Milk and Chicken

Someone told me that it is not truly forbidden to mix chicken and dairy. Is this true?

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

The Talmud discusses whether it is permitted to eat dairy with poultry or whether doing so is forbidden just like eating dairy with meat. Rabbi Akiva is of the opinion that the prohibition of “you shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk” is stated three times in order to exclude wild kosher animals ( chayot ), nonkosher species of domesticated animals ( behemot ), and poultry from the prohibition against mixing milk and meat. On the other hand, Rabbi Yossi Haglili is of the opinion that the verse “You shall not eat any neveila …you shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk” teaches us that it is only forbidden to cook in milk animals that can be forbidden due to neveila (i.e., all kosher animals). Nonkosher animals are excluded from the prohibition. However, this same verse also teaches us that only animals with “mother’s milk” are subject to the prohibition. Since poultry does not have mother’s milk, it is not included in the prohibition against mixing milk and meat. Another opinion argues that the prohibition is stated three times in order to include all domesticated animals, wild animals, and poultry.

Although it is forbidden to mix dairy with poultry, it is not completely clear, however, whether doing so is a biblical prohibition or a rabbinical one. Most authorities hold the latter. Indeed, the Shulchan Aruch rules that the prohibition against mixing dairy with poultry is rabbinical in nature. The sages, however, forbade it lest one accidentally come to confuse poultry with actual meat. Nevertheless, although it is forbidden to eat dairy and poultry together, it is often permitted to cook or derive benefit from such a mixture, something that is always forbidden with dairy and meat.

Chullin 104; Chullin 113a with Tosfot s.v. “Basar.”’ Chullin 116a; Mechilta D’Rabbi Yishmael, Mishpatim; Rambam, Hilchot Ma’achalot Assurot 9:4; YD 87:3,4; Shach, YD 87:5; Pitchei Teshuva, YD 87:8; Kaf Hachaim, YD 87:25, 36. See, however, Bach, YD 87.