Why is red meat able to be served medium rare, eggs (which also come from chickens), can be undercooked, but chicken can’t be?
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Salmonella. Cow muscle is thick and dense enough to prevent bacteria from reaching the inner parts of meat when fresh, although they sticks to the surface. Which is why you can just sear a cut of meat, but also why the average ground beef ideally *should* be cooked “at heart” (since the surface and inner muscles are mashed together). Note: This doesn’t take into account potential tapeworm eggs (the risk should be low in rich countries).
Chicken muscle, and more generally avian meat, is quite permeable to bacteria. They get in quickly and spread to the core, thus making undercooked chicken fairly hazardous to eat, as you could catch enough bacteria to make you sick. Cooking it to the core makes sure all hazardous bacteria die.
As for eggs, they’re a different organism so they’re much less exposed to their hen’s microbiote. Plus, chickens are often fed medicine and vaccinated against salmonella to reduce its spread. Thus eggs are “safer” to eat soft boiled eggs. The risk isn’t zero but it’s low enough.
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