Sains Malaysiana 38(2)(2009): 171–175

Frying Pressure and Temperature Effects on Sensory

Characteristics of Coated Chicken Nuggets
(Kesan Tekanan dan Suhu Penggorengan Terhadap Ciri Deria Nuget Ayam Bersalut)

SALMA MOHAMAD YUSOP, MOHAMAD YUSOF MASKAT, WAN AIDA WAN MUSTAPHA & AMINAH ABDULLAH

ABSTRACT
A study was carried out to evaluate the effects of frying pressure (102 and 156 kPa) and temperature (150, 165 and
180°C) on sensory characteristics of chicken nuggets coated with wheat, rice and sago flours. Batters from wheat, rice
and sago flours were prepared by mixing each flour with water at a weight ratio of 1:1.2 (flour: water). Chicken nuggets
were dipped in the prepared batters and fried at the different pressure and temperature for 7 minutes. Sensory evaluation
was done using trained panelists (n=7) with two replication. Attributes assessed were color, aroma, coating thickness,
adhesiveness, hardness, crispness, oiliness, juiciness and overall acceptance. Results showed that using different frying
pressures and temperatures did significantly affect (p<0.05) all the sensory attributes of chicken nuggets coated with
wheat, rice and sago flours. It was observed that coated chicken nuggets fried at a pressure of 156 kPa and temperature
of 165°C was most preferred by the trained panellists.

Keywords: Coating; frying; pressure; sensory properties; temperature

ABSTRAK
Kajian telah dijalankan untuk menentukan kesan tekanan (102 dan 156 kPa) dan suhu (150, 165 dan 180oC) penggorengan
terhadap ciri-ciri deria nuget ayam yang disalut menggunakan tepung gandum, beras dan tepung sagu. Cecair penyalut
dari tepung gandum, beras dan tepung sagu disediakan dengan mencampurkan setiap jenis tepung dengan air pada
nisbah berat 1:1.2 (tepung: air). Nuget ayam dicelup ke dalam cecair penyalut dan digoreng pada tekanan dan suhu
penggorengan yang berbeza selama 7 minit. Penilaian deria telah dijalankan menggunakan panel terlatih (n=7)
dengan 2 replikasi. Atribut yang dinilai adalah warna, aroma, ketebalan salutan, lekatan, kekerasan, kerangupan, rasa
berminyak, kejusian dan penerimaan keseluruhan. Keputusan menunjukkan bahawa penggorengan tekanan dan suhu
penggorengan yang berbeza secara ketara (p<0.05) mempengaruhi semua atribut deria nuget ayam yang disalut dengan
tepung gandum, beras dan tepung sagu. Diperhatikan bahawa nugget ayam bersalut yang digoreng pada tekanan 156
kPa dan suhu 165oC adalah paling digemari oleh panel terlatih.

