Raw Chicken

Raw Chicken is a food item added in the 1.8 "Adventure Update". The Raw Chicken heals 1 unit of Hunger points. It can be cooked into Cooked Chicken with a furnace. Chickens drop 1 Raw Chicken upon death. If you eat one of these without cooking them first, you may get food poisoning 25% Chance

Behaviour
Raw chicken has small (~30%) chance of giving you food poisoning, which is the reason why it's better to cook it first. However, food poisoning just barely counteracts the raw chicken's food saturation, and will not even drain half a food point, making it a very minor drawback, especially when eating multiple raw chickens at once. Chickens usually drop 1 raw chicken upon death, and a Cooked Chicken if killed in a fire.

Trivia

 * The poisoning effect is most likely based on the real life disease Salmonella, which is notorious for being present in uncooked meats, more commonly raw chicken and fish.
 * When poisoned by eating a raw chicken your hunger bar turns a greenish color and drains much faster than usual.