Week Four- Develop

Non-marinated thick potato starch-based batter

To finalize the development of the product, the goal this week was to perform several treatment groups to test the successfulness of marination, batter thickness, and batter meal type. We began by preparing 8 different treatment groups starting with 4 of the groups of chicken being marinated in a salt and phosphate brine by injection and then tumbling for one hour and the remaining 4 of the groups of chicken with no marination. The treatment groups with non-marinated chicken included a thick rice flour batter, thin rice flour batter, thick potato starch batter, and a thin potato starch batter. The treatment groups with marinated chicken also included a thick rice flour batter, thin rice flour batter, thick potato starch batter, and a thin potato starch batter. After par frying in a deep fryer at 350°F for 2 minutes and 30 seconds and then oven baking at 400°F for 10 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 165°F, we performed a sensory analysis to determine the results of each treatment group. We found that all of the rice flour-based batters created a cohesion type batter rather than an adhesion type. This created a problem that when the product was cut in half, the shell-like batter tended to fall right off of the product. All of the potato starch-based batters did create a more adhesion type batter so that the batter stuck significantly better to the product and remained on the product after biting into it. We decided to choose one of the remaining treatment groups that includes a potato starch batter as the final batter choice. We also observed that the batters with marinated chicken had very soggy and mushy batter on the inside and an undesirable texture. However, the chicken that had not been marinated created a nice spongy and fluffy batter on the inside with a slightly crunchy outside. We then narrowed down our final batter choice to either non-marinated thick potato starch batter or non-marinated thin potato starch batter. To decide between batter consistency, we analyzed the overall look of the final product. The thick batter created a more even product with roughly the same amount of batter all around the product after the cooking process. With all of these evaluations in mind, we decided to choose the non-marinated, thick, potato starch-based batter. Our final thinly sliced chicken shaped Chick-O-Pop’s will be sealed in a clear plastic bag inside of a box and stored in the freezer. We also decided that our product will be in the chicken shape however, for the competition, we will prepare smaller circular sized portions to cook and serve for time restrictions. This week, we also created a working template for the box that our product will be sold in. Our product will be catered mainly to children, teenagers, and college students. The main focus for the trends that our product will follow include “The Rise of Alternative Ingredients” (Potato Starch creating a Gluten Free product), “The Ease to Please” (product can be easily reheated and served), and consumer’s interest in product that are raised, processed, and prepared with all-natural ingredients, no hormones, and no steroids. These trends inspired the look of the packaging that we have created and the market that we are selling to. The goal for next week is to determine the temperature and length of time the product needs to be baked or microwaved after freezing for reconstitution and serving and to determine the nutritional values of our product that will be labeled on the packaging.

Non-marinated thin potato starch-based batter

Working packaging for product