Help! Undercooked the chicken!

[FU444]

I'm panicked.

Had the in laws over for dinner today. For various reasons it was a very stressful day, and for some godforsaken reason I undercooked the roast chicken. I completely misread the cooking instructions and had it in the oven for 1 hour 25 minutes instead of 1 hour 45!! That's a lot!

It's all been eaten, and I can't fess up because for lots of reasons my relationship with PiL is strained. They would probably say I did it deliberately!

Do you think we're guaranteed to get ill??

I’m sure you would have noticed if it had been pink and uncooked? It must have been cooked through if it was ok for you all to eat

Was it hot? Breast meat was white? Then it was cooked. Honestly raw chicken is pretty unmistakable. And 1hr 25 seems like a reasonable amount of time to cook a chicken - the packet doesn’t know what your oven is like etc.

I always find the time needed is much less than it says on the packet. Did you check the juices ran clear? If so it’s fine.

(If you normally do stick to the time, don’t you find the breast meat a bit dried out?)

How big a chicken and what temperature? Was it stuffed? You would have noticed if it was raw

Do you think we're guaranteed to get ill??

I'd say, considering everyone ate it without noticing if it was pink and/or lukewarm, you are pretty much guaranteed not to get ill.

How heavy was the chicken?

Supermarket chickens always say far longer than they need cooking.

If no one noticed I would assume it was cooked. Raw chicken is quite obvious.

I always take 15 or so mins off the stated cooking time- I find they are way over cautious and you end up with a super dry chicken. So I'm sure it was fine. Like others have said- you and guests would have noticed surely?

If it was white all the way through when you served it, it wasn’t undercooked. You’d have noticed if it wasn’t cooked when you carved it.

Following the timings on a supermarket chicken often results in a very dry, overcooked chicken. I use a digital thermometer and it never takes as long as the packaging says to get to the required temperature.

You are likely worrying about nothing.

Just a quick update, and to thank you all for your wise words.

I'm not ill, nor have I had reports of anyone else being ill. I got away with it!!

I never cook mine for as long as the pack says - they err on the safe side and their timings always end up with overcooked dry chicken.

I go with Delia's timings of 20 minutes per pound (450g), plus an extra 10-20 minutes. I check the juices are running clear after the extra ten mins and it is nearly always cooked at that point.

TL;DR - your chicken will have been fine!

My dh always cooks for less than the time on the packaging. If the meat was cooked through and there were no pink bits or blood then it was cooked enough even if the time was 20 minutes less than stated.

Get yourself a meat thermometer and use that instead. The packaging is always wrong.