Kata kunci: Salutan; penggorengan; tekanan; ciri deria; suhu

INTRODUCTION Frying is a process of cooking and drying through

contact with hot oil and it involves simultaneous heat
Deep-fat frying of various kind of food coated with batter
and mass transfer. Macroscopically, a dynamic state sets
is a popular cooking procedure in many countries (Kimber
in where water evaporates in the form of steam bubbles
& Holdings 1987). In Malaysia, the adaptation of frying
and migrates from center to surface. An outer dry crust is
technologies to produce enhanced fried poultry products
progressively formed by dehydration and infiltration with
has evolved rapidly to satisfy consumer tastes. In recent
oil (Aguilera et al. 2001). This process may also be affected
years, considerable attention has been focused upon the
by pressure and temperature, which may influence the
development of further-processed poultry products as
physicochemical changes and sensory properties of coated
a means of providing alternative food sources of high
fried foods. Process variables such as oil temperature,
nutritional quality. Battered and breaded products formed
frying time and frying pressure are expected to affect the
a major segment of the further-processed poultry market
sensory characteristics of the fried foods.
with retail parts, nuggets and patties being predominant. The
Although the investigation on sensory properties of
acceptance of battered and breaded foods depends on coating
fried products started many years ago, it has continued
characteristics such as overall appearance, color, flour
with increasing interest in recent years. Pedreschi et al.
texture and crispness. Saguy and Dana (2003) reported that
(2004) reported that the color of the fried food surface is
the uniqueness of sensory and organoleptic characteristics
the first quality parameter evaluated by consumers and is
is the main factor, by which consumers assess fried coated
critical in the acceptance of the product, even before it
foods, which include flavor, appearance and texture.
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enters the mouth. Loewe (1993) found that frying time and
temperature along with medium uses for frying contribute
to an effective coating color. Donahoo (1970) reported that
crispness is affected by time and temperature of cooking.
Innawong and Mallikarjunan (2002) reported that an
increase in frying oil temperature increased the moisture
loss and crust oil uptake. Using pressure during frying
is also commonly practised in frying. The time required
to fry poultry parts is shortened by pressure frying than
atmospheric frying, and the food is more moist and uniform
in color and appearance (Moreira et al. 1999). Holownia et
al. (2001) reported on the use of edible films in influencing
the migration of pro-oxidant during pressure frying.
Ballard and Mallikarjunan (2006) studied the effects of
edible coating and pressure source during pressure frying
on breaded fried chicken nuggets. However, these studies
did not involve sensory evalutions with the use of local
flour such as rice and sago flour
Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the
effects of frying pressure and temperature on sensory
characteristics of fried chicken nuggets coated with wheat,
rice and sago flour.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
BATTER PREPARATION
Wheat flour (Sauh Brand), rice flour (Erawan Brand) and
sago flour (Nee Seng Ngeng & Sons Sdn. Bhd.) were
purchased locally. Each flour type was mixed with water
at a ratio of 1:1.2 (flour:water) as this ratio was found to
be suitable based on preliminary studies.
CHICKEN NUGGET PREPARATION
Fresh skinless chicken breasts were obtained locally
(Dinding Poultry Processing Sdn Bhd, Perak) and the
surface fat was removed following visual inspection. The
meat was ground using a Toledo Chopper (Model Beem-
gigant Type E-5-6 Fleishwolf Starkey, Germany) equipped
with 6 mm die. To the ground meat, 1.25% salt (of total
end weight) was added and mixed for 2 min using a mixer
(Model Hobart Machine Model N-50, serial no 99-704-383
Ontario Canada). Sodium tripolyphosphate (0.5% of total
end weight) was added and again mixed for 2 min. The
mixtures were then kept at -18°C until further use. Prior
to experiments the meat was thawed at 4°C overnight. A
5cm x 5cm x 1.5cm chicken nugget shaper was used for
making the chicken nuggets.
DEEP-FAT FRYING
The nuggets were dipped in the prepared batter for 15 sec
and subsequently drained for another 15 sec. These battered
nuggets were then fried using a mini pressure fryer (Model
Serial No. 000624 BKI, France) at an initial temperature
of 150, 165 and 180°C, at 102 (atmospheric pressure) and
156 kPa. Only two frying pressures were used due to the
limitation of the equipment available. Frying was carried
out in 5 kg of refined palm oil (VESAWIT, Yee Lee Edible
Oil, Ipoh) for 7 minutes. All replicate measurement was
performed on separate poultry nugget pieces.
SENSORY EVALUATION
Two replications were conducted using 7 trained sensory
panelists for each types of flour under the different
combination of pressure and temperature being studied.
The sensory panelists consisted of experienced food
science students at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Samples were prepared for presentation by cutting the
samples into four sections. Samples were labeled with three
digit random numbers and served within 2 min in random
order to panelists. Panelists were presented with distilled
water for cleansing the palate. Attributes which consisted
of color, aroma, coating thickness, adhesiveness, hardness,
crispness, oiliness, juiciness and overall acceptance were
evaluated using a 15cm continuous line scale. The left end
of the scale corresponded to the lowest intensity of each
attribute (weak), while the right end corresponded to the
highest intensity (strong) of each attribute.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Data for wheat, rice and sago coated chicken nuggets
were analyzed as a 2 (pressure) x 3 (temperature) split
plot design using the General Linear Model (SAS 1998).
Analysis was carried out to determine the individual
effects of frying pressure and temperature as described by
Montgomery (1991). Effects on each types of flour were
consider significant at p<0.05.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
EFFECT OF FRYING PRESSURE
The sensory characteristics of chicken nuggets coated
with wheat, rice and sago flour during frying at different
pressure and temperature are as given in Table 1. Overall,
frying pressure affected all sensory properties (p<0.05)
of wheat, rice and sago coated chicken nuggets. Only
coating thickness and coating adhesiveness of wheat coated
chicken nuggets were found to be not significantly affected
(p>0.05) by frying pressure. It was observed that coated
chicken nuggets fried at a pressure of 156 kPa contributed
to a significantly (p<0.05) higher degree of perception for
all attributes compared to samples fried at 102 kPa.
Color showed significantly higher (p<0.05) scores by
frying under pressure of 156 kPa compared to 102 kPa.
This may be due to the fact that the time required to fry
poultry parts is faster by pressure frying than atmospheric
frying, resulting in a more uniform color and appearance
(Moreira et al. 1999). The observed result for color is
similar to Salama (1993) where it was reported that
frying under pressure contributed in improving crispiness
and produced better golden brown color. For the aroma


