Abstract:The changes of cooking loss, centrifugation loss, sodium chloride content, pH value, texture, tenderness, microstructure and flavor substances in typical Cantonese soy sauce chicken during cooking were studied. The results showed that in the early stage of cooking (5 min), the cooking loss and salt infiltration increased rapidly, which were 4.47% and 0.22%, respectively, and the centrifugal loss also reached the maximum (32%). The color and luster of chicken skin and chicken meat were gradually formed and steadily improved after 10 min of hot soaking. During cooking, the hardness, elasticity and chewiness of chicken meat gradually increased after 10min of cooking (P<0.05), and reached the highest after 25 min of hot soaking, which were 1.65 times, 1.54 times and 4.35 times, respectively, those of raw chicken. The muscle fibers in chicken were continuously contracted and tightened with heating, and the fiber structure changed significantly. The total amounts of free umami amino acids, free sweet amino acids and free bitter amino acids as well as the contents of characteristic aroma substances of chicken increased gradually, and the contents of these flavor components significantly increased after 25 min of hot soaking (P<0.05). The sensory scores of the chicken gradually increased, and the overall acceptability was continuously improved. The total free amino acid content of the chicken was 328.81 mg/100 g after 25 min of hot soaking. The chicken meat had certain hardness and tenderness, good chewiness, high flavor quality, which met the taste requirements of Cantonese style soy sauce chicken.
