Food safety — read this first

Stop and deal with this first

Undercooked poultry is a food-safety matter rather than a quality one. Do not serve it to test it, and do not judge it by colour: take it back to the heat until the thickest part reaches the endpoint published for your territory.

Chicken is coloured outside and still pink at the bone

The outside is coloured and the thickest part is not there yet — the one problem on this list where the answer is a thermometer rather than a technique.

Work out which one it is

Each cause below lists the signs that point at it rather than at the others. Start with the signs, not with the fix.

Colour was used as the test, and colour does not indicate doneness in poultry.
common
Signs it is this one
- The outside is coloured or charred and no internal temperature was taken.
- The pinkness is close to the bone rather than throughout the meat.
Why it happens: Char and browning are surface reactions that happen far faster than heat reaches the interior, and pinkness near a bone can persist in fully cooked poultry. Neither is a doneness signal. Extension and regulator guidance is consistent that a thermometer is the only reliable test.
What to do
- Measure the thickest part away from the bone and keep cooking until it reaches the endpoint your food-safety authority publishes. — during cook, reliable
  BBQHQ shows the endpoint for your territory rather than a single number, because the authorities differ.
Next time
- Use a thermometer from the start on any bone-in poultry; the geometry makes visual judgement unreliable.
The fire was hot enough to colour the outside long before the inside caught up.
common
Signs it is this one
- The skin is dark and the piece was cooked directly over the fire throughout.
- The cook took much less time than the published window for that piece.
Why it happens: A bone-in thigh or a whole bird is thick and irregular. Over a fierce direct fire the surface passes browning quickly while the slowest point — the joint, or the deepest part of the thigh — is still climbing.
What to do
- Move it to the fire-free side with the lid on and let it come up there. — during cook, reliable
Next time
- Cook bone-in poultry indirectly and finish over the fire, rather than the reverse.

What this covers

This is BBQHQ’s diagnosis for still raw in the middle, burnt outside, underdone inside, on the foods below.

Chicken is coloured outside and still pink at the bone

Work out which one it is

Colour was used as the test, and colour does not indicate doneness in poultry.

The fire was hot enough to colour the outside long before the inside caught up.

What this covers