TABLE 1. Sensory evaluation (n=7) of chicken nuggets coated with wheat, rice and sago flour during frying at different pressure (102 and 156 kPa) and temperature (150, 165 and 180°C)

Flour Color Aroma Coating Coating Hardness Crispiness Oiliness Juiciness Overall
Type Thickness Adhesiveness Acceptance

Wheat Pressure effect (kPa)

102 5.58 b 4.06 b 7.42 a 5.30 a 4.83 b 4.49 b 6.12 b 7.33 b 5.53 b
156 9.10 a 5.81 a 7.39 a 6.48 a 6.81 a 7.67 a 8.88 a 9.02 a 8.00 a
Temperature effect (°C)
150 7.50 b 5.06 a 8.05 a 6.68 a 5.64 b 5.00 b 7.96 a 8.84 a 6.80 ab
a a a a a a a a
165 8.63 5.55 7.86 6.46 7.18 7.39 8.14 8.55 7.67 a
180 5.90 c 4.19 b 6.31 b 4.53 b 4.64 b 5.85 b 6.41 b 7.13 b 5.84 b
Rice Pressure effect (kPa)

102 5.14 b 5.91 b 3.13 b 5.55 b 7.07 b 3.89 b 4.54 b 5.48 b 5.93 b
156 8.10 a 8.20 a 4.10 a 7.40 a 8.72 a 6.92 a 6.03 a 7.46 a 8.29 a
Temperature effect (°C)
150 5.41 b 6.21 b 4.18 a 6.14 b 7.86 b 5.07 a 5.40 ab 7.09 a 6.57 b
165 7.54 a 7.81 a 3.79 a 7.88 a 9.33 a 5.93 a 5.80 a 6.63 a 8.00 a
180 6.91 c 7.15 ab 2.90 b 5.40 b 6.50 c 5.23 a 4.65 b 5.67 b 6.75 b
Sago Pressure effect (kPa)
102 8.17 b 8.05 b 3.49 b 9.23 b 8.23 b 4.11 b 9.45 b 6.74 b 5.25 b
156 9.75 a 9.16 a 4.34 a 10.71 a 10.10 a 6.65 a 11.50 a 9.04 a 8.13 a
Temperature effect (°C)
150 9.50 b 9.24 a 3.86 ab 10.97 a 9.84 a 4.92 b 11.42 a 8.69 a 6.78 ab
165 10.40 a 9.81 a 4.43 a 10.68 a 10.66 a 6.21 a 11.30 a 8.27 a 7.24 a
180 6.99 c 6.76 b 3.45 b 8.25 b 5.00 b 5.00 b 8.70 b 6.70 b 6.05 b
173
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attribute, it was observed that aroma intensity increased
in coated chicken nuggets fried under 156 kPa compared
to 102 kPa. This could be due to the fact that frying
under pressure of 156 kPa might have entrapped more
components which contributed to the aroma development
of fried food compared to frying at 102 kPa.
For the attributes of coating thickness and adhesiveness,
rice and sago coated chicken nuggets were found to
be significantly higher (p<0.05) when fried at 156 kPa
compared to 102 kPa. However, the perception of coating
thickness and adhesiveness of wheat coated chicken
nuggets was not significantly affected (p>0.05) by frying
pressure. For the attributes of hardness, crispiness, oiliness
and juiciness, all showed significantly higher scores
(p<0.05) when fried under 156 kPa compared to 102
kPa for all three types of flours used for coatings (Table
1). The similar response of hardness and crispiness is in
agreement with a report by Brennan et al. (1982) that a
strong relationship exists between sensory hardness and
crispiness. As for oiliness, all types of flour used showed
higher perception of oiliness by the trained panelists.
While for the juiciness attributes, frying at higher pressure
resulted in juicier products. The juiciness results was as
expected as several studies have observed that frying under
pressure provided better quality fried products in terms
of moisture retention, juiciness, texture and oil content
(Innawong & Mallikarjunan 2002). The attribute of overall
acceptance also showed that frying coated chicken nuggets
under pressure of 156 kPa was more acceptable (p<0.05)
compared to 102 kPa.
EFFECT OF FRYING TEMPERATURE
Frying temperatures was observed to significantly affect
(p<0.05) all sensory attributes of chicken nuggets coated
either with wheat, rice or sago flour (Table 1), except
