We raise our chickens right. PERDUE® HARVESTLAND® chickens are raised cage free and fed an all-vegetarian diet. We never give our chickens antibiotics, hormones or steroids because we believe in a better chicken.
The flavor is literally watered down. Chicken that is air chilled is instead blasted with cold air until it reaches a safe temperature below 40 degree (which I hear takes round 3 hours) . Since the chicken is not dunked in water, it doesn’t retain water.
I was recently surprised to see that see of the chicken at Costco under the Kirkland label was now being labelled as air chilled. Not all the chicken was yet, seem they are undergoing a change.
When that is done the chicken will absorb some of that water. The flavor is literally watered down. Chicken that is air chilled is instead blasted with cold air until it reaches a safe temperature below 40 degree (which I hear takes round 3 hours) . Since the chicken is not dunked in water, it doesn’t retain water.
What is Air Chilled Chicken?
When chicken is being processed, one of the steps is to cool the chicken down. The easiest, quickest, and cheapest way to do that is to dunk it in really cold water. When that is done the chicken will absorb some of that water. The flavor is literally watered down.
Here are some brands you can look for that make Air Chilled Chicken in some format. Just because they are on the list doesn’t necessarily mean all of the products from each brand are air chilled. Make sure to real the packaging.
Chicken that is air chilled is instead blasted with cold air until it reaches a safe temperature below 40 degree (which I hear takes round 3 hours) . Since the chicken is not dunked in water, it doesn’t retain water. There is always a chance that the water used to chill the chicken could be contaminated …
There is always a chance that the water used to chill the chicken could be contaminated either from it’s source or from being re-used to dunk chicken after chicken. That is something that of course would be monitored, but it’s always going to be some chance.
Most chicken you find in the store will say contains some percentage of retained water.
Absolutely not. I never recommend washing chicken you run the risk of water splatter onto other surface which could spread salmonella.
I was recently surprised to see that see of the chicken at Costco under the Kirkland label was now being labelled as air chilled. Not all the chicken was yet, seem they are undergoing a change.
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