In the country where I live, whole chicken is the cheapest protein you can buy and I cook it every week at home. I always ask the butcher to cut it into pieces for me and I use it for stews, grilled, fried, cooked in the oven, anyway you can imagine. It is cheap and incredibly versatile, selling for around 1,6€/kg. The closest meat product would be pork chops selling for around 3,5€/kg.
Because the chicken is cut in pieces it comes with small bits of fat and chicken insides that don't taste or look good in my dishes. I remove these with a knife and then wash chicken under running water to remove the smaller bits. If I don't wash the chicken I get smaller bits of fat and blood vessels in my food. But I was horrified to stumble into articles that say washing raw chicken isn't safe. It spreads bacteria into the countertops and the sink and there's evidence that the bacteria can remain after the kitchen is washed. Everyone agrees washing raw chicken isn't safe. The alternative is patting the chicken with kitchen paper, but this will make it hard to remove the small bits of blood and whatnot that are holding on to the chicken. What can I do to safely clean my chicken?