Don’t Fumble Those Chicken Wings: Marinate Safely for the Big Game

Everyone wants their chicken wings to make an impression. Don’t let food safety missteps fumble your Super Bowl party.

To make chicken wings tasty, folks often rely on a marinade—a savory sauce that soaks poultry to enrich its flavor or to tenderize it. Marinating also prevents chicken from drying out during roasting, grilling, frying or baking. Here are some cooking and marinating tips to keep your wings safe:

1. Washing chicken can spread bacteria. Instead wipe your poultry with paper towels and throw used paper towels in the trash to prevent cross contamination. If you wash your chicken, fully clean and sanitize surfaces that raw poultry may have touched.
2. Wash hands for 20 seconds before and after handling raw poultry. Clean surfaces and utensils with soap and water before cooking and after contact with raw poultry.
3. Use separate cutting boards, plates and utensils to avoid cross-contamination between raw poultry and foods that are ready-to-eat.
4. Never marinate raw poultry on a kitchen counter for longer than two hours.
5. Cook refrigerated raw poultry in a marinade within two days.
6. Don’t use marinade that was used on raw poultry as a sauce unless it is boiled first to destroy bacteria. Always reheat marinade safely by bringing it to a rolling boil.
7. Cook chicken wings to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 F. Use a food thermometer on each wing, avoiding the bone. If one wing is under 165 F, continue cooking until they all reach their safe minimum internal temperature.
8. Don’t leave cooked chicken wings out for more than two hours at room temperature or keep them hot at 140 F or above by using a preheated oven, warming tray, chafing dish or slow cooker.

For more food safety tips, call the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854), email MPHotline@usda.gov, or chat live at ask.usda.gov from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday to reach a food safety specialist in English or Spanish.