Manufacturing High-Meat-Content Chicken Nuggets

Production, research and development, and sales personnel in many factories often ask the following questions:

- 'How can we ensure that when a formed chicken nugget is pulled apart, it reveals a lot of muscle fibers?'

- 'One company sells its chicken nuggets at such a low price; their meat content must be low, yet why are the muscle fibers so prominent?'

Under cost pressure, many companies attempt to produce products that are tasty, visually appealing, low-priced, and competitive, yet they often miss the mark. This article provides a brief introduction to the topic.

It is well-known that formed chicken nuggets primarily use chicken breast meat, which is relatively tender compared to other meats and can easily break during preprocessing. So how can we maximize the integrity of chicken breast fibers?

- First and foremost, do not grind the chicken breast meat! No matter how large the grinding plate is, grinding will shorten the fibers of the chicken breast.

- Secondly, use a cooling mixer with CO2 or N2 to directly 'pull' the chicken breast into strips during the freezing process. If such a mixer is not available, use a frozen meat or fresh meat slicing machine to cut the chicken breast into thin slices, then mix evenly before placing it into a refrigerated constant-temperature chamber to cool to the appropriate forming temperature.

- Thirdly, once the chicken breast fibers are shaped into strips, strong adhesive additives need to be used for bonding. This involves using a vacuum chopping machine to emulsify chicken skin, casein, and soy protein isolate, extracting their proteins through emulsification. These emulsified components are then added to the mixing machine to bond the chicken fibers with various other ingredients into a unified meat paste.

- Fourthly, reduce the temperature of the meat paste to below the crystallization point, ideally below -4 degrees Celsius or even lower. At this point, the density of all materials is relatively balanced, preventing them from sticking to the mixer or forming machine.

- Fifthly, use a Formax forming machine, as only the Formax machines are hydraulically driven, providing high pressure and excellent forming results. Any other forming machine may experience cylinder breakage or uneven fabric distribution, resulting in defective chicken nuggets that cannot be produced properly.

With this processing technique, there is no doubt that the chicken nuggets achieve added value!

For more information, please feel free to contact us.