‘It’s Oozing Blood’: A Golden Corral Customer Found Red Liquid in His Chicken. By His Third Plate, He’d Given Up on Chicken Entirely
"My tummy hurt."
A Golden Corral customer says he cut into a fried chicken drumstick at the buffet and found what appeared to be blood coming from the meat. According to BroBible, TikToker Daniel, who posts as @danielsalazar._, showed viewers the reddish liquid inside the chicken. “Is this normal? I cut open my chicken wing, and it’s oozing blood,” he said in the video.
By his third trip to the buffet, Daniel had swapped the fried chicken for taco fixings instead, the same kind of unsettling discovery that’s led other diners to abandon a dish entirely after finding something wrong inside their food. “I’m scared. If I don’t make it to work tomorrow, you guys know why,” he said, closing the video. His caption read simply, “My tummy hurt.”
Red or pink liquid coming from cooked chicken isn’t necessarily blood. Chicken contains myoglobin, a protein that can give meat and its juices a pink or reddish appearance even after proper cooking, so color alone isn’t a reliable way to judge whether poultry is safe. The USDA recommends cooking poultry to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, verified with a food thermometer, since that’s the only measure that actually confirms safety.
Who Actually Inspects a Restaurant Like This One
Restaurants like Golden Corral aren’t directly inspected by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service the way a meat processing plant is. Retail food service operations fall under what’s called the retail exemption, meaning oversight instead comes from state and local health departments applying the FDA’s Food Code, a model set of standards the FDA updates periodically that states adopt into their own regulations.
That’s why a customer’s best move after finding undercooked chicken is contacting the local health department directly, not a federal agency. Golden Corral locations have faced real citations for exactly this kind of issue before. Health inspectors in Hoover, Alabama, found a walk-in cooler holding at 64 degrees Fahrenheit, well above safe holding temperature, with raw chicken, beef, and other items sitting out of range; all of it was discarded.
A Golden Corral in Clearwater, Florida, was previously ordered into a temporary emergency closure after inspectors documented multiple high-priority violations, including dirt and food buildup under the buffet counters. If a customer finds visibly undercooked chicken, the standard advice is to stop eating immediately and notify a manager or employee, ideally documenting the issue with a photo.
Anyone who later develops diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, or fever should contact a healthcare provider, and severe symptoms or signs of dehydration warrant prompt medical attention. Cases like this have become almost a genre of their own online, with diners repeatedly documenting something alarming baked into their food well after the first bite.
The outlet stated it has reached out to Golden Corral for comment and to Daniel to check on him, and will update the story with any response.
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