crispiness in rice-coated chicken nuggets. For color
attribute, effect of temperature showed a similar trend for
samples coated either with wheat, rice or sago flour. It
was observed that coated chicken nuggets fried at 165°C
produced a better golden brown color as compared to
150°C and 180°C. Krokida et al. (2001) reported that
color change phenomenon became more intense at higher
temperature, thus producing a darker and less desirable
color when fried at 180oC. The aroma attribute for frying
temperature of 165°C were noticed to be consistently
higher as compared to 150°C and 180°C for all three types
of flour. This observation is similar to the earlier trend for
color, where the optimum frying temperature obtained to
produce strong aroma of fried foods was at 165°C.
As for coating thickness and adhesiveness, effect of
temperature showed a similar trend for all types of flour
where 180°C showed a lower mean score as compared to
150°C and 165°C. Hardness and crispiness attributes were
both significantly affected (p<0.05) by frying temperature
(Table 1), however no crispiness differences occurred
(p>0.05) for rice-coated chicken nuggets. As mentioned
earlier, it has been reported that a strong relationship exists
between sensory hardness and crispiness (Brennan et al.
1982).
For oiliness properties, higher temperature (180°C)
resulted in a significantly lower oiliness mean score
(p<0.05) as compared to 150°C and 165°C for all three
types of flour. The present findings are in agreement with
the results of Ling et al. (1998) and Flick et al. (1989)
that reported higher frying temperature resulted in the
decrease of oil absorption in final products. A similar
trend was also observed for the attribute of juiciness, in
which the temperature of 180°C produced significantly
lower (p<0.05) mean score as compared to 150°C and
165°C. This could be due to the higher heat transfer rate
that subsequently leads to higher moisture loss in the final
product.
The overall acceptance attribute also showed that
165°C was the most acceptable temperature for frying
coated chicken nuggets (p<0.05) compared to with 150°C
and 180°C chicken nuggets coated with wheat, rice or
sago flours. It can be concluded that 165°C produced
the optimum sensory attribute of color, aroma, coating
thickness, adhesiveness, hardness, crispness, oiliness,
juiciness to acceptance.
CONCLUSION
From the study, it can be concluded that different frying
pressure (102 and 156 kPa) and temperature (150, 165
and 180°C) was found to significantly affect the sensory
properties of chicken nuggets coated either with wheat,
rice or sago flour. Wheat, rice and sago coated chicken
nuggets fried at a pressure of 156 kPa was significantly
more preferred to 102 kPa. Frying at 165°C produced
significantly better overall acceptance compared to 150
and 180°C chicken nuggets coated with wheat, rice or
sago flours.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Environment of Malaysia (MOSTI) for its
financial support of this study under the IRPA funds (03-
02-02-0059-EA119).
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Food Science Program
School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology
Faculty of Science and Technology
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor D. E.
Malaysia
Received: 19 March 2008
Accepted: 12 July 2008