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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #279426
Title: Delayed Carcass Deboning Results in Significantly Reduced Cook Yields of Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs

Author
item Zhuang, Hong
item SAVAGE, ELIZABETH - Retired ARS Employee

Submitted to: Poultry Science Association Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/17/2012
Publication Date: 7/10/2012
Citation: Zhuang, H., Savage, E.M. 2012. Delayed Carcass Deboning Results in Significantly Reduced Cook Yields of Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs [abstract]. Poultry Science Association Meeting Abstract.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Boneless skinless chicken thighs are a new deboned poultry product in the retail market. Three trials were conducted to investigate the effect of postmortem carcass deboning time on the cook yields of boneless skinless chicken thighs as well as boneless skinless chicken breasts. Broiler carcasses (42-d old birds) were obtained from a commercial processing plant. The thighs and breast fillets were hot-boned 45 min, cold-deboned 2 h (2h), or cold-deboned 24 h (24h) postmortem. The trimmed thighs and breast fillets were then individually bagged and stored in a -20oC freezer before being cooked directly from their frozen stage to an endpoint temperature of 77-78oC in a Henny-Penny combi oven. The cook yield was calculated by 100 x cooked meat weight/raw meat weight before bagging. The average cook yield was 81% for the hot-boned thighs and 80% for the hot-boned fillets, 79% for the 2h thighs and 78% for the 2h fillets, and 74% for the 24h thighs and 78% for the 24h fillets. There was no difference (p>0.05) between the hot-boned thighs and fillets for the cook yield. However, the cook yields of the 2h thighs and fillets, which did not differ from each other, were 2% lower (p<0.05) than those of the hot-boned samples. The cook yield of the 24h thighs was 7% lower (p<0.05) than that of the hot-boned thighs, 5% lower than the 2h thighs (p<0.05), and 4% lower (p<0.05) than the 24h fillets. There were no differences (p>0.05) for the cook yield between the 24h and 2h fillets, and between the 24h and hot-boned fillets. The effects of postmortem carcass deboning time on the cook yields were also investigated by using fresh and freezing/thawing (overnight) boneless skinless thigh and breast fillet samples. The 24h postmortem deboning resulted in significantly reduced cook yields of boneless skinless chicken thighs than the hot-boning and 2h deboning regardless of the sample preparation method. The results from this study indicate that delayed carcass deboning may result in a greater reduction in the cook yield of boneless skinless chicken thighs than that of boneless skinless chicken fillets.