PROCESSED PRODUCTS MADE OF

CHICKEN MEAT
Chicken sausages
Sausages containing meat mixes including chicken meat
Chicken meat is often used to partly substitute the more expensive red meats in meat
products especially of the raw-cooked type such as luncheon meat, bologna or hotdogs.
In such cases the chicken meat percentage can vary substantially. As a good
manufacturing practice, the percentage of chicken meat should be indicated for consumer
information, as such products are normally perceived as pork or beef products, not
containing chicken meat. Also some liver sausages can contain larger quantities of
chicken meat. These products are commonly labelled as Chicken Liver Sausage,
although in many cases the liver and animal fats derive from pork.
Sausages and other products with 100% chicken meat
Besides the use of chicken meat in mixed red meat products, there are many well
established and popular products which contain chicken meat only. When processed
chicken and turkey meat products were introduced on a broader scale a few decades ago,
traditional red meat recipes where simply modified and red muscle meat was replaced by
poultry meat and pork fat by fat rich chicken skin. For these poultry products such as
chicken frankfurter, chicken bologna etc., non-meat ingredients and the processing
technologies remain basically the same as for the corresponding processed red meat
products. Manufacturers even endeavour to make chicken and turkey sausages similar to
red meat sausages in taste and flavour, but point out the health benefits of poultry
products (low fat, low cholesterol, see table 1 on page 2).
Chicken frankfurter and chicken bologna are finely comminuted products, which can
be considered as raw-cooked products (see page 127). Lean chicken meat provides the
proteins and chicken skin replaces the fat to be finely dispersed in the sausage batter.
Filled in small casings (18-22mm), this typical raw-cooked sausage mix is the basis for
chicken frankfurters (Fig. 232), when filled in larger casings (40-60mm), for chicken
bologna (Fig. 233). The mix also serves as the basis for products where coarse chicken
meat (either diced or ground) is blended with batter and filled in casings of 60-80mm or
cans. These products may be named chicken or turkey ham sausage, chicken or turkey
roll etc. (Fig. 236). Chicken meat balls, a product in high demand in the Asian region,

are also of the same category. They are manufactured based on the method used for
traditional meat balls from red meat (Fig. 237).
Another chicken meat product, which resembles the cooked hams made from pork in
both manufacture and appearance is called chicken ham (raw meat material may come
from all parts of the chicken carcass) or chicken breast (in this case only chicken breast
parts should be used). The meat material is tumbled together with brine containing curing
salt, phosphates and spices, and either pasteurized when filled in casings or moulds (Fig.
234) or sterilized when filled in cans. For canned and sterilized chicken products see Fig.
238 and 239.

Fig. 232: Chicken frankfurter

Fig. 234: Chicken ham

Fig. 233: Chicken bologna

Fig. 235: Turkey ham

Fig. 237: Chicken meat balls

Fig. 236: Chicken roll

Steamed (left) and oil fried (right)

Other chicken meat products

Coated / breaded products
In addition to chicken sausages, the chicken meat industry also developed new products,
which contributed significantly to meeting the global increase in demand for poultry
meat. These can be compared to a few examples from the red meat and fish sector, e.g.
breaded and fried meat slices of pork or mutton known as Escalope or Wiener
Schnitzel and in the fish sector as fish fingers. The characteristic of such products is
the coating of meat surfaces with flour, fat/flour mixes and/or breadcrumbs etc. In the
poultry sector, similar products include chicken nuggets (ground meat mix), chicken
sticks or fingers (muscle strips) or chicken schnitzel (breast muscle slices).
After the meat or meat mix is portioned, each portion is pre-dusted by applying a thin
layer of dry flour on the meat surface. This serves to firmly absorb the batter and the
breading in the following steps of the processing. Battering consist of dipping the meat
pieces in a semi-liquid mixture of oil, eggs, water and spices. Breading is the coating with
flour, fat/flour mixes and/or breadcrumbs. The final step in this process is heat treatment
to stabilize the coatings on the meat surface. This short heat treatment in hot fat/oil
(approx. +175C) as part of the processing must be seen as a pre-treatment only and does
not cook the product. The final heat treatment is carried out by the consumer right before
eating.
In large chicken industries, the above processes have been automated by using continuous
processing lines. This industrial level processing mainly focuses on comminuted and
reconstituted meat parts, in some cases mechanically deboned meat (MDM) is used for
cost reduction. Some examples of industrially manufactured chicken products are shown
in Fig. 240 to 243.

Fig. 239: Canned chicken chunks in different gravies

Fig. 238: Canned chicken

frankfurters

Fig. 240: Chicken nuggets, small size

Fig. 241: Chicken wings with bones

Fig. 242: Chicken drumsticks (below),

Chicken nuggets, large size (above)

Fig. 243: Chicken 'tocino' raw (left) and fried (right).

Philippines delicacies with high sugar content
Even though the large poultry firms dominate the markets, there is still scope for small
manufacturers to produce and successfully market similar products of high quality
standards using manual processing methods. Examples of technologies and products
suitable for the small-scale sector are:
Chicken burgers, chicken longganisa
These two products are easily made from spiced ground chicken / poultry meat mixes.
The mixture for the burgers is portioned into the desired weight and shaped using a handheld moulding device (Fig. 245). The longganisas are also portioned and rolled into
plastic wrapping.

Fig. 244: Raw material (ground chicken

meat)

Fig. 245: Moulding chicken burgers

Fig. 247: Skinless chicken longganisa,

made of ground meat, left frozen/fresh,
Fig. 246: Chicken burgers, left fresh, right
right fried
fried
Chicken nuggets
Also chicken nuggets can be manufactured at the small-scale level and a simple method
is shown below (Fig. 248).
Fig. 248: Small-scale manufacture of chicken nuggets

(c) Materials for pre-dusting (left) and

coating with egg batter (right)

(d) Coated for frying

(a) Ground chicken meat with salt and

spices, to be frozen for chicken nuggets
manufacture

(b) Raw chicken nuggets cut-out from

frozen block

(e) Arrangement for coating and frying

of nuggets

The meat selected for the chicken nuggets is mixed with spices, salt and herbs and ground
to the desired particle size (1-5 mm). The ground mixture is spread in a tray to the desired
thickness covered with plastic foil and frozen. After freezing the nuggets are cut out and
breaded (Fig. 248 a-e).
Methods of processing chicken filets (to chicken fingers) and of chicken wings (to spicy
marinated products) are shown in Fig. 249 and 250.

Fig. 249: Method for pre-dusting,

battering and breading of chicken filets

Fig. 250: Marinating chicken wings for

fried products