Physicochemical and sensory characteristics of gluten-free noodles added with chicken breast meat: a comparative study with wheat flour noodle

The rising health consciousness of consumers has resulted in multiple studies on the use of animal and vegetable proteins in gluten-free noodle production, but chicken breast meat (CBM) has not been the subject of such studies. Thus, we aimed to create protein-fortified gluten-free noodles using economical and nutritious CBM and compare their quality attributes with commonly used wheat flour noodles (WN). Among the CBM noodles (CN), CN with tapioca starch (CN-T) showed the highest sensory and textural similarity to WN. The color values of cooked noodles were not considerably different. The water absorption capacity and volume expansion ratio of CN-T were not significantly different from those of WN. In CNs, an ungelatinized microstructure was observed, and CN-T displayed well-formed structural bonds related to adhesiveness, similar to WN. The CN-T had a protein content about 2% higher than WN. This finding is informative for the development of gluten-free noodles using CBM.