Undercooked means not cooked enough or not cooked all the way through. When food is undercooked, it hasn't spent enough time in the oven, on the stove, or over the fire to become fully cooked and safe to eat.

An undercooked chicken breast might still be pink and rubbery inside instead of white and tender. Undercooked pasta stays hard and chalky instead of becoming soft enough to chew easily. Some foods, like cookie dough or eggs, can make you sick if eaten undercooked because heat kills harmful bacteria.

The word also describes ideas or plans that aren't fully developed. If your science fair project feels undercooked, you might have the basic idea but haven't worked out all the details yet. When a movie seems undercooked, the plot might have good ingredients but needed more time and thought to come together properly.

The opposite of undercooked is overcooked, when food has been cooked too long and becomes dry, tough, or burned. Getting food cooked just right, neither undercooked nor overcooked, takes practice and attention.