Milk and Chicken

Is it true that it is not truly forbidden to eat chicken with milk?

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

It is absolutely forbidden to eat chicken with milk.

There is a discussion in the Talmud 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 ), non-kosher 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). Non-kosher 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.

Normative halacha is in accordance with the view that the ban on eating chicken (poultry) with milk (dairy) is a rabbinical enactment as is the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch . It is also forbidden 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 only cook (Although when permitted, one has to be careful with the pots used not to use them later to cook food that one plans to eat )or derive benefit from such a mixture, something that is always forbidden with dairy and meat 

Chullin 104 with Tosafot, 104b, s.v. “Owf.”; Chullin 116a; Rambam, Hilchot Ma’achalot Assurot 9:4.; YD 87:2-4 ; Shach, YD 87:5; Rema, YD 87:4.