Safe cooking temperatures, including sous vide

Pantry Bliss recipes tell you the internal temperature to cook meat, chicken and fish to, so you can check doneness with a thermometer instead of guessing. Push the probe into the thickest piece, away from any bone.

Pan, oven, grill and barbecue

When the heat keeps climbing, bacteria are killed almost instantly once the centre reaches these temperatures (Food Safety Information Council, Australia):

Chicken and other poultry, including mince and livers: 75°C (165°F).
Mince, sausages, burgers, and stuffed or rolled roasts: 75°C (160°F in the US).
Pork steaks, chops and pieces: 70°C, roasts 70 to 75°C (145°F in the US). Rest for 3 to 5 minutes.
Beef and lamb steaks, chops and roasts, to taste: medium rare 63°C, medium 71°C, well done 77°C. Rest for 3 to 5 minutes.
Fish fillets: about 63°C (145°F), or until the flesh flakes easily.

Large roasts keep rising a few degrees while they rest, so recipes take them out a little early and say so.

Hot and fast, or low and slow

Lean, tender cuts (chicken breast, pork loin, steak, lamb backstrap, fish, prawns) suit high heat. They dry out and toughen once they go much past their target, so cook them just to it.
Tough cuts (pork belly and shoulder, beef chuck, brisket, short rib, lamb shoulder and shanks) are safe at the minimum but still chewy. They need low and slow cooking, usually braising or slow roasting, until about 90 to 95°C inside, when they pull apart. For a quick dish, slice them thin instead.
Chicken thighs and drumsticks forgive extra heat and are juiciest at 80 to 85°C.

Sous vide

Sous vide works differently. Food is made safe by being held at a temperature for long enough, not by reaching one, which is why it can be cooked lower and stay juicier. So in a sous vide recipe, the bath temperature is the temperature the food ends up at, and the time is how long it takes the centre to get there plus a hold at that temperature.

Chicken and turkey breast

60°C (140°F): very juicy, soft and almost silky. Safe after holding for at least 35 minutes.
63°C (145°F): juicy and tender with a little more bite, the best all-rounder. Safe after 12 minutes.
65°C (150°F): firmer but still moist. Safe after 5 minutes.
68 to 70°C (155 to 158°F): the firm texture you get from a pan or oven, and starting to dry out. Safe in under a minute.

Chicken thighs and drumsticks

65°C (150°F): tender but slightly springy, and can look pink near the bone. Safe after 5 minutes.
74°C (165°F) for 1 to 4 hours: juicy and tender, like a good roast.
74°C (165°F) for 4 to 8 hours: falls off the bone.

Pork chops, loin and fillet

57°C (135°F): rosy pink and very juicy. Safe after holding for at least 40 minutes.
60°C (140°F): faintly pink and juicy. Safe after 12 minutes.
64°C (147°F): white all the way through, juicy but firmer. Safe after 4 minutes.

Mince, burgers and sausages need the same holds, because they can carry bacteria all the way through.

Beef and lamb steaks, chops and roasts

Bacteria are only on the surface of a whole cut, so these are safe once heated through and seared hard at the end.

54°C (129°F): rare to medium rare, red and very tender.
57°C (135°F): medium rare, pink and juicy.
60°C (140°F): medium, rosy and firmer.
63°C (145°F): medium well, mostly grey.

Tough cuts

Short rib, brisket, cheeks and shoulders need a day or more to turn tender:

57 to 60°C (135 to 140°F) for 24 to 72 hours: stays pink and sliceable, like a tender steak.
68 to 74°C (155 to 165°F) for 12 to 48 hours: moist and pulls apart, like a braise.
80°C (176°F) for 8 to 12 hours: shreds like pulled pork, but loses more juice.

Fish

43°C (110°F): translucent and barely cooked.
50°C (122°F): tender and just flaking.
55°C (131°F): opaque and flaky, like fish cooked in a pan.

Fish needs only 20 to 45 minutes and turns mushy if left much longer. Below 55°C it isn't pasteurised, so use very fresh fish and eat it straight away.

How long to cook

The hold only starts once the centre reaches the bath temperature, and that depends on thickness, not weight. A 2.5 cm (1 in) chicken breast or steak straight from the fridge takes about 1½ hours in total at 60°C, and a 5 cm (2 in) piece over 3 hours. Add about an hour if it goes in frozen. Lean cuts stay much the same for a few hours past that, but turn soft and mealy after about 4 hours.

Keep it safe

Keep the bath at 55°C (131°F) or above, except for rare steak and fish you eat straight away, and never leave food below 54°C (129°F) for more than 6 hours.
If anyone eating is pregnant, elderly or has a weakened immune system, the cautious choice is to cook to the pan and oven temperatures above.

Where these numbers come from

Food Safety Information Council for the safe internal temperatures in Australia.
USDA FSIS lethality guidance for how long meat and poultry must hold at each temperature.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand, limits for food processes for the 55°C sous vide minimum.
NSW Food Authority, sous vide food safety requirements for the 6 hour limit below 54.5°C.
Anova's time and temperature guide and Douglas Baldwin's A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking for textures and come-up times.