To eat or not to eat the chicken? That is the question. Every married couple argues every once in a while. Sometimes it’s about laundry mysteriously left in the washer, other times it’s the thermostat war of 2025, and sometimes they lock horns over a raw chicken that’s been on a scenic afternoon road trip in the trunk.
One Redditor refused to eat his wife’s chicken dinner after she forgot the raw bird in her car the entire afternoon, insisting it was fine and safe to eat.
More info: Reddit
Being married is romantic and fun, until the main course at dinner requires a coin toss with salmonella
Image credits: pixel-shot.com / Freepik (not the actual photo)
One man refuses to eat his wife’s chicken dinner after she forgets the raw bird in the trunk of her car for an entire afternoon
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The wife goes to pick up groceries for a new dinner recipe, and goes for a walk with a friend after putting the ingredients in the fridge
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
When she returns home, the woman discovers she forgot the raw chicken in the car the entire afternoon, but she insists it’s safe to eat
Image credits: JonnyW__
After the man refuses to eat the chicken because Google says it’s not safe, the wife drives off to the store to buy a new one
The OP’s (original poster) evening started out promising: his wife had a plan for a delicious one-pot chicken and orzo dinner. Groceries? Check. Afternoon walk with friends before dinner? Also check. Fresh chicken waiting patiently in the fridge? Well…almost.
Hours after grocery pickup, the OP’s wife returned home, ready to channel her inner culinary queen, only to realize that the chicken never made it to the fridge. Instead, it had spent the entire day sunbathing in the car in a brisk 16 degrees Celsius (60° F). Not exactly a summer scorcher, but also not a walk-in freezer.
This started the age-old domestic dilemma: to eat or not to eat the chicken? The OP did a quick Google search, like one does, convinced that car-aged chicken was basically a biohazard in a bag. His wife, however, insisted that it still “felt cold to the touch” and seemed perfectly fine.
But, after some back and forth about the raw chicken, the OP refused to play poultry roulette. His wife, slightly exasperated, drove off to secure a replacement bird. So, was the OP right to refuse dinner, or did he waste a perfectly good chicken?
Image credits: Timur Weber / Pexels (not the actual photo)
When it comes to raw chicken, “better safe than sorry” isn’t just a saying. Because if you’ve ever had food poisoning, you know it’s really not fun. The pros say the key to preventing it is to keep your raw meats separate from the rest of your groceries – that includes meat, chicken and other poultry, seafood, and even eggs.
Keep meat and other perishables refrigerated at or below 4°C (40°F) and never let it hang out in the “danger zone” (between 4°C and 60°C / 40°F and 140°F) for more than 2 hours. In other words: if your chicken spent more time in the car than you did at the gym, it’s safer to let it cross the road… to the garbage can.
But what if your partner insists that sun-warmed chicken is still good to eat? Well, every relationship comes with disagreements, and most aren’t about major life decisions; they’re about little things that pile up. Couples often clash because of stress, money, different priorities, household chores, or simply wanting to feel heard.
The key to resolving a conflict with your partner is healthy communication: pause before reacting, actually listen, and focus on solving the issue, not winning. Try not to throw blame at your partner, assume they have good intentions and are not out to get you, and most importantly, don’t sweat the small stuff.
At the end of the day, every couple has their little fights, and yes, some argue over whether a sun-warmed chicken deserves a second chance at life.
What do you think of this story? Are you on team “eat it” or “toss it”? Let us know in the comments below!
Netizens side with the man, saying he is not the jerk for refusing to eat the chicken left in the car
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