Q. If I by mistake had less of a kezait of chicken does that still make me fleishig?

A. You do not need to eat a kezais of meat for having to wait six hours, the rationale; it is Rabbinicaly prohibited to eat a dairy product after eating beef or chicken for two reasons: a) the strong taste of meat lingers in one’s mouth long after it has been consumed, (Rashi, Chulin 105a, quoted in Tur Y.D. 89). b) Actual pieces of meat can be stuck between the teeth after meat has been eaten (Rambam, Ma’achalos Assuros 9:28, quoted in Tur Y.D. 89). We are stringent and keep six hours for either reason, therefore a person is “fleishig”, even if he only chewed the meat and then removed it from his mouth. (Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 89: 1 and Taz ibid. 1). Six hours must also elapse, when eating pareve food that was cooked together with meat, such as a potato cooked in a meaty cholent or rice cooked in a pot together with chicken.( Remoh 89: 3). Some Poskim maintain that you have to wait six hours even for swallowing the meat that was left between the teeth. (Remoh ibid. and Hafloah, Badey Hashulchan 2).

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a