I was braising chicken in my oven and according to my thermometer my chicken was at 180 degrees. I noticed that it didn’t look done. Then I noticed blood running out of the chicken so I knew my thermometer wasn’t working accurately.

Then I thought my chicken was taking much longer to get done than normal so I wanted to get the temperature of my oven. I had two oven thermometers and they both gave me different readings. I figured my thermometers are old so maybe I need a new one? I ran to Ace Hardware and bought a new oven thermometer. WOW I got a another different temperature. My husband did some research into oven thermometers. According to Cook’s Illustrated the CDN Brand are highly recommended so we bought two of them since I have a double oven.

I put all 5 thermometers in my lower oven that I set for 350 degrees F roast. I let my oven run for around 20 minutes before I took a reading.

This is what I got.

New Taylor Thermometer from ACE read around 300 degrees F

NEW CDN Thermometer read around 320 degrees F

other NEW CDN Thermometer read around 276 degrees F

Old Thermometer read around 335 degrees F

other old thermometer read around 350 degrees F

I got between around 276 – around 350 degrees F

Now I will see what my top oven reads. I set it at 350 roast.

My New Taylor Thermometer reads around 280 degrees F

New CDN reads around 298 F

Other new CDN reads around 278 F

Old thermometer reads around 340 F

other old thermometer reads around 340 F

I got between 280 – 340 F reading on my upper oven set at 350 roast.

I’m thinking maybe I don’t FORKING NEED a thermometer? I shouldn’t get hot and bothered about this……..I have to just cook till the food is done.

The Forking Truth is that your thermometer (and your oven) might not be accurate.