Crackle-Baked® Chicken

About

According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Children and adolescents who are obese are likely to be obese as adults and are therefore more at risk for adult health problems. This invention is an improved composition and process to bring a smaller amount of liquid oil into a powdered or wet batter coating for food products. The coated products, when baked, have the taste, texture and appearance of fried products. This significantly reduces the fat content in the finished product (by approximately 60%), thus enabling baked products to successfully substitute for higher fat content fried foods. This process can be incorporated into existing coating lines and uses all commercially available products. A peer reviewed published study in the Journal of Food Science (Volume 79, Issue 5, pages C802–C809, May 2014) has indicated that there are no significant differences between baked v. fried samples for all sensory attributes. Various native starches are hydrolyzed by amyloglucosidase to a hydrolysis degree of 20% to 25% and plated with 50% oil to create a starch-oil matrix. This matrix is then blended into a dry ingredient blend for batter and breader components. Meats are prepared with batter and breader and fully cooked then frozen. Sensory attributes related to fried foods (for example, crispness and mouth-coating) do not significantly differ between bake-only nuggets using the enzyme-modified starches and the fried ones. This technology can deliver a sufficient quantity of oil to create sensory attributes similar to those of par-fried chicken nuggets.