One simple answer ... gloves. Ok, backstory. My best friend and I were discussing that she has been trying to cook more for herself as well. She has been getting one of the meal prep boxes, and every time she cooks chicken, the recipe tells her to pat the chicken dry. I told her I don't bother too much with that if I'm not trying to make something like a seasoning or breading stick to the chicken. If it's just salt and pepper, I skip it. But, I digress... She has been patting the chicken dry with paper towels, throwing those away and then going and washing her hands before she does anything else. She thought maybe she was being overly cautious. But salmonella is always a risk with raw chicken, so what she was doing was absolutely right. If I handle raw chicken, nothing else goes on the same cutting board. I use one for the chicken, to prep it, season it, etc. I use another for all my veggies. That's why I think 2 cutting board is essential so you don't have to wash between prepping different items. However, if I just need to get the seasoning on the chicken and get it in a pan, I will at least put a glove on my left hand as that's the hand that typically picks up the chicken (my right hand is normally doing the sprinkling with the salt shaker). If I am coating the chicken in oil, I will put gloves on both hands to rub that in, and then remove 1 or both to do the seasoning. Sanitary removal is easy, just grab the end by your wrist and turn it inside out when you remove it, leaving the side that touched the raw chicken contained. Toss the gloves in the garbage and move on to your next step. I find it so handy, that I've taken to keeping a box of these gloves next to my utensil croc on my countertop. I use it when I am cooking, and for handling hot peppers like habanero, as well as when I am packaging up my large purchases into smaller meal sized portions after I've hit the club store. There are so many gloves in 1 box, even if I take one off and toss it only to need another one, it's still a time saver. Ok, let's rewind again... I've had gloves in my kitchen for the last 4 years. I was just starting to make my own cat food ... yes my cats are spoiled but if you had multiple animals in 1 house that all had different food allergies you'd make your own food too! Anyhow, I was handling so much raw chicken that I needed a way to be able to make food and not stop and wash my hands every minute or so when I was making 40 lbs or more of food and packaging it away in smaller batches for the freezer. I wanted gloves that I could layer up so when I needed to open the fridge, I could just take off the outer most glove and toss it. The box of plastic gloves I bought made me think of the sandwich shops around me. They don't layer up well, and for long projects, they broke too easily. I actually contacted the manufacturer because I had no idea how to find what I actually wanted, something more like what is used in a doctor's office rather than the sandwich shop. They let me know what I was looking for was actually vinyl gloves, and then actually sent me a free box of them so I could try them out and be sure they were what I wanted. I couldn't believe the great customer service I got, and when the free box was used up I ordered their vinyl gloves as well. Both work great in the kitchen, and I like having both depending on how long I plan to be wearing them: quick use, plastic; longer wearing or need to layer, vinyl. So the very long winded answer... disposable gloves is the way I like to handle raw chicken.
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AuthorHi folks, here's a place I can post about what's new, what's in the works, and what I have updated. Hope you enjoy! ~ Darci Archives
November 2021
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