Cooking tips for avoiding cross-contamination

When handling raw meats, poultry and seafood, it’s important to keep food safety in mind. You want to avoid cross-contaminating plates, platters and utensils used for raw foods and those used for cooked foods.

When grilling, I always aim to have two sets (sometimes more) of grilling utensils, plates or platters on hand.

If you don’t have an extra set available, always wash well with hot soapy water any utensils, plates or platters used for raw foods that you will need to use with the cooked foods.

Another cross-contamination issue that comes up often is with marinades.

When making a marinade that you also want to use as a basting sauce or serve on the side, make 1 1/2 times or double the recipe. Set the desired extra amount aside in a separate bowl or container away from the other so you don’t get them mixed up.

Some recipes say that you can boil marinade that held raw foods for 5 minutes to kill any bacteria so you can serve it. I don’t follow this practice and food safety experts with the USDA and local Michigan State University Extension offices, don’t recommend it.

For today’s recipe, doubling up sided baking sheets works great. Place and prepare the chicken on the top baking sheet and use the bottom one for the cooked chicken and vegetables.

You can use either skinless or skin-on boneless chicken. Just make sure you have pieces of uniform thickness so they grill evenly.

If you are using skinless chicken breasts, instead of pounding them to an even thickness, cut them into two even pieces.

Place well-chilled breasts (freeze 20-30 minutes if necessary) on a clean work surface and hold them in place with your hand on top. Starting at the thickest end, slice the breasts in half horizontally, working away from you and toward the thinner end. Slicing the breasts in two is better than pounding because you end up with nice, neat and even pieces.

If using skin-on chicken breasts, place the pieces between sheets of plastic wrap, skin side down, and gently pound with a meat mallet to an even thickness. This way there is less chance of tearing the skin.