Triggered by raw chicken

[Vcal2017]

Hi there. I’m trying to be lighthearted but I feel awful. It’s Book Week here in AU and I’ve been running competitions, and today dressed as Princess Fiona in claggy green face paint. Exhausted came home made chicken for my son.
Half-way through he says, I can’t eat this it’s undercooked. It may have been slightly less than perfectly cooked. But it wasn’t raw. He said it in a grumpy, annoyed tone.
I’ve also had exactly this argument with my ex who’s his Dad. My son is on the spectrum.
Anyway, I suddenly just felt really fed up. How many times have I cooked chicken for people who’ve complained about it? They don’t offer to help. They look at the food I’ve made and complain. I told him to F off and make his own chicken. I can’t wait until he turns 18 and I can just be vegetarian.

You're obviously wound up and stressed so I say this gently - if people are constantly complaining that your chicken is under cooked, maybe it is?

On the other hand, your DS sounds old enough to be able to cook his own food and if he thinks it's undercooked then he can cook it until he's happy that it's fine.

Tbh I can't find fault with your son for not wanting to eat under cooked chicken - this could have made him very ill! It's not hard to cook chicken, if you have had multiple complaints about it either cook it a little longer or just cook something else. How old is your son? Perhaps he could get involved and learn to cook some simple things? I presume he's not very young since you told him to "fuck off".

I am really slack with cooking - except for chicken. Get a meat thermometer.

So you are consistently serving undercooked chicken to people and expect them to eat it and then when your son objects he gets told to fuck off. Maybe he's sick of your giving him food that could make him seriously ill and that is why he was grumpy ??

What ? 😳

“ It may have been slightly less than perfectly cooked”

I get that you are stressed OP, but undercooked chicken is a really dangerous potential source of food poisoning. I’m not surprised he moaned.

depends if you think he was just finding fault, or was genuinely nervous about undercooked chicken. This is the exact kind of disagreement I would have had with my parents as a teen and would have felt panicky and nervous about getting sick, while they potentially thought I was being fussy/ungrateful - no one at fault but ends in tears. If he’s normally nice cook the chicken longer

btw my post was assuming you’re confident that the chicken was cooked enough to be safe.

You told your teenage Son to fuck off, because he didn't want to eat dangerous undercooked food?

Why are people always complaining that you undercook chicken?

I guess it’s because I was rushing around trying to cook for people who’ve complained could easily stand up, press some buttons and cook it further. And yes I was confident it was cooked through. Small chicken wings 25 minutes in air fryer. Some were more like burnt. However, It’s a simple thing I could fix by getting a meat thermometer but I was so tired I lost it. He’s nearly 18 and sometimes I question what I’m doing if he can’t see I’m upset and just recook it. Anyway, sigh. Thanks for the posts. Appreciate it.

It's really hard to say it calmly when youre stressed (and covered in paint) but him cooking it for a bit longer (or cooking the whole thing for both of you) really is the answer here

Yup. ♥️

Especially if he's autistic he'll struggle to read between the lines that he should spare your feelings by getting up to recook it himself. Actually a lot of adults would find this insulting and then have a go at him for doing that too, so hes in an awkward position. The onus is on you to say 'if you don't feel it's cooked properly please put it back in the oven until you're satisfied it's cooked'. Also, stop serving people undercooked chicken. Being in a rush doesn't make it ok - it's dangerous!