Why is it so dangerous to eat raw chicken?

Let's start with the end - don't eat raw chicken under any circumstances in any country (we'll talk about Japan in a sec). It's really dangerous and there are tons of tests done in the US that showed most chicken is contaminated with salmonella, so only fully cooking the chicken will make it safe to eat.

Now about Japan...

In Japan, it turns out the 'rules' are a bit weird...

It's forbidden to serve raw meat (so even tartare needs to be seared a bit before serving) but raw chicken is actually a pretty well-known and cultural thing.

They use a specific breed of chicken that goes through a very organized process and checks from the beginning of its growth until it reaches the restaurant (which specializes in serving raw chicken) to try to ensure the chicken doesn't have salmonella or any other problem.

Still, despite all the process and checks, there's still a risk in eating raw chicken (even in places that specialize in it) but it's significantly lower than other places in the world, which is why I said if you're gonna try it, do it there.

Taste-wise, it's pretty mild without too much flavor because most of the chicken's taste comes from the cooking itself or the sauce (imagine egg white which has almost no taste). What was hard for me was mainly thinking about the texture of the liver I tasted and also the chicken breast.

The texture is exactly as you'd imagine - raw chicken.

In short, not a special experience or worth the risk in my opinion, and of course, as I wrote at the beginning, outside of Japan, don't try it no matter what.

And even in Japan, it's at your own risk 🙃

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