• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
The Virtuous Home logo
  • About
    • About
    • Privacy Policy and Disclosure
    • Contact
  • Homemaking
    • Homemaking Lifestyle
    • Handmade
    • Printables
  • Healthy Living
    • Pro Metabolic
    • Recipes
  • Resources
    • The Homemaker’s Library
    • Shop
    • Amazon Favorites
    • Free Resource Library
  • Home

How to Clean Surfaces and Dishes that Have Touched Raw Chicken

Mar 10, 2023 · Leave a Comment

Sharing is caring!

5 shares
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

The best way to clean up after handling raw chicken

Raw chicken

Cooking chicken for the first time?

Maybe you have done it more than once, but you want to make sure that you are cleaning up properly.

Food safety is important, but not something to worry about.

I remember the first time my mom asked me to clean up after cutting a raw chicken breast. I was so scared!

The thought crossed my mind that somehow I was going to miss some sneaky little germ and get my whole family sick.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that is worried about keeping her family safe from foodborne illness, so let me layside your fears by sharing how I clean up after dealing with raw meat. Its a simple process with things you use on a regular basis.

The best way to clean up dishes and surfaces that have touched raw chicken is to use hot soapy water.  

Wash hands. 

Leave everything where it is and wash your hands first. Don’t use warm water. Turn on the hot water and get it as hot as you can stand. Can use some cold water to keep you from burning yourself. Don’t forget forget to use some soap and rinse your hands well, too.

Run a sink full of hot soapy water. 

Next, before you have even shut the water off or dried your hands off on a tea towel, keep the water running hot and put a plug in the kitchen sink. You’re going to run a quarter or a half sink full of hot soapy water to wash all the items that came into contact with the raw meat.

Get a dishrag wet. 

Before you put the contaminated things into the water, get a dish rag wet with that hot soapy water and set it aside.

Put everything in the sink. 

Now it’s time to get all the things that were used with or touched the raw meat and put all of them in the sink. I like to submerge them under the hot soapy water. It puts my mind at ease when they are under hot water for as long as possible.

Wipe down kitchen surfaces. 

Take that rag that you would set aside and wipe down the whole area that you use to prepare the meat. This is usually just the counters but sometimes when you’re cutting meat if anything splashed somewhere else then you need to clean that area, too.

This is a personal preference. If you want to you can use a disinfectant as well. Just spray the area down and wipe it down thoroughly. If you do use disinfectant, don’t put it away just yet. You’ll use it later.

Wash kitchen utensil, knife, and plastic chopping board. 

You can use the same rag that you wiped down things with and wash all the cooking utensil, knife, cutting boards, and anything else that was used thoroughly with hot water.

Rinse well.

Make sure you are rinsing these dishes in clean hot water as well before putting them in the drainer. 

Alternative:

If you have a dishwasher you can just put all the items into the dishwasher after you have rinsed off the food particles well with hot water. You don’t have to run it right away you can wait until it’s full with dirty dishes. The dishwasher runs extremely hot water to kill all the germs so it doesn’t matter that these contaminated dishes are being washed with other ones. It is a good rule of thumb to run the dishwasher through the whole cycle on the same day instead of letting the dirty dishes set for a couple of days. You don’t want to run the risk of dangerous bacteria growing on them.

Drain water 

After they’re all washed and rinsed, pull the plug and let the sink drain completely empty. 

Get a new rag.

Some people choose to use the same dishrag that they wash the dishes with for this next step. It does not bother me that they do this. For my own peace of mind, I like to put the dirty rag with other dirty kitchen towels and get a new rag. It’s probably silly and probably doesn’t have any effect on killing harmful bacteria. To each their own.

Wipe down sink.

It’s a good idea to run fresh hot water and squirt some dish soap on your rag. With the water running, wipe down the sinks to remove the remaining bacteria.

This is not the only way to do it. You can also use the disinfectant if you would like to spray down the sinks and sink handles. Let it sit for a few minutes or wipe it off immediately. 

