DONENESS & FOOD SAFETY
Meat Doneness and Safe Temperature Chart for 2026
Two different numbers matter for every cut: the temperature that makes it safe, and the temperature that makes it good. For chicken those are close together. For a steak they are not. Everything below separates the two and accounts for the heat that keeps cooking after the food leaves the grill.
DONENESS CALCULATOR
Work out the pull temperature
Food keeps cooking after it leaves the heat. Pick the cut, its thickness and the doneness you want, and this gives you the temperature to take it off at so it lands where you intended.
Pull it off at
121°F
Lands at
125°F
Rest
5 min
At 1" thick this cut carries over about 4°F after it comes off the heat. The USDA safe minimum for beef steak (ribeye, strip, sirloin) is 145°F.
USDA safe minimum for whole cuts of beef is 145°F followed by a 3-minute rest.
USDA safe minimum internal temperatures
- 145°F — whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal, plus a 3-minute rest
- 145°F — fish and shellfish, or until the flesh is opaque
- 160°F — ground beef, pork, lamb and veal
- 160°F — egg dishes
- 165°F — all poultry, including ground poultry and stuffing cooked inside a bird
- 165°F — leftovers and casseroles reheated
These are minimums for safety, measured with a food thermometer in the thickest part of the food away from bone, fat and gristle. Color is not a reliable indicator — a burger can turn brown well below 160°F and a properly cooked pork chop can stay slightly pink at 145°F.
Why the number keeps climbing after it comes off
When food leaves the heat, the outside is far hotter than the center. That energy does not stop moving — it keeps conducting inward until the whole piece reaches equilibrium. The result is that internal temperature continues to rise for several minutes after cooking, and the effect scales with thickness.
A three-quarter-inch steak might climb three or four degrees. A six-inch prime rib can climb fifteen. That is the difference between medium-rare and medium-well on the same piece of meat, decided entirely by when you took it off. The practical rule is to pull food short of the target by the carryover amount and let it finish on the board.
Carryover also depends on how hot the exterior got. A hard sear over a raging fire drives more carryover than a gentle indirect cook, which is one of the reasons reverse-searing gives a more even interior — most of the cooking happened at a shallow temperature gradient.
Where to put the probe
A reading is only as good as its placement. Aim for the thermal center — the last part of the food to come up to temperature — and keep the tip away from bone, which conducts heat and reads high, and away from fat pockets, which read low.
Beef
| Cut | Doneness | Final temp | Rest | USDA safe minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beef steak (ribeye, strip, sirloin) | Rare | 125°F | 5 min | 145°F |
| Medium rare | 132°F | 5 min | 145°F | |
| Medium | 140°F | 5 min | 145°F | |
| Medium well | 150°F | 5 min | 145°F | |
| Well done | 160°F | 5 min | 145°F | |
| Beef roast (prime rib, tri-tip, top round) | Rare | 125°F | 20 min | 145°F |
| Medium rare | 132°F | 20 min | 145°F | |
| Medium | 140°F | 20 min | 145°F | |
| Medium well | 150°F | 20 min | 145°F | |
| Brisket (packer or flat) | Slice-ready | 203°F | 60 min | 145°F |
- Beef steak (ribeye, strip, sirloin): Pull a steak below the target and let carryover finish it. A thick steak off a hot grill can climb another 8–10°F resting on the board.
- Beef roast (prime rib, tri-tip, top round): Large roasts carry over the most because of thermal mass. On a 6-inch prime rib expect 12–15°F of rise, so pull well short.
- Brisket (packer or flat): Brisket is done when a probe passes through the thickest part like room-temperature butter, usually somewhere between 198°F and 205°F. Rest it wrapped in a dry cooler for at least an hour.
Pork
| Cut | Doneness | Final temp | Rest | USDA safe minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pork chops and tenderloin | USDA safe (juicy) | 145°F | 3 min | 145°F |
| Medium well | 150°F | 3 min | 145°F | |
| Well done | 160°F | 3 min | 145°F | |
| Pork shoulder (Boston butt) | Sliceable | 190°F | 45 min | 145°F |
| Pull-ready | 203°F | 45 min | 145°F | |
| Pork ribs (spare and baby back) | Competition bite | 195°F | 15 min | 145°F |
| Fall-off-the-bone | 203°F | 15 min | 145°F |
- Pork chops and tenderloin: The old 160°F advice for pork was revised down to 145°F in 2011. Cooking a modern chop to the old number is the most common reason pork comes out dry.
- Pork shoulder (Boston butt): Expect a stall somewhere around 150–170°F while evaporative cooling balances the heat input. Wrapping pushes through it; waiting also works.
- Pork ribs (spare and baby back): Temperature is hard to read on ribs because of the bones. The bend test — lift the rack a third of the way along and look for the surface to crack — is more reliable.
Poultry
| Cut | Doneness | Final temp | Rest | USDA safe minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole chicken | USDA safe | 165°F | 15 min | 165°F |
| Thigh target | 175°F | 15 min | 165°F | |
| Chicken breast (boneless) | USDA safe | 165°F | 5 min | 165°F |
| Chicken thigh and drumstick | USDA safe | 165°F | 5 min | 165°F |
| Best texture | 180°F | 5 min | 165°F | |
| Turkey (whole or breast) | USDA safe | 165°F | 25 min | 165°F |
| Thigh target | 175°F | 25 min | 165°F |
- Whole chicken: Breast and thigh finish at different temperatures. Cooking the bird breast-away from the hottest part of the grill lets the thigh catch up without drying the breast.
- Chicken breast (boneless): The margin here is narrow. A boneless breast rises fast, so pull it at 157–160°F over indirect heat and let carryover take it to 165°F.
- Chicken thigh and drumstick: Dark meat is far more forgiving than breast. There is no penalty for taking a thigh to 180°F and a clear texture benefit.
- Turkey (whole or breast): A large turkey carries over 10°F or more. If the bird is stuffed, the stuffing itself must reach 165°F, which usually means overcooking the breast — cook stuffing separately.
Seafood
| Cut | Doneness | Final temp | Rest | USDA safe minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fish fillets and steaks | Medium (salmon, tuna) | 125°F | 3 min | 145°F |
| Medium well | 135°F | 3 min | 145°F | |
| USDA safe | 145°F | 3 min | 145°F |
- Fish fillets and steaks: Fish goes from underdone to dry in a very short window. Cook skin-side down over direct heat and finish with the lid closed rather than flipping repeatedly.
Ground & Sausage
| Cut | Doneness | Final temp | Rest | USDA safe minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burgers (ground beef) | USDA safe | 160°F | 3 min | 160°F |
| Sausage and hot dogs | Pork or beef sausage | 160°F | 3 min | 160°F |
| Poultry sausage | 165°F | 3 min | 160°F |
- Burgers (ground beef): A burger has a lot of surface area for its mass and carries over quickly. Probe from the side, into the center of the patty, not from the top.
- Sausage and hot dogs: A split casing means the sausage cooked too fast over direct heat. Move it to the cooler side and let the center catch up before the skin bursts.
None of this works with a thermometer that lies
Every number on this page assumes the instrument reading it is accurate. A probe that is eight degrees low will take chicken to a real 157°F while telling you it is safe. Check yours against an ice bath before the season starts, and any time it has been dropped.