If you've seen this discoloration, you've probably wondered what causes it—and whether the chicken is safe to eat.
If Your Chicken Has Brown Stuff Inside It, This Is What It Means
Published on Apr. 04, 2025
Poultry is a finicky staple of the American kitchen. To cook chicken safely, you have to know which textures, colors, smells and temperatures are safe for various parts of the chicken.
Luckily, I have one concern for you to cross off the list: a chicken that’s brown near its bones. That brown stuff in chicken, it turns out, is pretty normal and fine to eat.
What is the brown stuff on my chicken?
Many concerned cooks have taken to the internet to document this odd phenomenon found in roasted and fried chicken: a “bloom” of reddish-brown on the interior, in the center near the bones.
It’s an unpleasant surprise to find beneath the surface, especially after you’ve taken a bite.
However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reassures us that the discoloration is normal. It’s pigment from the chicken’s bone marrow that has leaked out into the surrounding meat during the cooking process.
The USDA explains that this happens primarily when cooking younger chickens. Their bones, which are still porous and uncalcified, have more areas through which the reddish-brown marrow can leak. It also occurs more frequently in chicken that’s been frozen and thawed. This is because thawing poultry can cause the pigments to seep out further.
Is the brown stuff safe to eat?
This bone marrow seepage, in addition to being common, is safe to eat. (People pay big money to eat bone marrow in fancy restaurants, after all.) The primary factor in determining whether poultry is safe to eat is cooking temperature—keep it above 165°F and don’t leave it out at room temp for more than two hours.
If you still feel iffy about that discoloration or the thought of bone seepage is off-putting, opt for boneless cuts like chicken breasts. Or, cook your bone-in chicken right away, rather than freezing it to cook later.
