If you feel confused and betrayed by all your favorite cookbook authors, take heart: Theres one typically impeccable source thats told us the truth for almost a decade. “Dont rinse poultry before cooking,” say the editors of Cooks Illustrated in The Science of Good Cooking. “You arent killing any bacteria and you may be spreading bacteria around your kitchen.” Cooks Illustrated has taken this safety-minded stance since 2004. However, a glance at their 1999 publication The Cooks Illustrated Complete Book of Poultry indicates that they recommended rinsing birds in the late 20th century. We guess nobodys perfect, especially when it comes to the counterintuitive danger of washing chicken.
via Don’t Wash Your Chicken campaign: Why don’t cookbook authors agree?.