Confine the rag.

After you’re all done cleaning up, put the rags in the dirty clothes or someplace where your little children cannot get them. You don’t want them to have the risk of food poisoning.

Final thoughts!

Now don’t you feel better now that you know how to safely clean up after raw chicken. You don’t have to worry about contaminating other things or spreading germs or getting your family sick. Knowing how to clean up after handling raw meat is important but it is not worth stressing over.

The bottom line is keep it simple and don’t stress. If only using hot soapy water does not make you feel like things are getting clean, here are some other options for you.

Optional Sprays:

  • A little vinegar diluted with some water in a spray bottle is a nice and simple natural alternative to disinfectant.
  • A bleach solution of a tablespoon of bleach diluted in a gallon of water is a good choice if you want a strong cleaner.
  • A disinfectant like this one I have used this one before and it worked well because it is a food grade disinfectant.
  • I’ve also used a Mrs. Myers all purpose spray after I have wiped everything down with hot soapy water. Not only does it clean my kitchen up with natural ingredients, but it also makes it smell really nice.
  • 7 Simple Homemaking Routines
  • Peaceful 2 Year Old Bedtime Routine
  • 7 Free Homemaking Binder Printables
  • Weekly Routine Planner Free Printable
  • 7 Productivity Tips for SAHM’s

Unwanted

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

New Posts

7 Simple Homemaking Routines

Looking to add a little more structure to your home life? Here are 7 of my homemaking routines! Life is chaotic. It’s uncontrollable for the most part, but as homemakers, we are given the choice to either steer our home lives away from the chaos or to let it drown our very existence. One very…

Read On →

Peaceful 2 Year Old Bedtime Routine

Do you struggle to get your two year old to go down to sleep easily? Here’s my two year old bedtime routine that me and my daughter love! Bedtime routines can be the most depressing and trying time of the day for a parent. All you want to do is sit down in silence and…

Read On →

7 Free Homemaking Binder Printables

Want some free printables for your homemaking binder? Here is a collection of 7 free homemaking printable bundles! Creating a homemaking binder was a huge help to me in my homemaking journey! It gave me a place to unload my brain of all the random information and to keep it safely stored in an organized…

Read On →

Weekly Routine Planner Free Printable

Want some cute printables to help you plan out your week? Here 5 weekly routine planner pages to choose from! Planning out your week can be droll. It’s hard to be motivated sometimes. Something that helps be more motivated is using a tool that I enjoy looking at. It brings me delight to see a…

Read On →

7 Productivity Tips for SAHM’s

If you need some help being a productive stay at home mom, here are my best 7 productivity tips for SAHM’s! Being a stay at home mom it’s a wonderful way to live! It can, however, be frustrating to figure out how to balance life.  We all struggle with this, and I have spent a…

Read On →

How to Sew a Blanket

If you want to learn how to sew a blanket, here’s my DIY blanket tutorial! I was passing through the sewing section in Walmart when an item in the remnant basket caught my eye. It was an undyed textured natural fiber with a loose weave. I had no idea what it was so I picked…

Read On →

How to Sew a Tablecloth

Want to sew a tablecloth? Here’s a simple tablecloth tutorial that won’t take much time! Tablecloths dress up a table setting and take it to the next level. As a homemaker, one of the skills I am learning is interior design. Although I would love to do all kinds of renovations and hardcore makeovers in…

Read On →

A Simple Guide to Cooking From Scratch 

Want to start making home cooked meals just like your grandma used to? Here’s how you can learn the art of cooking from scratch! Cooking from scratch is the old fashioned homemaking skill that has made the most impact in my homemaking journey. Why? Because we have to eat three times a day anyways so…

Read On →

  • About
  • Homemaking
  • Healthy Living
  • Free Resource Library
  • Home

Copyright © 2025 The Virtuous Home on the Seasoned Pro Theme

5 shares