Ina Garten Says Secret to Cooking Tender Chicken Is Slightly 'Undercooking' the Meat in the Oven

While some fans were wary of the cooking tip, Garten clarified that the chicken continues to cook under aluminum foil

Ina Garten’s advice for cooking chicken is simple: take it out of the oven.

In two Instagram videos, the Be My Guest with Ina Garten host shared her tips for making “flavorful, moist” chicken.

“Everybody always asks, ‘How do you make chicken that’s not dry?’ And there are two really important things,” Garten said in the clip.

“First, I slightly undercook it. If you overcook chicken it gets very dry,” the cookbook author said. “And then I let it rest.”

In a follow-up video shared on Friday, Garten gave even more details about how to use this technique while demonstrating her Chicken with Goat Cheese and Basil recipe. In this clip, the Food Network star explained that she takes the chicken out when its internal temperature reaches 155 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. (The technique that she is implementing is called carryover cooking.)

She covered the chicken in aluminum foil, and advised to let it rest for about 10 minutes. The heat from the mostly-cooked protein is trapped inside the aluminum foil, leading to it continuing to cook while even outside the oven. It's ready to be consumed when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Related: Ina Garten Was Inspired to Make Chicken Ramen Noodle Soup During the Pandemic — Get Her Recipe

“The chicken keeps cooking and all the juices get back into the chicken,” she explained. “You won’t believe what a difference it makes.”

While many of Garten’s 4.3 million Instagram followers flooded her comments section with praise for the tip, some fans were a little chicken to try it themself.

“I’m too afraid to undercook chicken,” one commenter wrote, while another said, “Undercook and chicken don’t go in the same sentence for me 🥹😩 i’ll eat my chicken dry any day over that."

A few users came out to defend Garten's tip with one writing, "All she is saying is pull it out of the oven slightly before it’s done and let it continue cooking under the foil. She’s not saying that you should serve undercooked chicken. Use some common sense people!"

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