National Chicken Council

Authority

Industry technical body

Territories

US

Primacy

secondary

Commercial interest

advertising funded

Retrieved

2026-08-16

State

Read and citable

Original document

THE COUNTER-EXAMPLE THAT MAKES THE CANADIAN CHART'S QUALITY VISIBLE. Both are national poultry trade bodies publishing grilling times for the same cuts. Chicken Farmers of Canada indexes every row by raw piece weight at two sizes and states the heat; this page states NO PIECE WEIGHT for any cut, no heat configuration for thighs, wings or leg quarters, and attributes nothing. Its figures — bone-in breast 4 min a side then 18-20 more, thighs and drumsticks 25-30 minutes, wings 10-15, boneless breast 10-15 over medium heat — cannot be placed against profiles whose envelopes are mass bands, because the publisher never says what it weighed. Recorded whole and cited by nothing, so that the decision is visible and reversible rather than a silent omission.

Culinary practice

• Explicitly not safety: A trade association is not a food-safety authority, and this page states 170 °F for several cuts without saying whether that is a safety figure, a doneness preference or a restatement of something older.
• Explicitly not commercial: Funded by the broiler industry.

• “Sear bone-in chicken breasts for about 4 minutes per side and then move to lower heat and continue to grill for 18-20 more minutes until the breasts reach an internal temperature of 165 F. ... Chicken thighs and drumsticks take longer to cook than breast meat, about 25 to 30 minutes on the grill. Cook to an internal temperature of 170 degrees F.”

  The National Chicken Council gives bone-in breasts about 4 minutes a side seared then 18 to 20 minutes more over lower heat to 165 °F; thighs and drumsticks about 25 to 30 minutes to 170 °F; wings 10 to 15 minutes to 170 °F; boneless skinless breasts 10 to 15 minutes over medium heat to 165 °F; and leg quarters and half chickens 30 to 35 minutes to 170 °F. It states no piece weight for any cut and attributes none of the figures.

  No piece weight is given for any cut, which is the reason none of these rows can be placed. Every bone-in poultry profile in this catalogue is defined by a mass band, because the evidence behind those profiles — the Chicken Farmers of Canada chart — indexes every row by raw piece weight at two sizes.

  Heat:

  The thigh, wing and leg-quarter rows state no heat configuration at all; only the bone-in breast row describes a method, and that method is a sear followed by lower heat.

  Endpoint:

  170 °F for thighs, wings and leg quarters sits above the 165 °F the same page gives for breasts, with no explanation of whether it is a safety figure, a doneness preference or a restatement of older guidance.

  Recorded in full, and cited by nothing, so that the decision rests on the conditions stated rather than on the numbers. Had the thigh figure agreed with the Canadian one it would still be unplaceable; had it been placeable it would have CONFLICTED, at 25-30 minutes against 14-20.