Evaluation of chicken nuggets during air frying and deep-fat frying at different temperatures

Deep-fat frying is one of the most used methods to obtain fried food. However, alternative methods are sought to get fried products with lower fat content, but with similar attributes. In this study, air frying was compared with deep-fat frying for chicken nuggets. Both frying methods were carried out at temperatures between 160 and 190 °C for 0, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 min for each temperature. Activation energy was 70.3 kJ/mol for the moisture diffusion during deep fat-frying while a value of 131.37 kJ/mol was found for air frying. The highest oil reduction was obtained when chicken nuggets were air-fried at 170 °C, being 25.6% lower than those nuggets obtained from deep-fat frying process. However, texture and color were affected by the air frying process.