Meat Temperature Chart: Safe Internal Temps for Every Cut

A good meat temperature chart is the single most useful thing you can keep near the grill. It settles every argument about whether the chicken is done, it saves the twelve dollar steak from becoming a hockey puck, and it means nobody at your table spends the night regretting dinner. Cutting into meat to "check the color" is a guess. A thermometer and this meat temperature chart turn that guess into a fact. Big Ron has never dropped a sausage, and he has never served an undercooked one either, because he trusts numbers over eyeballs every single time.

Below are the safe minimum internal temperatures published by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, followed by the two things most people get wrong: carryover cooking and resting. Read those two sections and you will pull better food off the grill starting this weekend.

The meat temperature chart: safe internal temps

These are the safe minimum internal temperatures measured with a food thermometer at the thickest part of the meat, away from bone, fat, and gristle. Hit these numbers and the food is safe to eat.

• Chicken and all poultry (whole, pieces, or ground): 165°F
• Ground beef, pork, lamb, and veal (including burgers): 160°F
• Beef, pork, lamb, and veal steaks, chops, and roasts: 145°F, then rest at least 3 minutes
• Fresh sausage (made from ground beef, pork, lamb, or veal): 160°F
• Fish and shellfish: 145°F
• Fully cooked ham, to reheat: 140°F (or 165°F if it was repackaged or is a leftover)
• Leftovers and casseroles, when reheating: 165°F

Notice that ground meat sits higher than a whole steak. That is not an accident. When beef is ground, any surface bacteria gets mixed all the way through, so the whole burger has to reach a safe temperature. A whole steak only carries bacteria on the outside, which the sear handles, so the interior can safely stay at 145°F. This is exactly why a rare burger is a gamble and a rare steak is not.

Chicken deserves its own note

Poultry is the one place where "safe" and "good" line up perfectly at 165°F. There is no reason to push chicken past it and dry it out. The trick is pulling it a touch early and letting carryover finish the job, which we will cover in a second. Dark meat like thighs is more forgiving and many cooks happily take it to 175°F or higher for texture, since the extra collagen breaks down into something silky. White meat is where a couple of degrees is the difference between juicy and sad.

Why a meat temperature chart only works with a real thermometer

A meat temperature chart is only as honest as the tool reading the meat. The finger-poke test, the color test, the "it has been on there a while" test, these are all folklore. Two identical looking chicken breasts can be twenty degrees apart inside depending on thickness and starting temperature.

An instant read thermometer removes the mystery. Our Truth-Teller Thermometer gives you a fast, accurate number so you stop cutting into meat to peek and letting all the juice run out onto the cutting board. For anything long and slow, a roast, a whole chicken, a brisket, a leave-in probe is even better. The Inside-Man Probe stays in the meat while it cooks and reads from outside the lid, so you can watch the temperature climb without lifting the lid and dumping your heat every ten minutes. Together they cover fast cooks and low-and-slow, and they are both a natural pick from our gifts for the grill guy collection for anyone who takes their fire seriously.

Wherever you probe, aim for the thickest part and keep the tip away from bone, which conducts heat and will read hotter than the meat around it. On a burger, go in through the side toward the center. On a whole bird, check the thickest part of the breast and the inner thigh without touching bone.

Carryover cooking: the degrees that happen after the grill

Here is the part your meat temperature chart does not print on the label. Meat keeps cooking after you take it off the heat. The hot outer layers continue driving heat toward the cooler center, and the internal temperature climbs on its own. This is carryover cooking, and it is real.

How much carryover you get depends on the size of the cut. A thin burger or chicken breast might rise only a couple of degrees. A thick roast or a whole bird can climb 5 to 10 degrees after it leaves the grill. If you wait until a big roast reads a perfect 145°F on the grill, it will sail past that while it rests and arrive overcooked at the table.

The fix is to pull early. For a thick steak or roast you are taking to 145°F, pull it around 138°F to 140°F and let carryover do the rest. For a whole chicken headed to 165°F, pulling at 158°F to 160°F often lands you right on target. Thin cuts need almost no adjustment. Big cuts need the most. When in doubt, keep the probe in and watch the number instead of the clock.

Resting: the step everyone skips

Resting is not optional theatrics. When meat cooks, the muscle fibers tighten and squeeze juices toward the center. Cut into it immediately and that juice floods your board. Let it rest and the fibers relax, the juices redistribute, and they stay in the meat where they belong.

The USDA calls for at least a 3 minute rest on whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and veal, both for safety and quality. In practice, bigger cuts want longer. A steak is happy with 5 minutes. A whole chicken or a roast benefits from 10 to 20 minutes, loosely tented with foil so it holds warmth without steaming the crust soft. Burgers and sausages need only a minute or two. Time it so resting overlaps with plating the sides and nobody notices the wait.

One quiet bonus: resting and carryover work together. The rest period is when a lot of that carryover climb happens, so pulling early and resting are two halves of the same move.

Put the chart to work

Keep this meat temperature chart handy, probe at the thickest point, pull a few degrees early on big cuts, and give the meat a proper rest. That is the entire game. Do those four things and you will cook meat that is safe, juicy, and done exactly the way you meant it. If you want the tools that make hitting these numbers effortless, from the Truth-Teller Thermometer to a full kit, browse our gifts for the grill guy and cook the next one with confidence.

Temperatures in this guide follow the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service safe minimum internal temperature recommendations.