This Poultry and Meat Temperature Chart Will Ensure Safe Cooking

Cooking meat can be an intimidating process, because it can easily be under- or overcooked. With our downloadable guide, you can enjoy perfectly cooked meat every time.

  • By Jess Dang
  • July 6, 2015

Last week, we kicked off our 2015 Summer Grilling Series with an updated version of our Grilling Guide. If you downloaded it, you saw that I listed a digital read thermometer as one of our 5 essential grilling tools. The one that I listed is also the one I own, and I absolutely love it.

It comes in super handy when I’m trying to figure out if my burgers are a perfect medium-rare (my preferred temp) or if my grilled chicken is safe to eat.

However, it’s only handy if you also know what temperature you want to cook your protein to, which is why we put together this handy Meat Temperature Guide for you to download, save, print out and / or laminate!

Infographic

Meat Temperature Guide

Cook meat to perfection with this helpful cooking infographic from Cook Smarts.

You’ll notice that our temperature recommendations are just slightly lower than what you might typically see in other guides since we try to account for ‘carryover cooking,’ which is an important concept for cooking just about any ingredient.


Carryover cooking happens when ingredients – meats and veggies – continue to cook from residual heat even after you take it off its heat source.


Meat still tends to cook for another few degrees after taken off heat, so cook them to the recommended temps in this download, and they’ll be at the right doneness after resting. You can use these temps for all meat cooking methods, not just grilling too, so you can use this info year round.

You can get the information in the graphic above in a printable PDF. Just click the button below.

High five to perfectly cooked meat!


If you’re looking for more grilling recipes, check out some of our favorite grill recipes here. To get even more helpful cooking resources and tips every week, join our cooking community by signing up for our newsletter below. We strive to help you live simpler, smarter, and healthier in the kitchen, so that you can cook with confidence and ease.

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