Experimental Study of the Dehydration Kinetics of Chicken Breast Meat and Its Influence on the Physicochemical Properties

Dehydration effect on chicken breast physicochemical properties at different temperatures (45, 55, and 65°C) was determined using an electric oven at natural convection and a forced convective dehydrator. Protein content increased from 21.01% and 32.42% (raw and cooked chicken, respectively) to up to 80%. A low-fat content (2.55%) resulted in cooked chicken samples at 65°C in a forced convective dehydrator. The color difference (∆E) of the cooked chicken breast was found to be higher (19.39 to 21.36) in the oven. The highest dehydration time for raw and cooked chicken breast in a forced convection dryer at 45°C, 55°C and 65°C were 7 h, 6 h and 5 h, and 6 h, 4 h, and 3 h, respectively. Page, modified page, and logarithmic models were that the best represented the experimental data with r2 values ranged from 0.9999 to 0.9928.