the whole set, but having just one board dedicated to raw meat is a game-changer.

What if you only have one cutting board? No worries, just work smart. Prep your vegetables FIRST. Chop them all up, and move them to clean bowls. THEN, use the board for your raw meat. This way, the germs only come out at the very end of your prep session.

A final thought: your best defense against getting sick is simply cooking your food to the right temperature. An instant-read digital thermometer is your best friend here. They’re not expensive—you can get a reliable one for about $20—and it’s the only way to know for sure if your food is safe. Poultry needs to hit 165°F, and ground meats need to reach 160°F. Trust the thermometer, not just the color!

The Cheat Sheet: To Wash or Not to Wash?

Here’s the TL;DR version you can come back to anytime:

• Raw Chicken, Meat & Fish: The move is to pat it completely dry with paper towels. Never rinse it under the tap. The reason is to avoid spraying invisible germs all over your kitchen and to get a much better sear when you cook.
• Mushrooms: Just brush or wipe them with a damp cloth. They’re like little sponges, and washing makes them soggy, rubbery, and totally bland.
• Leafy Greens & All Produce: Always wash! The best method is to submerge greens in a bowl of cold water and lift them out. This removes all the sand and grit without bruising the delicate leaves.
• Cooked Pasta (for hot dishes): Absolutely do not rinse. That starchy film is what makes your sauce cling to the pasta perfectly. Rinsing just creates a watery, slippery mess.

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It:

Want to really level up your kitchen game this week? Try this:

1. The next time you’re at a store like HomeGoods or Target, grab a cheap plastic cutting board (around $15) and make it your dedicated meat board.
2. Buy a bag of “pre-washed” spinach, give it a good wash in a bowl of water, and just see what’s left behind. You might be surprised!
3. Actually time yourself washing your hands for a full 20 seconds. It feels a lot longer than you think!

Cooking is a craft, and it’s built on these little bits of knowledge. It’s not about being scared; it’s about being smart. It’s about respecting the ingredients and, most of all, the people you’re feeding.

Inspirational Gallery

A 2014 study found that bacteria like Salmonella can survive on a plastic cutting board even after washing, hiding in knife grooves.

This is why the cutting board you choose is just as critical as your prep technique. While the article emphasizes patting meat dry, where you do it matters. Pros often use a two-board system. A non-porous, color-coded plastic or composite board (like those from OXO Good Grips or Epicurean) is reserved exclusively for raw meat, poultry, and fish, as it can be sanitized at high temperatures in a dishwasher. For everything else—vegetables, fruits, bread—a quality end-grain wood board (like a classic Boos Block) is preferred. Wood is gentler on knives and possesses natural antimicrobial properties, but requires careful hand-washing and oiling to maintain its safe surface.