Well, 165° is a general 'rule of thumb' or a 'convenience' temperature that the USDA likes to promote (and pulling at 160° will usually result in a rise of 5°), and if you are cooking dark meat, it's always better when the internal is well above 160°. That said, the same USDA does publish some different temp/time combinations that take the 7-log10 reduction calculations into consideration. Actually, it's an internal temperature AND a holding time at that temperature that is important. And guess what.... a lot of restaurants take advantage of those rules to produce really moist chicken breasts. As shown below, if you cook chicken breast to 157°, and hold it for 34 seconds, you are good to go. Personally I like 155°, and hold for 1-minute.
Our friends over at the Thermoworks lab have a great ARTICLE that explains this a lot better than I ever could.
