Chicken is a nutrient-rich food, consumed by the majority of the population. In Brazil, Escherichia coli, Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus are among the major pathogens involved with foodborne diseases (FBD). Some microorganisms develop resistance to antibiotics and may be present in food. As alternative, there are some natural products like essential oils that may reduce the occurrence of such bacteriaacting as antimicrobial agents. The purpose of this work was to isolate E. coli, Salmonella sp. and S. aureus from chicken meats and evaluate the resistance to antimicrobial activity of essential oils against these microorganisms. The microbiological analysis for coliforms, E. coli, Salmonella and S. aureus were performed for 20 chicken samples. The isolates were submitted to antibiogram analysis for 9 antibiotics using the disc diffusion technique. The antimicrobial activity was verified by the technique of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in a 96-well plate evaluating the action of 3 essential oils (Cymbopogon citratus, Piper nigrum and Rosmarinus officinalis) and then submitted to minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC). from the 20 chickens samples analyzed, 14 (70%) presented E. coli, 5 (25%) Salmonella and 6 (15.38%) S. aureus. In the antibiotic test, E. coli presented greater resistance to tetracycline 87.5% of the isolates, Salmonella had greater resistance to ampicillin 66.6% of the and S. aureus to oxacillin 55% of the isolates. In general, the most efficient oil was Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon citratus) presenting MIC of 0.038% for E. coli, 0.156% Salmonella and 0.0049% S. aureus. The results demonstrate that strains isolated from food has become resistant to conventional antibiotics. Then, essential oils can be a alternative for improving food safety and health promotion, the essential oils being a functional product with a preservative function.