This study validated a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method to determine biogenic amines in chicken meat. For the identification of biogenic amines, an isocratic elution system coupled with a UV detector (254 nm) was used after a perchloric acid (5 %) extraction and benzoyl chloride derivatization of the samples. The standards of tyramine, putrescine, cadaverine, spermidine, and spermine were used for the following validation parameters: selectivity, linearity, accuracy, recovery, limit of detection and quantification, and robustness. Finally, chicken meat commercialized in two types of packaging was evaluated. The results showed an excellent selectivity and separation of all amines, r 2 > 0.99, relative standard deviation <5 %, recovery between 64 and 112 %, limits of detection and quantification between 0.03-1.25 and 0.15-5.00 μg L-1, respectively, and appropriate robustness for the proposed methodology. Moreover, both chicken meat commercial packages had similar values for all amines; only tyramine was significantly different (P ≤ 0.05). The proposed method was suitable to detection and quantification of simultaneous five biogenic amines in chicken meat. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.