Why It's A Mistake To Remove Raw Chicken Skin With Your Bare Hands

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When cooking a chicken, leaving the skin on leads to the most flavor and juiciest texture. However, the chicken skin does increase the overall meal's calorie count and fat content, so there are a few reasons why you might want to remove it. In this case, always use a knife and gloves rather than removing it with your bare hands. Make sure to wear nitrile gloves, which are more durable and puncture-resistant than standard disposable gloves. Without gloves, you risk foodborne illness, and it's generally harder to remove the skin with your hands without the aid of a sharp knife.

Touching raw chicken without gloves on is never a good idea due to cross contamination. Raw chicken can carry diseases like salmonella, and if you touch the skin and don't wash your hands properly, you risk unpleasant symptoms like nausea and diarrhea, which could potentially lead to hospitalization or even death. While gloves will help remove that foodborne illness risk, a sharp knife will help remove the skin with ease compared to tearing it with your hands. In addition to that, a knife is especially handy if you plan on repurposing the chicken skin in another meal.

A sharp knife means the chicken skin comes off seamlessly, but always be careful and follow general knife safety rules. For removal, your best bet is a boning knife, which is a somewhat-flexible, thin knife with a sharp tip that's also used for removing meat from the bones. Boning knives vary in cost, but you can get a decent one on Amazon, such as a Cutluxe, for around $25.

Cut the underside of the chicken's skin off first, then work your way around the chicken, gently sliding the knife underneath the skin, then carefully slicing downward. While wearing a glove, hold the skin and gently pull it away from the chicken while you're cutting it. Start with the chicken's underside, then flip it and remove the skin from the top, wings, and sides. If you don't have gloves, you can also use a towel to help pull the skin away from the chicken in those more rigid areas that are harder to access with a knife, such as the parts between the wing and the chicken's side.